Emmaus Mouvement

After many encounters with Abbé Pierre, musician and producer Julien Civange proposed to add his contribution to the 50th anniversary of the Emmaüs Mouvement by gathering together on one album a number of different musicians who supported the idea behind the Emmaüs Mouvement — that is to say, the fight against all forms of exclusion. However, there was one condition — that every musician had to create a specific piece of music for the occasion or offer an as yet unpublished/unrecorded work.

Jean-Louis Aubert composed a very beautiful song "Veille sur moi", Stephan Eicher recorded a duet with the group Bratsch, Joe Strummer improvised a folk cover version of "Junco Partner", Linton Kwesi Johnson did a duet with Shurik'n and Imothep of the group IAM, Marianne Faithfull recorded the poems of Shakespeare, the group Les Rita Mitsouko recorded "Le Juste Prix", and Rachid Taha offered "54". Manu Chao, the groups "Air", Cassius, Mars IV, Les Négresses Vertes, and FFF, and Howie B also participated in the album.^[1]

The album was released in November 1999 through Virgin Records France.

To celebrate the event, the French media got involved in the promotion of the album, through speaking about it and offering space and airtime. Also with the participation of FNAC, a launching concert was organised in FNAC Champs-Élysées, collecting together Jean-Louis Aubert, Stephane Eicher, and Linton Kwesi Johnson, who all performed in front of a packed-out audience whilst under the watchful eye of Abbé Pierre.

Raymond Depardon made the promotional film for the album. Thanks to a competition by Steven Rubin, Fuji Laboratories, and the film director David Fincher (Seven, The Game) 450 reels of film were released throughout France and shown just before the movie Fight Club.

The album was well received by both the public and the press, and therefore achieved its goal: for Emmaüs Mouvement to touch a wide public particularly young people whilst celebrating its 50th anniversary through music.