French composer Yann Tiersen will play music from his soundtrack for the hit movies "Amelie" and "Good Bye, Lenin!" next Monday at the Shanghai Concert Hall.

Tiersen will play guitar, accordion, toy piano, violin and even sing with a five-piece band, including bass, keyboard, drum and electric guitar.

"I enjoy more and more singing and writing song lyrics," says Tiersen. "I've always done that but it has taken on more and more importance lately."

Brittany-born Tiersen won instant fame after director Jean-Michel Jeunet, who happened to hear his music one day while driving, asked him to compose the soundtrack for "Amelie," a light, humorous movie about a likable girl who develops an ambition to help others.

"I was working on my album 'L'Absente' and I told him I didn't have a lot of time," recalls Tiersen. "He started to search for material from my previous albums, then I added some new tracks. Sometimes he replaced tracks he chose from my old albums with new ones."

The result featured a diverse range of instruments, which considerably enhanced the movie. Tiersen himself played toy piano, carillon, banjo, mandolin, guitar, harpsichord, vibraphone, accordion, piano, bass guitar and melodica.

"For me, it is like a game," he says. "It depends..sometimes I have period, like for one month I can have a favorite instrument. I don't have a precise idea when I start to write of which instruments will be used. It is a bit of instinct. I try to see what fits."

More than other composers who usually work alone while composing, Tiersen records many albums himself at his Paris home. He lays down the parts one by one to build up the track in layers.

"Tiersen's music is both traditional and new," says local music critic Wang Shu. He describe his music as "new folk music" or "universal music."

"Although his music is often labeled as 'bourgeois' or 'Rive Gauche style,' it springs from French cafe or street music including gypsy music, Latin, chanson, jazz, classic and a touch of the avant-garde," says Wang.

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