Then as now, the music of “Les Six” is a fascinating kaleidoscope of musical ideas and friendship; an idiosyncratic preciousness full of musical avant-garde, everyday melancholy, profound curiosities, virtuosity and passion that is in need of rediscovery.

The collaborative work L’Album des Six was created in 1920, to which each of the six composers – Georges Auric, Louis Durey, Arthur Honegger, Darius Milhaud, Francis Poulenc and Germaine Tailleferre – contributed a piece.

Arranged alphabetically, the album summarises the composers through their connection with various aesthetic ideas, different personalities and lifelong friendship. 100 years later, the Album des Six is expanded with corresponding song cycles from their oeuvres: in addition to well-known compositions by Francis Poulenc and Darius Milhaud, the first releases of the song cycles by Georges Auric (1940) and Louis Durey (1920) enrich the CD in a special way.