CHAPELIER FOU - Chapelier Fou

6 songs
25:03 minutes
***** ***
Ici d’Ailleurs

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Having made a lasting impression at the Printemps de Bourges a year or two ago, I did my best to catch Chapelier Fou live, even if it meant having to be at a festival at the ungodly early hour of 6pm. The young artist from Metz delivered a tremendously energetic live show all by himself, recording loops on his violin and combining them with electronic music. This electro-acoustic approach is explored in depth of this self-titled six track EP which may not display the fierce anarchic power of his live set, but proves nonetheless that electronic music can be aimed at a clientele far outside your typical dance crowd.

The EP starts with Darling, Darling, Darling…, a melancholic piece emphasising the artist’s classical music education. The vocal sample lends the opener a very melancholic atmosphere. The following Superstitions sees him heading into a more jarring direction, allowing for more danceable beats and grating synth sounds, making this a nice juxtaposition to its predecessor. Horses is a short violin pizzicato study before Le grand n’importe quoi leads us once more into more rhythmic territories. Trèfle surprises with a trip hop ambiente, while GmBH is flirting with ethnic elements, although this final piece could have done without its last three minutes.

Chapelier Fou has taken his name from Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, which makes perfect sense as both share a predilection for schizophrenic configurations. Chapelier Fou masters impeccably the art of combining intelligent electronic music with contemporary classical music of the 20th century, and the best thing about this is that he plays the classical instruments by himself. This EP gives an adequate impression of what his bizarre music is about. Let’s hope he will be able to follow this debut with a longplayer that digs deeper in the dialectics of his most different influences, maybe with a slightly more anarchic mood, like he did so perfectly at his live show.