Malaterre - Vinyl

Description

Six albums in just over fifteen years of career: since the inaugural Lost Lost Lost (2010), the sonic adventures of Les Marquises, one of the most singular bands on the French independent scene, have continued at a steady pace and have been renewed each time. With Malaterre, Lyon-based multi-instrumentalist Jean-Sébastien Nouveau, the driving force behind the project, perhaps delivers his most personal album yet, driven by a long-held desire: to create a record written and sung entirely in French. Until now, Les Marquises had alternated with English; here, the native language is the only one present, a choice that is anything but accidental. The record is, in fact, intended to be autobiographical: if the previous album, the instrumental Soleils Noirs (2023), evoked themes of exile and departure, Malaterre is instead placed under the sign of return. Return to the place of birth, return to childhood. Jean-Sébastien Nouveau grew up in the countryside, in a small village of around a hundred inhabitants north of Burgundy. He has kept sensations and images from it; traces, but also mirages, fluctuations and dreams. For Nouveau, childhood is not a past age, a bygone state; rather, it is a still-burning hearth, a whirlpool still active within him. The imaginary name Malaterre – moreover the “real” name of a scialet in the Vercors – designates childhood as a place; alternately realistic and enigmatic, the album’s lyrics draw its uncertain and vibrant map. This intimate quest has also shaped the very way the project was conceived: Nouveau chose a pared-down lineup, the same as for the album La Battue (2020). He composed and arranged the tracks with his faithful collaborator Martin Duru, who also co-wrote the lyrics. He brought in jazz drummer Rémy Kaprielan, and François Clos, who plays marimba and mixes the whole. A small team for a result that is both organic and hypnotic, in which one can notably discern the influence of Talk Talk’s later records and Dominique A’s album Remué: the eight tracks on Malaterre are as many variations on the overall theme, sometimes short like unfinished visions, sometimes broader and more abundant, like stories steeped in mystery. In the end, Les Marquises once again manages to surprise with this inhabited, radical record, where one returns to the homeland only to lose oneself in it and drift away – a grounded album with the density of a dream. Jean-Sébastien Nouveau will present the new Les Marquises album on stage in a trio format, accompanied by Martin Duru and Rémy Kaprielan.