Re Eff

Description

After the album "L'appel de la forêt" released by the Born Bad label and praised by critics, and the E.P. of Brazilian music covers "Serpentes" released in 2020, Julien Gasc continues his solo career with this fourth opus. Julien Gasc is a French singer-songwriter of pop songs. He formed the improvised jazz trio Dozen Fratzen in 1999 and participated in the Toulouse pop group Hyperclean until 2008. He has collaborated on keyboards since 2009 with the London alternative rock group Stereolab and its singer Laetitia Sadier; he has also worked with singer Bertrand Burgalat (in 2010 on Eva Ionesco's film "My little princess"). He is a member of the psych pop group Aquaserge, created in 2005 with Julien Barbagallo, Benjamin Glibert, and also American singer April March. He has worked and played for Marie Losier's experimental films. Listening to the independent American radio station WFMU as background sound, the jazz of Thelonious Monk and the productions of Sylvia Robinson, the author tries to escape the monotony of passing days. He finds a creative outlet by dedicating himself to the practice of cut-up, dear to William S. Burroughs, by cutting up texts from his collection of books and his own writings. Combining reiteration (RE) and erasure (EFF), these words personify the multiple imaginary or real recipients, sometimes unanswered, in the musician's email and telephone correspondence. This process, both literary and playful, sets the tone for the album, as well as its title RE EFF, a "serious joke" in short. Writing counter-fictions constitutes the other literary experimentation used to tell these stories, in ten songs. These tracks, resolutely focused on song with the piano as the major instrument, were recorded and mixed in London at Syd Kemp's Haha Sounds studio. Julien Gasc is accompanied by a group including: Livvy O' Hagan, Victoria Hamblett and Marie Merlet on vocals, Cédric Monzali on drums, Harry Stevenson on pedal steel guitar, Eno Imwang on percussion and Rick Walker on guitar. Syd Kemp, the band's longtime bassist, handles the artistic production of this recording. Finally, far from being summed up by its title, RE EFF is a poetic act of resistance to conformism, an ode to the fantasy of everyday life and the complexity of feelings.