Paris (AFP)

Never seen or heard before: Molécule, research head of electro, will mix images and sounds captured aboard Thomas Rouillard's boat, for an artistic testimony of the Vendée Globe of this navigator.

The two men are on the same wavelength, a word that describes the waves that the sailor faces but also the vibrations that the artist will sculpt thanks to the 16 microphones on board the ship.

Thanks to 15 mini-cameras (including 13 fixed), also scattered on the monohull (LinkedOut), the project - which will take shape once the ship is docked - must lead to a film and a disc, which will be the tape. original.

Molécule wants to deliver "to the general public an unprecedented artistic testimony of this Vendée Globe adventure, in order, through what Thomas saw, to pay tribute to the grandiose act, the commitment in this race of these men and women aboard their boats ", exposes the musician to AFP.

Romain Delahaye (his name when he's not on stage) is not his first attempt, between an album recorded on a trawler in the North Atlantic, another in Greenland - lost in the middle of the ice - or the one inspired by the recordings of the wave of Nazaré, in Portugal, one of the most popular surf spots in the world.

- "Long-term producer" -

The result swirls between the elegiac sound layers of "- 22.7 °, beyond silence", soundtrack of the documentary by Vincent Bonnemazou (who will also be at the maneuver alongside Molécule to edit the images of the journey of Rettant) and the dark pieces and dancing to "Nazaré", where the voices of surfers and the sound of the surf serve as hooks or musical commas.

The approach, each time, was to "dissolve in a setting, to inflict a reconnection with natural forces", we can read in the chapter devoted to this "long-term producer" in "Electrorama, 30 years of French electronic music ", book-sum of the editorial staff of Tsugi (editions Marabout).

But this time, Molécule, remaining on the ground, will live by proxy the experience of this solo and non-stop round the world trip.

"Thomas is in his run, I have him once a week, on Wednesdays - when I got him he was fine - and the only job I ask him is to send me sounds daily for a pastille that I make for France Info ".

- "Harmony" -

Rettant also used a musical image in his message on Friday on his site: "No one has been spared by minor technical injuries of varying severity. I manage mine one by one, in rhythm with the sea conditions and Wind".

"The mass of recordings - sound and visual - will be destocked and then used after the end of the race", details Molécule, which had mobilized 33 artists (from Arthur H to Rone, via Malik Djoudi or Etienne de Crécy) to deliver in April the ideal soundtrack for the first containment, the aptly named "Music for containment".

Molécule and Rouillard met through a journalist from Voile Magazine.

The current flows.

"Initially the project was less ambitious, it was to draw sounds over a single day at sea, but a very beautiful navigation showed all the potential: all the components of the boat are musical instruments", says the artist.

Who has sea legs.

Molécule passed his sailing diplomas at Cancale and at the famous Glénans school and aims to one day be "sailing on the Route du Rhum".

"A sailor sails while listening, closing his eyes, he knows if his boat is well adjusted; with a good adjustment, there is a harmony", concludes Molécule, who will take care of the melody.

pgr / fmp / dch

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