X

Description

"Why compose a new album? Because I don't know how to do anything else," confides Fred Pallem. "If I could make six a year, I would." This passion for music made by musicians finds its place on 'X' (the tenth), created with an obstinate resistance to the desire to do less well, with fewer people. While the career of Sacre du Tympan began over two decades ago, this album proudly showcases its difference with a daring exercise: writing each track as a potential hit, where each instrument has its theme, its gimmick. Fred Pallem realizes his tenth work alongside Sacre du Tympan. On the album, 25 musicians bring brass, strings, and harpsichord to life... Among them are companions who have been present since the very first album of the big band: Vincent Taeger on drums, Rémi Sciuto on saxophone, and Daniel Zimmermann on trombone. And then there are others who joined throughout the journey of Sacre. All of them are now part of the history and sound of Sacre. Recorded in several stages in the Paris region, with a string section finalized at the legendary Ferber studio, this tenth album is, by its creator's admission, "a little more than a new album." It is the second part of a cycle that began with 'L'odyssée' (2018), where all compositions are inspired by very personal events, where each solo is driven by stories and emotions. 'Goodbye Lougarock'—where Guillaume Magne's Stratocaster sparkles—is silently dedicated to Fred Pallem's father, who passed away in January 2020; 'Bitches en Marbella,' which evokes in its own way the liberation from successive lockdowns; or 'L’Amour du Disque,' where the composer expresses his joy in writing his tenth album for Sacre. Far from being nostalgic, 'X' primarily reminds us of the very current mission of Sacre du Tympan: to place great orchestral music back on the map, like a strange, impossible place where Wagnerian flights intersect with the grooves of David Axelrod and the madness of Jean-Claude Vannier. Not to mention a passing of the torch, 'X' may be a sign that Fred Pallem and his accomplices have been writing the scores of a sample mine for over two decades, where artists like Madlib or Danger Mouse could come to draw bits of groove and rhythmic joys baked in the sun. This is precisely what makes this tenth album 'X' a more cheerful long format than the previous one, to be enjoyed like a sunscreen for the ears, far from concepts.