With Hyper, his first album, Hervé poured out his soul in thousands of fragments, like so many introspective mantras and catchy choruses. And if he sometimes does not hesitate to let rhythm take precedence over meaning, it is because for him rhythm is also meaning, and sounds are words. Originally from a commuter town wedged between Versailles and Trappes, Hervé grew up for a long time in the shadow of boredom. And it was first through high-intensity sport, football above all — from which his first EP takes its name, Mélancolie F.C — that he found salvation. Then came music. In between, there were the hard times, the dead-end workdays, like that experience as a janitor he reenacts in his video for Le premier jour du reste de ma nuit. Torn at the start between hip-hop and electronic music, Hervé first tried beatmaking before later founding Postaal, a French-English electro-pop duo acclaimed in France and across the Channel. During a break with his family in Brittany, between two Postaal tours, Hervé recalls the thrill of his very first concert, perched on his father’s shoulders facing Jacques Higelin. He took action soon after and tried for the first time to sing in French on his new productions. Hervé would never look back. Hyper is an electronic chanson album, luminous even in its chiaroscuro, frenetic and danceable, an unprecedented opening onto parallel worlds where the best of the MADchester scene would meet Christophian poetry, where Daftpunk and Alain Bashung would join forces in an interstellar journey, where Lcd Soundsystem’s New York armada would compose under the direction of Lalo Schifrin. Pulsation as the foundation of the song. Through Hyper, Hervé described his daily life and moods in a deliberately tormented and direct way. From love surges with irresistible groove (Trésor, Maelström, Addenda), to emotional disappointments (Si bien du mal, Coeur poids plume), and always that visceral need to express his night-owl thoughts (Fureur de vivre). A logbook entirely written and composed by Hervé. Unvarnished. Touching. Modern chanson. With above-average intensity.