Jean-Pierre Jeunet came across Yann Tiersen's albums by chance while preparing Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain and used existing tracks for most of the 2001 film's music, commissioning only a handful of new pieces, which Tiersen wrote in about a fortnight. The instruments — accordion, toy piano, prepared piano, bicycle wheel, typewriter — were already his; the film did not invent the sound, it found it. The soundtrack sold in numbers no French instrumental record had reached in decades. Tiersen has since said the association became a difficulty, fixing a public idea of his work.