SebastiAn and L'Impératrice at Coachella 2020

Coachella festival is a pretty special event.  It's very much the well-heeled Californian cousin of the likes of Glastonbury and there's always a considerable amount of stars on the stage and beautiful people in the audience.

But it's also key showcase for emerging talent with the west coast based entertainment industry, whether cinema, music or TV right on its doorstep.

For all the headliner - this year it's the turn of Rage Against the Machine Frank Ocean and Travis Scott - and the other big-name acts - among them Thom Yorke, Lana Del Rey, Calvin Harris and FKA Twigs - it's a unique platform for artists to get heard by the kind of people who can make careers happen.

I'm always on the look out in the small print in the poster for the well-chosen French act, so it was great to see L'Impératrice and SebastiAn making an appearance.

While neither are exactly new acts, both having several releases under their belts, they're still new names to the wide american audience.

SebastiAn released his Thirst album in November, his second full studio album, but the Ed Banger records mainstay has been releasing material under his own name since 2005 and has worked with Justice, Kavinsky, Woodkid and Charlotte Gainsbourg, who features on his recent album.



L'Impératrice too have been around for a few years and built up a considerable reputation for their modern take on disco, releasing their debut Matahari in 2018.

L'Impératrice begins a tour in February supporting the deluxe re-edition treatment of Matahari. They are playing at the O2 Shepherd's Bush in London on February 20 and La Cigale in Paris in March, followed by shows across north America.


This year's Coachella takes place on the weekends of April 10 and April 17

Editorial: January 2020

So it's been a quiet place here for the last few months, I guess what looked initially like a time when I had to focus on other things became a full-on hiatus for this blog.

Time to switch the lights back on and boot up the laptop again.

When I've been away from here there's always a thought that I'll upgrade the blog with some huge improvements, spend some time on a new home page and get some more feature-length pieces ready. But rather than set myself up for a fall I'll just start things with small steps, getting back into regular posts with some fine French music to enjoy, and build from that.

A bit more organic, a bit more achievable.

Why? There's more motivation than ever. The French music scene is vibrant and still remains a secret to far too many. It deserves all the attention we can give it and there's much to cover.

It's a strange time with media becoming more focused and narrow while the torrent of great material is more accessible than ever. I love being able to immerse myself in new music from France - whether punk from Rennes, Paris hip-hop or Provençal psych - online and can investigate new releases by established acts without having to pay my salary directly to Fnac every month. Just don't expect to hear any of it too soon on the radio in the UK.

You'll find it here.

We aim to bring updates about French music, from developing acts to the established names, with an eye on new talent and an awareness of the rich heritage of French music that still remains something of a mystery to the anglophone audience.

As the UK moves towards greater anglophone insularity, we believe entirely in the value of introducing French culture in our own small way as best we can. It enriches us artistically in the UK and helps our many friends in France as well.

We hope some acts that have built a reputation in France get the opportunity to reach a wider international audience. Acts who have an audience already in France can move easily onto an global stage as Christine and the Queens and Daft Punk show, but smaller acts can benefit from establishing themselves in the UK and beyond. A successful indie release or a tour can be a major opportunity for an artist in a new market.

So we aim to do what we've been doing for the last few years, but doing more of it this year. Whether it's brief new articles or longer features, video clips or reviews, we'll be across as much as we can be here. We've got some plans and some new things that we'll hopefully get to but in the meantine, allons y!

Johnny Hallyday's 'new' releases

A new postumous collection from Johnny Hallyday is in the pipeline, featuring acoustic and symphonic renditions of some of his best known work. Given the success of his Mon pays c'est l'amour album last year - a genuine record-breaking album in terms of sales and one of the biggest selling albums in the world in 2018 - the release of more material seemed inevitable.

While Mon pays c'est l'amour was more an unfinished album that he was working on when he died, the new album Johnny features 12 tracks with re-recorded musical backing, either symphnic or acoustic, using the original vocal track.

Songs on the album include Vivre pour le meilleur, Non rien de rien, Quelque chose de Tennessee, Diego libre dans sa tête, Marie, Que je t'aime, Sang pour sang and L'Envie.

No great surprises perhaps in the choice of tracks, and there are of course pretty sound questions about the artistic integrity of a project like this, but there's no question of there being a genuine demand for 'new' material by Johnny and it will be interesting to see how the songs are refreshed by new settings.

The project has been overseen by Yvan Cassar, who worked with Johnny for 15 years. He originally turned down the project, but on reflection considered it an opportunity to conclude work and ideas that he and Johnny had previously discussed.

Details of the 'new' album emerged shortly after the confirmation of a live album by Les Vieilles Canailles, the touring supergroup featuring Johnny and fellow veterans Eddy Mitchell and Jacques Dutronc. Some successful dates in Paris led to a tour across France in 2017, Johnny, then gravely ill with lung cancer, made his final appearance on stage in Carcassonne that July with Mitchell and Dutronc.  La tournée des Vieilles Canailles will be released as a CD and a DVD.

Elsewhere in Johnnyland, his widow Laeticia Hallyday has confirmed plans for a tribute night for the Rockeur National at the Olympia in Paris in December, featuring images of his performances at the legendary venue during his career. He played the hall over 200 times between 1961 and 2000. More details about the show will be released in due course.

Johnny is released on October 25, two weeks ahead of the release of the Les Vieilles Canailles live material.

Mylène Farmer: Live 2019

Like autumn follows summer, so a live album follows the latest concert appearances by Mylène Farmer.

Next month Live 2019 will fill the shelves of your local FNAC, documenting her series of shows at the Paris La Defense Arena in Nanterre in June, in double CD, triple vinyl and double CD and large book deluxe edition formats.

Between June 7 and June 22, she filled nine shows in front of a total of 40,000 people. The gigs followed the release of her Désobéissance in 2018, playing a residency rather than a tour allowing her to stage a more complex production that didn't have the logistical problems of having to make the show easily transportable for a tour,  something Mylène has done before  with her Avant que l'ombre... à Bercy concerts in 2006.

A film of the shows gets a limited release in November.

I've always considered Farmer to be something of a shibboleth in French music. Musical shorthand casts her as 'the French Madonna', in that she's female and had a long music career that began in the 80s, and while words like 'iconic' can be applied to both, Farmer doesn't really fit into that box comfortably at all.

She's always had more high art, poetic and philosophical aspirations, and over the decades has cultivated an image that reflects this. She's gathered a fanatical following, which embraces both mainstream and cult popularity.

But I've always remained puzzled by Mylène's music. Imagine Madonna had continued her career, reaching the same level of international celebrity, but continued to base her music on 80s New York club music.

I know Mylène's music has matured over the decades and she has taken different approaches, and collaborated with some inspirational and contemporary figures, but to these ears there always seems to be something that doesn't sit right. If Kate Bush operated in the medium of 80s Euro Disco or Bjork duetted with Sting I'd probably feel the same level of bewilderment.

But regardless of my opinions, she'll have one of 2019's biggest selling albums and I'll probbaly give it a listen and enjoy it to some extent but still be left wondering what letters the French use to spell 'WTF?'

OrelSan: Dis Moi a few thoughts about YouTube videos

With digital metrics there are more ways than ever to measure how much of a star an artist is. When it was just radio play or sales, life was simpler. An artist was huge if they were at number one, and from then on that would be the measure of their career. Maybe a few awards would add to their biography

But with measures on everything from Spotify plays to downloads, the amount of information available can make things more complicated. Do physical sales matter more than streams? Is a spike in streaming a measure of a developing artist or a statistical anomaly?

No such issues aith OrelSan. La fête est finie, his first solo album in six years, was a massive seller, a number one and platinum seller, the track Basique making the top ten and clocking almost 70 million views on YouTube.

And the YouTube views for this one? Already in the millions. He's a master of making videos that are both edgy and entertaining and you get the feeling he doesn't take himself too seriously.

Nice to see a Bollywood flavour for the video, certainly something unexpected for a rap video. I reckon that since Stromae, rap artists have been challenged to develop new ideas rather than just relying on the cliches of the genre.

OrelSan's been quick to realise this, and he has done it better than most and his YouTube views are a testament to the success of his approach.

Pépite at the Institut Français in London (and why this is a good thing!)

A great opportunity to catch one of France's most promising acts in the UK tonight, with Pépite playing at the Institut Français tonight.

It's the latest in their Music Rendezvous events, where they've been presenting a well-chosen selection of France's finest developing acts in London.

The IF music events give developing French acts an experience of playing in the UK that might be considered too risky a venture until their career is more established internationally. They may be playing decent sized club venues across France (and Pépite certainly are!) but shows in the UK can be a risky step financially for a French act.

Given the uncertainly of playing in the UK or playing in France where they might be already more established, it becomes a simple choice.  A home win beats a difficult away fixture.

It certainly doen't make life easy for a French music fan and doesn't help establish the act to a UK audience.

So this is where the IF step in and break the vicious circle. By putting on a show in London the act get a prestigious gig in a friendly environment, get some key exposure to critics and press and hopefully it opens the door to more engagement in the UK. Hopefully more gigs, more airplay and more French acts being introduced to an anglophone audience. Everybody wins!

Hopefully some day before too long, the acts playing the IF in London might even get to play at the IF in Edinburgh too.

Pépite are just the kind of act that a UK audience would take to. Their recently released Virages debut is the kind of dreamy electro indie that would attract the ears of anyone won over by Air and classic French pop, but with a perspective that ensures its firmly in 2019's playlist.

Pépite are currently on tour across France, and play at La Gaîté Lyrique in Paris on May 28.

Des Larmes: Another video from Mylène Farmer

A new video from Mylène Farmer, with a clip for Des Larmes another track from her recent Désobéissance album.

If I had to point to one example as to where French music taste and anglo music taste differ vastly it would have to be Mylène. She's probably France's biggest living artist (yes, I know she's from Canada...) and a cultural icon somewhere in an intersection of Madonna, Kate Bush, Lady Gaga and Rimbaud.

But I'd love to hear her take some genuinely unexpected turns with her music. We all know she can do the polite club music with vaguely melancholic lyrics and some vocal gymnastics, but wouldn't it be something if she really went outside her commercially successful comfort zone?

She should step away from working with the likes of Sting (yes, I know it was a number one in France...) and think about a collaboration with Gojira. Maybe guesting on some hard-edged rap? Working with some serious electronic artists?

Still, nine number one albums in France tells its own story. I don't think she'll be in a hurry to change an apparently winning formula. But for the record, I think the work she did with Moby on Bleu noir was one of the best things she's ever done.

Désobéissance has already spawned three number one singles since its release last year. Des Larmes is released in physical formats on June 7 as she begins a series of live shows at the Paris La Défense Arena in Nanterre near Paris.