The American association is clear from the hint of jazz rhythm, and the words offered on the accompanying CD‑ROM sound like nonsense verse, though with no English translation to help that may not be the intention. At least it ties in with some of the other verses set, such as ‘Jeu du camp fou’ (roughly translated as ‘Mad camp play’), which again suggests a satirical intention both in the music and the words.

André Jolivet (1905‑74) was from the generation immediately following Les Six but his music shows few similarities. The present set, recorded in Perugia with the help of ‘The Friends of André Jolivet’, bears witness to the devotion of his admirers but his music is certainly an acquired taste. The oddity is that in most of the songs the piano accompaniment sounds as though the pianist is performing in mittens, so rough and ready is the writing. It makes matters worse that generally the accompaniments are rhythmically square, relating only distantly to the vocal lines above.

Most of the songs are sung by Sophie Marilley, who uses her bright mezzo-soprano most imaginatively, responding to the words with strong tonal contrasts. The baritone René Perler is good too, though he is given only a few songs.

The pianist, Filippo Farinelli, does what he can with Jolivet’s idiosyncratic keyboard-writing but the recording hardly helps. Curiously, there is an extra item at the end, a song by Edgard Varèse, which tends to show up the limitations of Jolivet. Very much an issue for devotees.

This review was edited in October 2014