MUSIC The star returns this Friday with an album born from a collaboration with Woodkid, Moby, AaRON and Archive. A success
Editing from the cover of “L’Emprise”, album by Mylène Farmer released in November 2022. — Hashtag NP – 20 Minutes
- < em>L’Emprise, Mylène Farmer’s new album was released on Friday November 25, 2022. The artist has worked with Woodkid, but also Moby, AaRON and the group Archive.
- “Vu its title, there is necessarily something violent in it, but it is not difficult to access. It is the Mylène Farmer that we know, with her demons and her lights. I think anyone who likes variety can relate to it,” forward to 20 MinutesLudovic Huvier, producer of the podcast Mylène Farmer, Histoires de…
- “Mylène Farmer is no longer looking for the radio tube, she wants to express herself, she is free, underlines Sylvain Paturel- See. Disobedience [his previous studio album, released in 2018] marked the end of a cycle. There we feel a desire to create, to surprise. »
The cover of L’Emprisemust not mislead the listener. If it causes an “another” Mylène, half-alien, half-creature, floating (or prostrate) in a fetal position on a black background that isolates her, the album, released this Friday, is pure Farmer. “It’s been at least ten years since one of his records was released. to this point, underlines Sylvain Paturel-Voyer, creator of the podcast Mylène Farmer, Histoires de…dedicated to the artist. There are incredible ballads [Invisibles, Que je devenir…] as she knew how to do them before, poetic texts, more raw. We are in his world. She succeeds in keep us in her house while wanting to take us somewhere else.”
“On first listen, I couldn’t find it. that one title stood out more than another. As it has substance, relief, textures, surface, you have to listen to it several times, recommends Ludovic Huvier, producer of the podcast. I’ve been hit by beauty sound, there are a lot of strings, a predominance of pieces with symphonic orchestration. It’s a very successful album.”
He continues: “Given its title, there is bound to be something violent in it, but it’s not difficult to access. It’s the Myl’ne Farmer that we know, with her demons and her lights. I think anyone who likes variety can be found there.”
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I‘ACCEPT
A successful collaboration with Woodkid
The critical reception is warm. Le Parisien salutes the “disarming voice (…), admirable, surprising in certain grave” of the singer. Didier Varrod, musical director of Radio France, considers it “his best album since Anamorphosée [released in 1995]”. Even Release, usually not very friendly with Mylène Farmer, saves her vexation with formulations that seem to be up to the mark. both compliment and reproach. The daily describes L’Emprise as a “ blockbuster of morbid new-age pop dance rock whose peaks are inevitably the highest perched, those devoid of rhythms , completed in the laboratory.
However, this opus was not self-evident. The star was out of inspiration, “unable to write a single word,” she confided in the columns of JDD on Sunday. She was thinking of “stop everything”. And then, Woodkid proposed to him; its services. “This collaboration, I have long fantasized about it. The result is beyond what I expected. He managed to surprise me,” rejoices Sylvain Paturel-Voyer.
The musician, who composed seven of the twelve titles of the album – which has a total of fourteen if we include two piano-voice versions –, remains faithful to; his lyrical swerves without ever stifling the farmer’s touch. “It’s a meeting of two stylish identities. Whatever the generation that separates them [he is 39, she is 61], they have succeeded in find oneself, says Ludovic Huvier. Thanks to the symphonic orchestrations that he brought, it succeeds in to do something modern and timeless.”
“They made her a case”
For this record, Mylène Farmer also reworked with the Archive group, which made three titles of Bleu Noirin 2010, and with Moby who has been used to collaborating since 2006 with the one who has become his friend. The American signs the melodies for the only two up-tempo titles of L’Emprise, Bouteille à; the sea and Turn on the light (probably the record tube). The AaRon group also brought him; on a platter the song Rayon Vertfor which she had a crush – it is extremely rare that she interprets a text of which she has not been. the author. “This track is a little gem, applauds the creator of Mylène Farmer, Histoires de… with four very different people and what a crazy match. They made a box for him.”
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I ACCEPT
“This is not the first time that Mylène Farmer has worked on an album without Laurent Boutonnat the only composer of his melodies] but, unlike the previous ones, there is something very homogeneous here, which is to be found here. the height of an album with a single producer at the helm,” says Ludovic Huvier.
The phenomenon of control
The consistency of the disc is also thematic. It is a question of new beginnings, of making a clean sweep, of reconstructions. The title of the album, L’Emprise, is discussed; in three of the tracks: the eponymous song, Forever and No more reborn. For many fans, Mylène Farmer talks about her personal experience. If he agrees that this is the “most intimate” of his discography, Sylvain Paturel-Voyer prefers not to risk himself in the game of interpretations.
“Does she talk about what she has true? cu? Or what loved ones have been through and whose she was. witness? I don’t know, he sweeps. In his interview with JDD, she said; “Who has not crossed paths with a so-called narcissistic perverse person?” [she also says: “The grip is a theme that upsets me and makes me angry”]… For my part, I listened to Foreverto two people who have suffered the influence in their marriages. They were flabbergasted that she got it so right.” Chance of the calendar or deliberate choice? It should also be noted that the disc is released on November 25, the world day for the fight against violence against women.
“She is no longer looking for the radio tube, she is free ”
The Gripdoes it represent risk taking? “No, believes the creator of the podcast. She can allow herself anything. She is no longer looking for the radio tube, she wants to express herself, she is free. Only she’s able to afford a comeback like she did, releasing a radio single, dropping a music video and… nothing else. We often talk about his discretion and his shyness; but we should insist on her freedom.”
And to add: “Myl Mylène Farmer is perhaps at the beginning of something else. Disobedience [his previous studio album, in 2018] marked the end of a cycle. Severe; we feel a desire to create, to surprise.”
Also, if the star baptized Nevermore ( “  ;Never Again”) his next stadium tour – which it’ll launch on June 3 at; Lille –, it may well be that L’Emprise is a musically half-open door on an encore.