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 on Later...with Jools Holland

A high-profile appearance by M83 on the BBC's premier music show Later...with Jools Holland this week.

Christine and the Queens might be the most high profile French act in the UK at the moment, but there's no disputing there are many other acts worthy of similar attention, M83 being just one of them.

Their Junk album might not have spawned quite as many advert and TV feature soundtracks (so far!) as Hurry Up...We're Dreaming did, but the album's an infectious collection with much to love. 

It's been a top thirty hit in France, the USA and the UK and looks likely to subtly insinuate itself into the musical fabric of the next few years as its predecessor managed to do.

M83: New Album details

A date's been confirmed for the new album by M83, with their new collection Junk expected to be released on April 6.

It's the band's first full album since 2011's Hurry Up, We're Dreaming, the album that contained their international hit Midnight City and established the band's leader Anthony Gonzalez reputation as the world's foremost purveyor of cosmic widescreen indie.

It was a landmark French music release in recent years, a collection that showed that French music didn't have to be dance orientated to be significant both commercially and critically.

The music on the album went on to be used extensively in adverts, on TV and in cinema.

M83 have since that album released the soundtrack of the Tom Cruise film Oblivion in 2013.  Other tracks by the band have featured in high profile movies including the Divergent movies as well as The Fault in our Stars.

Collaborations with Haim and Jean-Michel Jarre were released last year, and the earlier albums recorded by the band before they made Hurry Up, We're Dreaming have been re-issued.

M83 have live dates across the USA and a show in Canada next month,  some dates in Asia in May, more North American dates follow this.

They play the Solidays in Paris at the end of June, garorock festival and the Eurockéennes festival on July 1.

Jean Michel Jarre and M83: Glory

A full video clip has emerged for the track Glory, a collaboration between Jean Michel Jarre and M83

The track first emerged as a soundtrack for a short movie put together by Google Play, EMIC: An Interstellar Time Capsule Film. The short film was curated by Interstellar director Christopher Nolan.

The new video was directed by by Lisa Paclet, a Paris based French /Italian director whose previous work includes music videos and work with brands like Yves Saint Laurent and Chanel.

The clip focuses on sport, with its repetition,  and rules and apparent absurdity.

Meanwhile, a version of the track remixed by  Steve Angello, formerly of Swedish House Mafia, has also emerged.

Glory features on the forthcoming Jarre album, which also sees him collaborating with Tangerine Dream, Gesaffelstein , and 3D from Massive Attack.

Jean Michel Jarre and M83: Glory - EMIC: An Interstellar Time Capsule Film soundtrack

Some new material has surfaced from French synth legend Jean Michel Jarre, with the track Glory, an excerpt from his forthcoming album, used as a soundtrack for a movie put together by Google Play.

The film is entitled EMIC: An Interstellar Time Capsule Film and is a short film intended to capture life on earth in a time-capsule format, to benefit future generations should they eventually leave the planet, tying in with the recent science fiction epic Interstellar.

The film says it "Weaves submissions from people around the world into a story celebrating the human experience on Earth."

The short film was curated by Interstellar director Christopher Nolan.

Jarre's last release was the  Essentials & Rarities collection from 2011. Prior to that a re-recording of Oxygène marking the landmark album's 30ht anniversary was his last studio album. His most recent album of new material was 2007's Téo & Téa, a top ten release in France.

Jarre says the new track is a collaboration with M83. More details, and more material,  will certainly emerge before too long.

M83 - Holes In The Sky ft. HAIM

The first single from the film Insurgent, the latest installment in the Divergent teenage sci-fi series, sees French artist M83 team up with US female act of the moment Haim for the track Holes in the Sky.

Gonzalez has been increasingly involved in soundtrack in recent years, his epic sounding no doubt finding approval with directors of widescreen science fiction works.

The track comes somewhere between the usual M83 synth sound and Haim's west coast rock stylings, instead it's a ballad number that reveals the M83 influence through it's string arrangements.

2014's Divergent featured the M83 track I Need You, along with Woodkid's Run Boy Run, along with a collaboration between A$AP Rocky and Gesaffelstein.

Insurgent, the second film in the Divergent series, is due to be released later this month in the USA.

M83: Moonchild

Another older track by M83 getting another moment in the sun, with a new video for the track
Moonchild emerging.

The video marks the latest phase of the reissue campaign that saw new editions of their first three  albums M83, Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts and Before The Dawn Heals Us.

Moonchild comes from Before The Dawn Heals Us, a collection originally released in January 2005.
It also featured the tracks Lower Your Eyelids To Die With The Sun and In The Cold I'm Standing , both of which have been featured in recent videos.

On the M83 YouTube channel, Anthony Gonzalez said: "Before the Dawn Heals Us’ is still my favorite… There's something very special about it.

"I remember listening back to it for the first time with my manager at the end of the session, and it was like, “Yeah, that's cool. I'm going to sleep well tonight.”

While it may be some time since we've seen a new album from M83, there's little doubt that their back catalogue is packed full of classic material.

M83: I Need You

A new track's emerged from M83, the song I Need You featuring on the soundtrack for the film Divergent.

The movie is described as "A thrilling action-adventure film set in a world where people are divided into distinct factions based on human virtues."

M83 are a perfect choice for a science fiction soundtrack, their work having also appeared on Tom Cruise's Oblivion movie in 2013.

It's based on a book, the first of a trilogy, by American writer Veronica Roth. It's a teenage-audience science fiction work, set in a dystopian Chicago of the future, aimed at much the same kind of target audience as The Hunger Games.

The film stars Shailene Woodley as Beatrice Prior. Others appearing include Ray Stevenson, Kate Winslet and Ashley Judd.

Other artists on the soundtrack include Woodkid - with the track Run Boy Run and I Love You on the deluxe edition - and A$AP Rocky featuring Gesaffelstein with the track In Distress.

Ellie Goulding has several tracks including one new song, and other artists include Snow Patrol and Tame Impala featuring  Kendrick Lamar on vocals.

Divergent is at the cinema in the UK on March 21, with the soundtrack album released on March 21.

M83: Moonchild video

There's never a need for an excuse to publish an M83 video, so here's another that has emerged.

The track comes from their third album, 2005's Before the Dawn Heals Us and it features Anthony Gonzalez and his friends at their epic cosmic best.

While 2011's Hurry Up We're Dreaming was the album that propelled M83 into outer space, their earlier work was no less out there beyond the final frontier.

The clip emerged after the band launched a competition for a clip for this track and for Outro.

It's certainly about time for some new material from M83, since Hurry Up We're Dreaming they recorded the soundtrack for Tom Cruise's film Oblivion.

M83: Hurry up we're dreaming (about advertising!)

There are times when TV producers and advertising people seem to be listening to the same music.

Previously Moby's Play album seemed to be a ubiquitous soundtrack to adverts, TV news and magazine features. At other times it was Royksopp's Melody A.M that was the CD that the TV producer and advertising agency executive kept on their desk.

Right now it seems to be the turn of France's M83, who seem to be soundtracking everything on TV at the moment.

Sure, they did a proper soundtrack to Tom Cruise's Oblivon movie, earlier this year, but their work being incorporated into advertising campaigns has probably given them a bigger exposure.

So even if you've not consciously been listening to one of France's biggest musical exports, chances are you know some of their music without even realising it.

For example, Persil uses Outro for their For Whatever Life Throws at you campaign.



The advanced cleaning properties of contemporary French electronica obviously attracted another with Midnight City featuring in a campaign for Ariel.




M83 are also there to help you choose which clothes you wash,  for those who buy expensive American lingerie.



My Tears are becoming a Sea was an appropriately aquatic soundtrack for the UK trailer for the film Rust and Bone (De rouille et d'os)



In another promo, Channel 4s' gritty drama Red Riding in 2009 featured the track Gone from the Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts album from 2003



Curiously, it wasn't the band's only association with things Red that involved Riding, the song Just a Fragment of You credited to Anthony Gonzalez from M83 and Brian Reitzell featuring in the soundtrack of the 2011 film Red Riding Hood.



Meanwhile, France's car industry was quick to get wise to the epic and technological sound of M83, using it in the Capture Life campaign for the Renault Captur.

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.

M83: Reunion

The video finally surfaces for M83's new single Reunion, the second track to be released as a single from last year's Hurry up, we're dreaming album.

I featured M83 just the other day, but given that they are very much at the forefront of what's happening in French music at the moment, I'm sure I can be forgiven.

The video will certainly get the song some more attention, and it will probably embed itself into the public's ear every bit as much as its predecessor Midnight City.

The album's certainly getting the kind of growing attention that is quite rare these days, when record companies just seem to aim for the biggest sales as quickly as possible. While it's already been a huge seller, I reckon even more people will be won over by the charms of M83 on the strength of this track.

I wonder what products it will be used to advertise and what TV events it will  promote? It's certainly got that epic feeling that TV producers of events like the Olympics or the Euro 2012 football will like. I'm sure Nokia mobile phones are already getting their campaign together given that one of their phones gets a bit of an appearance in the video.

The release of Reunion also sees a host of remixes of the track, by the likes of Mylo,

M83: Outro

A video worth watching by the magnificent M83, for the track Outro from last year's Hurry Up We're Dreaming album.

M83 are probably the French band that have made the biggest commercial and artistic breakthrough in the non-French world since Justice.

The track Midnight City, the first single from the album, established itself as a radio favourite, appearing in the soundtrack for TV shows and a number of advertising campaigns as varied as American lingerie brand Victoria's Secret to the BBC's coverage of the 2012 London Olympic games.

A second single has been released from the album lawst week, the track Reunion appearing as an EP of remixes from the likes of Mylo, Sei A, The Naked And Famous, Polly Scattergood, We Have Band and White Sea.

For a modern band, they've built a reputation the old fashioned way, through live shows and quality music rather that internet hype and social media gossip. They've played at key festivals in the UK and the USA and are this summer playing in the UK, with two dates in London, as well as shows in Belfast and Edinburgh. An American tour is scheduled for the autumn.

M83 - Hurry Up We're Dreaming

M83 are getting quite a lot of attention in the UK at the moment, on account of a gig in London and a session on BBC 6 music, bringing their classy electro pop sound to a far wider audience than normally gets the chance to hear one of France's finest acts.

M83 have been active since 2001, when their eponymous debut album came out. Nicolas Fromageau left the band after their 2003 second album Dead Cities, Red Seas and Lost Ghosts, Anthony Gonzalez continuing under the M83 name.

Fromageau would go on to form the rather wonderful Team Ghost, who I featured earlier this year with their Record Store Day release split 7' with Anoraak.

M83's first post-Fromageau release was the album Before The Dawn Heals Us, which came out in 2005. Gonzalez became established as a remixer, working with Bloc Party, Placebo, Goldfrapp and Depeche Mode.

Other albums that followed included Digital Shades Volume 1, an ambient work that came out in 2007 and Saturdays=Youth, released the following year.

In 2008 M83 supported the Kings of Leon in their UK tour, and the Killers in the US. Spring 2010 saw the release of the soundtrack album for the film Black Heaven

M83's most recent album Hurry Up, We're Dreaming - a double album - was released in October 2011 with the track Midnight City being released as the first track.

The album got to number 15 in the US Billboard charts and Number 1 in the US Dance/Electronic album chart.

An appearance on the Jimmy Fallon show in November in the US gave them a huge profile boost, and they're due back in the US in early January.

The next single from the album will be the track Reunion, due to be released in Feb 2012.

M83 are touring in the UK in January, and have dates in Australia the following month, followed by more shows across mainland Europe.