Jean-Louis Murat Songs Collected in New 400-Track Integral Edition
Nearly 400 songs by the late French singer-songwriter Jean-Louis Murat are now gathered in a comprehensive new publication titled Une orgie de sainteté – L’intégrale des chansons, released by Seghers in September 2026, rts.ch reported. The volume spans Murat’s entire recording career from his 1981 debut 45-rpm single “Suicidez-vous le peuple est mort” up to the tracks completed shortly before his death in 2023 at the age of 71.
The collection brings together the complete catalog of songs recorded under his own name alongside a selection of lyrics written for other artists. While Murat spent decades building an idiosyncratic, fiercely poetic musical catalog, this new release strips away the instrumentation to present the lyrics on the page as standalone poetry.
Eric Reinhardt Recalls Discovering Murat and Writing Through Crisis
Novelist Eric Reinhardt, who wrote the postface for the new integral edition, first encountered Murat’s music in 1999 through a compilation issued by Les Inrockuptibles magazine. Speaking on the October 12 broadcast of Le grand soir, Reinhardt recounted that he instantly fell in love with Murat’s 1999 album Mustango, which subsequently anchored the writing soundtrack for many of his own novels, rts.ch reported.
The artistic partnership deepened during a personal crisis in 2006 and 2007 when Reinhardt’s wife fell severely ill. Though the novelist considered halting work on his book Cendrillon, his wife urged him to continue. Reinhardt turned to Murat’s 2006 album Taormina, listening to the record on loop for four months straight while finishing the manuscript. He recalled that he had never felt such an intense need to be rescued and carried by music.
Reading Murat Without the Melody
In his postface for the Seghers collection, Reinhardt describes Murat’s artistry as an incantatory, almost religious force that provides vital consolation and resilience. The publication offers fans a distinct way to engage with a familiar catalog by presenting the words without musical arrangements or the singer’s voice. Reinhardt noted that while the original melodies linger in the memory, reading the texts independently reveals the true stature of Murat’s language, affirming that he ranks as a major poet.
