In LES CHANTS D'ÉROS, Claire Cignac casts her eye and ear over nine centuries of French love songs and love poetry in order to assemble, compose, and, with the assistance of her superb instrumental collaborators, adapt a delightful and varied collection of songs to the sound world of a Parisian cafe in the early twentieth century. Into this world she introduces certain musical-historical touches-distinctive harmonies, instrumentation, and textures-that anchor individual songs in their respective centuries. All the while, the core ensemble sound of guitars and violin and Cignac's sultry-voiced contralto provide a sonic thread that connects the twentieth century to the twelfth. The net effect is that of a grand song cycle. In addition to Cignac's enchanting voice, which lends itself marvelously to a Piaf-inspired cabaret style of singing, this recording boasts three instrumentalists whose idiomatic playing elicits comparisons with Django Reinhardt and Stéphane Grappelli.