M83: Oceans Niagra

A new single from M83, with details of a new album on the way and due for release in March. 

The new song, Oceans Niagra, sees Anthony Gonzalez, the prime mover of M83, collaborating with his brother film maker Yann Gonzalez for the video.

Anthony Gonzalez said: "I wanted this record to be very impactful live." 

"The idea was to come back with something closer to the energy of Before The Dawn Heals Us. The combination of guitars and synths is always in my music, but it’s maybe more present on this new record than on the previous ones."

2011's Hurry Up, We're Dreaming double album was a major commercial and artistic breakthough for M83, the track Midnight City establilshing the band's international reputation. They'd go on to make the soundtrack for the Tom Cruise movie Oblivion, and their work would feature on other films and TV productions.

The new album, entitled Fantasy, is his first album since DSVII, which was released in 2019. The album is due on March 17, as a double vinyl or CD.

M83 has confirmed tour dates in North America from April until the end of May.

M83: Oblivion

M83's title track to the new Tom Cruise film Oblivion has appeared online.

The track Oblivion features vocals by Norwegian singer-songwriter Susanne Sundfør.

Given Anthony Gonzalez's apparent like for the more cosmic things (the band is names after a galaxy after all) involvement in the soundtrack of a science fiction film seems an obvious move.

Gonzales composed the score with Joseph Trapanese, who arranged five tracks on M83's Hurry Up I'm Dreaming album, and worked with Daft Punk on the Tron: Legacy soundtrack.

The track StarWaves - a slow instrumental - from the film soundtrack emerged earlier.

The film is based on a graphic novel by the same name, which was written by Joseph Kosinski, who made his film directorial debut with Tron: Legacy, a film that also memorably featured a French band's soundtrack.

2011's Hurry Up We're Dreaming gave M83 their biggest commercial hit, and a film soundtrack seems a good move in that it allows them to build on the success of that release without the weight of expectations of a new album. Although a soundtrack for a $100m movie is hardly a low key release.

That being said, the song - complete with its 80s influences - could easily be imagined as a massive hit single along the lines of songs like Show Me Heaven by Maria McKee from Days of Thunder or Take My Breath Away by Berlin on Top Gun.

Of course, those with longer memories recall Tangerine Dream, a European electronic act with a cosmic attitude, doing the soundt
rack for Risky Business, an early hit for Tom Cruise.

Whether or not Tom Cruise remains the big draw at the box office that he was in the 80s remains to be seen, but there's no denying the soundtrack certainly deserves top billing.

The film Oblivion is released on April the tenth.

M83: Oblivion soundtrack

Anthony Gonzales, the man behind M83, is reported to be working on the soundtrack of a major Hollywood film.

He's working on the soundtrack of the SF movie Oblivion, according to The Playlist, a film starring Tom cruise.

The film is being directed by Joseph Kosinski, whose first major film was Tron Legacy.

Tron Legacy was soundtracked by Daft Punk, so it seems Kosinski is no stranger to the French music scene.

Gonzales recently moved to LA to pursue film soundtrack opportunities. His music's always had a filmic quality, and a science fiction film sounds a perfect vehicle for M83's electronic space-influenced sounds.

Kosinski says that he was working on Oblivion before Tron Legacy, and even then was listening to M83. While M83s last album Hurry Up I'm Dreaming established them to a huge audience, particularly in the USA, they've got an impressive back catalogue and Gonzales has proved himself as a first-rate musical visionary.

In some respects I can imagine M83 working well with film in a way like Krautrock electronic act Tangerine Dream did in the late 70s.

It isn't M83's first film soundtrack involvement, having worked on Gilles Marchand's L’Autre Monde (aka Black heaven) in 2010. That film included two new M83 songs and five previously released numbers.

Others to appear in Oblivion, currently in post-production, along with Tom Cruise are Morgan Freeman, Zoe Bell and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau.

Oblivion is scheduled for release in 2013.