Longue Distance

Description

Vincent Dupas' career has been punctuated by folk music and its offshoots (My Name Is Nobody, Serpentine), and rock ranging from the most sophisticated to the wildest (Binidu with the duo Pneu, Fordamage); so many bumpy roads, carefree moments, gems, and disappointments… *Longue Distance*, the Nantes-based artist's first album, is a desire to return to what truly matters, to who one truly is. The first thing that strikes you when listening to this debut album is familiar, almost obvious: it's that delicate voice armed with a luminous melancholy. Alternately intimate, committed, lyrical, dreamy, and down-to-earth, Dupas isn't searching for himself, he's finding himself. If "At The Corner Of The Ocean", "L’Hiver", "Balcony", "De Si Haut", or "Amusement Park" are rich, it's thanks to their mise en abyme, their timbres, and their space; female choirs carry the choruses, synthesizers are as silky as they are unsettling, guitars are free, and electronic accents are dizzying. On "Mon Pays", a true pivotal track on the album, Vincent Dupas sings a duet with Nona Marie (Dark Dark Dark), a sparse and minimalist lullaby. After this deep dive, "Boxer Le Vent" is a deceptive sweet treat with bossa accents, evoking our universal powerlessness, in the shadow of Dominique A's *Auguri* period. "Distance" turns our world upside down, with bursts of fuzz and free-rock... Throughout, the rhythm section is elastic and captivating (Pierre Marolleau on drums and Hugo Allard, the bassist from Von Pariahs), and the arrangements are as precise as they are surprising. A production full of nuance and depth.