Ambrosia

Description

Tenth album and return to grace for one of the most discreet figures in French song. With this Ambrosia radiating poetry, Arman Méliès has undoubtedly created his most flamboyant album. After Obake (2023), a maximalist double album with synthetic flourishes praised by critics, he returns with a new, refined and literary album, where the astral folk of his beginnings, mellowed by time, has never been so embodied and ardent. An album that highlights acoustic guitars and lyrics – undoubtedly among the most poetic he has ever written. Emily Dickinson and Andrée Chedid, in particular, were true sources of inspiration for this record, leading Arman into brighter writing territories, where pastoral landscapes became the backdrop for this album. Supported by American drummer-percussionist Adam Bradley-Schreiber, who also plays with Timber Timbre, and violinist Pauline Denise, Arman therefore recorded this refined and luminous Ambrosia alone, between Detroit, Paris, and the Gâtinais countryside, before entrusting it all to the expert hands of Yann Arnaud (Dominique A, Camille, Air, Syd Matters, Alex Beaupain...). The result: a pagan liturgy that is not unlike Jean-Louis Murat or the inhabited spleen of Feu Chatterton, full of sunshine and questions halfway between the gloomy ballads of Tom Waits and the serene incantations of Nick Cave.