Les Deux Escargots
An original setting of “Chanson des escargots qui vont à l’enterrement” by Jacques Prévert

This is one of Connie’s several experiments in homebrew “multi-track” recording. Each instrument was recorded, then played back over the hi-fi while Connie accompanied the playback on another instrument. From the sound of it, the vocal was the last element to be recorded. The result is a one-woman living room orchestra, with the oldest layers sounding most distant, as they’ve been played back and re-recorded the most.

Connie created musical settings from the texts of other writers (Whitman, Cummings) in a handful of extant recordings and scores, but “Les Deux Escargots” is unique among them in that she’s singing in another language. According to her alumni card from Mt. Holyoke College, Connie indicates French as her major, and indeed her pronunciation here is above average for an American who, as far as we know, never travelled to continental Europe.

Connie would later send a copy this tape to her brother Phil, accompanied by the following caption:

“This is a dub taken from an experimental recording, included here for laughs. Instrumentation: two drinking glasses, two pencils, empty Kleenex box, alto recorder, guitar. I couldn’t really concentrate on the singing part...”

Connie Converse - Les Deux Escargots

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