Empire

Description

Listening to this thunderous album, one question arises: are the most mismatched couples destined to create the most overwhelming works? Seen from afar, in the fog of preconceptions, the union between Arielle Dombasle & Nicolas Ker is disconcerting. An ultra-varied album, sometimes solemn, sometimes light, always haunted. One song in French, ten in English, written and composed by Nicolas Ker, performed and elevated by the duo. Nicolas & Arielle have brought in the group The Wild, with Mark Kerr (Victoire de la Musique 2018 for Jeanne Added) and Jeff Dijoud (Archive, Dr. Drone) on production, Arnaud Roulin (Poni Hoax) on keyboards, Henri-Philippe Graetz (Katerine, Duvall) on strings, Christophe Monier (Micronauts) on mixing. Listening to Empire, anyone who could have found this alliance between the punk crooner and the pop diva strange changes their view. The question now is: how is it that Nicolas and Arielle did not find each other sooner? The two artists have the “same plumage”; the common ground is in fact the most numerous, the most fundamental: a refusal of blandness, conformity, the ordinary. A shared desire for aesthetic ambition, which they pursue through electricity.