Jean-Michel Bernard, who has already worked for Michel Gondry on Human Nature has much to do with the magic in which steeps the Science of Sleep.  As in the soundtrack CD for Human Nature,  bits of dialogue systematically introduce the titles and recreate the scenes in which they appear.  A coherent fairy tale-like atmosphere is created and we almost find ourselves expecting the tinkling of a bell to turn the page. Like the film, Jean-Michel Bernard’s music is an assemblage of small treasures, short samplings, threaded throughout with a surprisingly finespun main theme which makes Gondry’s universe resonate.  Gondry himself plays the drum sequences as in the days of his band Oui-Oui.  The sounds are delicate, reflecting the materials used for the director’s inventions :  beads, wood, felt, plastic, shells or flint and bring about a feeling of absurd happiness, of an ephemeral firework-like madness,  similar to Prévert’s ink flowers opening up on the water’s surface.  The music touches the heart through the whole album, punctuated here and there by a rock title, a brief page of chaos, a cool and sentimental ballad, and also Dirk Annegarn’s song « Coutance, » a sumptuous superposition of an abrupt voice with a luxuriant arrangement where strings, guitar, accordeon and the ondes Martenot converse with infinite grace.  This summer, the world can stop turning as we have found our cult record.