Tokoto

Description

Tokoto? The new album by Bancal Chéri, could it be about football? Hmm, maybe… But no. Fluxus, Lettrism, Dadaism, that’s much more plausible. The supergroup Bancal Chéri renounces labels for this new onomatopoeic album, which mimics the sound of the drums for eleven exquisite corpse songs. - - The quartet consists of strong personalities that intertwine harmoniously. Dimoné, a folk singer, has been roaming the Nocturnal Fauns of concert halls since the 90s. Mathias Imbert, a solo double bassist for 15 years, acclaimed for his project Imbert Imbert and its sound deviations. Nicolas Jules, a romantic singer with Peter Pan syndrome, soars from the stages of theaters to the prestigious opening acts of Higelin, Nougaro, or Dominique A. And then there’s Roland Bourbon, the Swiss Army knife of live performance creation. Percussionist, composer, artistic director of his rock opera, an odyssey from 2001. - - Brought together by Dany Lapointe for a first tribute concert to Boby Lapointe, they spontaneously embraced the profile of the tightrope-walking singer. Boby was a formidable genius of numbers and letters, his puns scattered like chess games on his scores are still subjects of discussion. These playful games can be delightfully found on Bancal Chéri's first album in 2018. - - ‘We have fun.’ There you go, everything is said. There is only pleasure in this joyful chaos of songs. No self-censorship, no constraints, no judgment. The group makes the rules and everyone respects each other's universes; Tokoto is a blend, a trance that carries the audience in concert, drawing an imaginary line in scopitone… A look of a hermit tribe from the end of the world entering the TOKOTO era. - - So who sings what? One might wonder, or not… Like the voices that accompany us on the radio, the lyrics of the songs serve the songs. They are all the voices. - - Bancal Chéri opens with a BEAUTIFUL LITTLE FACE, Dimoné and Imbert Imbert on vocals, respectively guitar and double bass, and then two drummers, Nicolas Jules and Roland Bourbon, shaking the ground like in ORAGE. Beautiful little face, it’s America, individualism translated into post-rock, with a guitar solo and new wave accents, a teenage track that tells the story of a stuck-up guy in a car during a protest, as annoyed as an Elmer Food Beat, in front of a plastic bottle. - - And then there’s COLD MEAT, the story of the cerebral vampire, who should never have been invited to dinner, the one who chills the atmosphere, seasoning the dishes with silences and unresolved chords. With Nicolas Jules on vocals. Just like in FULL SUMMER, where Nicolas's softness, swirling on Dimoné's keyboards, tightens in a world devoid of curiosity, which treats the ugliness of the world on the radio with as much nonchalance as interviews with pop singers. - - - - - BANCAL CHERI: Four charming and disarmed musician bandits meet at four crossed paths. Far from straight lines and already paved roads, they light small fires. From accepted doubts to shared desires, they welcome each other at the edges of their secrets. Today, because they know they are not obliged to write and compose together, they decide to do so. To change habits, for the pleasure of destabilizing embraces, for the beloved vertigo, and for the beloved awkwardness. The songs do not come from each one's repertoire. It is a singular work, a sharing, where one has written for the other, but also a common writing. Surprising and completely reimagined covers enhance this repertoire.