Happy End with Albin de la Simone #Session Live

Albin de la Simone.

© Julien Bourgeois

By: Laurence Aloir

6 mins

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Based on an idea by

, who inaugurates the series,

 launches

, a collection of lyrics without lyrics where the label's artists mute their voices to explore other avenues.

At a time when everything is talkative, make way for the music!

We had almost forgotten him, for almost twenty years he has enchanted our moods and left delicate words on our sensitive areas, but Albin de la Simone is a musician. Not the least, not a simple author who would have chosen the music by default, but a flexible and inventive boy who will have illuminated with his keyboards, on stage as in studio, major artists of the French landscape. From

to

, from

to

, his name in the credits is always a promise of remarkable musicality, when he does not take on the role of director (for

or

) with the rare care of those who cut to measure and detail the sounds of others like goldsmiths.

"

observes, however, about his own albums and concerts that have been highlighting him since 2003. The envy of However, an entirely instrumental record was not born out of a prick of pride or a misplaced frustration, it imposed itself at the end of the too long truce suffered by Albin as by all the musicians, prevented for more a year of playing on stage and being inspired by the movement of life to write.

Albin at the Ferber studio.

© Aurélie Sauffier

The words no longer coming, temporarily, as if they were stuck in the hourglass of lost time, Albin chose not to wait for the inspiration of the texts to return to him to enter the studio.

He therefore settled for three days in his favorite lair of the Ferber studio, surrounded by instruments, accompanied only by the sound engineer

and his two assistants, without a precise flight plan, but with a fierce desire to play. , to improvise, to combine, to surprise themselves as much as to surprise those who are used to hearing it sing.

"Happy End".

© Drawing Albin de la Simone

Happy end

, a term of cinema, sticks well to this bizarre time, made of stops and starts again, of hope for happy endings, where life looks like a scenario that is written in erasable ink, leaving the unpredictable gropingly guide those who let themselves be embarked on it.

So let's enter this sunny house, designed by Albin in Stromboli, without really knowing what is behind it.

The first title is rightly called

, it evokes a kind of slow-motion western, throbbing like Morricone put under a bell, with a ping-pong ball as an unusual intruder and already a lot of this contemplative poetry which this disc would unfold without hurrying. sets and shadows.

"

, says Albin, and the marvelous melody of Merveille takes us on one of those motionless journeys where nostalgia without sadness serves as the only baggage.

Sometimes it rains, elsewhere it's California, there is Le Chalet, La Falaise or Les Tulipes, almost nothing in the background, except sensations seized in flight, suspended and light, with sometimes mist and also bright, comforting clearings. .

One could speak of minimalism, given the time allotted and the voluntary absence of show-off, but this music seems on the contrary maximalist by what it draws in filigree: translucent cathedrals, sand monuments or trompe-l'oeil panoramas.

Studio Ferber.

© Drawing Albin de la Simone

Like

, with which he shares a close bond, a funny piano with angular shapes and a dull sound called "Una Corda", Albin did not seek here to make "great music", intimidating and haughty, but rather to pose themes, rhythms and textures that he manipulates like an alchemist, lets coagulate to extract aromas and colors, inviting the listener to dig his own refuge. The pleasure he took in gathering around him his favorite instruments, the faithful "Helmut" synth that has always accompanied him, an ARP Odyssey, a Mellotron or the incredible electroacoustic surprise box called Ciboulette, is felt behind each scrolling note. The playful taste of improvising by drawing lots for the instruments during the recording,Oblique Strategies way of

and

, unpretentious, has served as the sesame for unexpected shapes and alloys which make the material of this music brazenly alive. Here a kind of rumba which is danced while lapping (It's raining), there a diptych separated at birth (Umami / Un ami) and plays with similarities and differences, elsewhere with creaking steps between the slats and the dilated notes of 'a piano in the intimacy (The room), at the very end of the "ambient" waves to evoke the overwhelming heat of Extremadura.

Since when has a record slipped so elegantly over collective melancholy, evoked in the same spirit a form of joy, without needing to raise your voice?

From the top of La Falaise, a cinematographic theme conveys its part of the romantic better than a thousand imposed images, as if by going to tap into the memories of before, Albin de la Simone had wanted to invent the music of all after.

is obviously also a beginning.

Albin de la Simone at RFI.

© Laurence Aloir / RFI

And it is therefore alone that

came to the Grand studio of RFI.

Titles performed by Albin de la Simone

- Marvel

 Live RFI

- Un Ami 

from Cd

- Sun 

from the

CD

- It's Raining

  Live RFI

Albin de la Simone playlist

- Blundetto

- Sheikh Lô 

- 

- Mayra Andrade

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The sensitive and refined compositions of Albin de la Simone