Despite a career spanning over thirty years - and having amassed almost as many awards and gold discs in the process - Yves Duteil confesses that coming up with the material for (fr)agiles did not come easily. "This album should really have come out much earlier," he admits, "but I didn't seem able to get my mind back on the job for a while. I'd just gone through a difficult period in my personal life and suffered a series of professional setbacks, too, with my record label going into receivership. Then, in addition to that, there's been the general recession in the record industry."

It was Yves's wife, Noëlle, who proposed a complete change of marketing strategy and suggested handling the promotional side of things in a more personal way. "One of the first new ideas we tried out," Duteil explains, "was replacing our official website with a blog. That way we tapped into the best the Internet has to offer - maintaining a direct link with the public on a simple, human scale." Duteil took the same artisanal approach to his songwriting, spending more than two years crafting his songs to perfection. "As I said, it took a while for the old cogs to start churning again. I'd been very affected by the problems in my personal and professional life and it took a while to open the doors again. I don't think I've ever gone back and reworked songs over and over again the way I did this time."

However, listening to Duteil's latest offering, there is not the slightest inkling of such a painstaking period of gestation. The songs on (fr)agiles are remarkably light, fluid and flawless. "I did a lot of my songwriting in Corsica, surrounded by nature," explains Duteil, who owns a house on the Mediterranean island, "That's where I draw my inspiration from in moments of calm and contemplation. I've never been one of those people who believe that the most beautiful songs are the most tortured ones!"

Yves Duteil is not a man given to the torments of the solitary artist cut off from the rest of the world. In fact, being more of a convivial soul, most of the songs on his new album are the result of collaborations with other artists such as the Toulousan musician and composer Art Mengo (who worked on two tracks with him). "We've been fans of Art's for a long time now," says Duteil, "What happened was Art came along with the themes and the harmonies and I added my lyrics over the top. The rest of our work together consisted of producing the songs in an almost  experimental way, adding in a touch of vibraphone or trying out other equally unusual instruments."

One of the pair's successful joint efforts is La note bleue, a jazz-style ballad written as a tribute to the late great French singer Claude Nougaro. "I didn't know Nougaro all that well," says Duteil, "But someone gave me an original manuscript of his recently that made me delve into his writing process - it's totally fascinating - and look at his amazingly  diverse sources of inspiration." In a marked contrast to his usual style, Duteil also teams up with one of his oldest friends, Véronique Sanson, on Sur le clavier du grand piano, the latter accompanying his vocals in great style and putting in a virtuoso performance at her piano keyboard.

(Fr)agiles is certainly one of Duteil's most personal albums to date, almost every track on it referencing a close friend, family member or a peer. There are tributes to Duteil's  wife, Noëlle (Si j’entrais dans ton cœur), his grandson (Si j’étais ton chemin) and even his old primary school teacher (on the wonderfully nostalgic Madame Sévilla). As for the moving Deux enfants du Tamil Nadu, this seems to be the perfect example of Duteil's songwriting style, bringing together as it does the personal and the universal. "The song's about my nephews," Duteil explains, "They're Indian orphans who were victims of the tsunami. They were adopted by a member of our family who was involved in humanitarian aid work in the wake of the disaster."

Duteil has often been mocked for the idealistic tone of his songs, but he assumes his dreams of a better world. "My message is a soft and gentle one," he says, "This is my attempt to provide some sort of counterpoint to the violence and cynicism that prevails in the modern world. My message is not adulterated in any way. This is what I aspire to for my own family and for other people, too." As to accusations that at times he can come across as a little naïve, Duteil insists that "I don't avoid pain and suffering in my songs. 'Pauline' deals with the issue of violence against women and 'Amours fanées' is a song about break-ups... Believe me, I experienced my share of suffering in the making of this album. I had to fight to get the financial backing and get it out in the stores."

Duteil's message at the end of the day is, perhaps, that one should never go on surface impressions alone. "People may have an impression of wisdom and love (from this album)," he says, "but they don't see that there's been a tremendous amount of effort and difficulties behind the scenes. It's like an ice skater who suffers in the practice ring every day, but when he gets out there in front of the public he's all grace and fluidity."