Yann Tiersen was born in Brest in Brittany and now lives in Paris. Many composers work alone during the composition process, though Tiersen has taken this a step further by recording many of his albums himself. On the soundtrack to Amélie for example, he is credited with playing the following instruments: toy piano, carillon, banjo, mandolins, guitar, harpsichord, vibraphone, accordian, piano, bass guitar and melodica. When working on those albums, one can only assume that he lays down the parts one by one to build up the track in layers. Tiersen is not a recluse however. There have been many concerts of his music, performed using a substantial number of musicians. Tiersen himself frequently plays the piano or accordion during such live performances.