These latest albums by Christophe that you have to discover

From Christophe, who died on the night of Thursday to Friday at the age of 74, it's especially the amount of his great successes that's known, from Aline (1965) to Succès fou (1983). Less that of his return, after a decade of silence with, in turn, five albums of original songs (1996-2016), the last two of which are truly masterpieces. A period that made Christophe this cult artist loved by the overall public also as more connected amateurs.

Christophe died at the Brest hospital on the night of Thursday to Friday, following a lung disease. Aged 74, tonight owl, an evening owl so chic, so elegant, so unique that we accompanied on an unforgettable night in 2016, leaves behind an immense discography and a number of other successes which will forever remain within the history of the French song. But if everyone has Aline, Blue Words or Paradise Lost on their lips, the singer was also a sound wizard who knew the way to renew himself throughout his career.

In the mid-1980s, after Crazy Success, Christophe closed a parenthesis on his recording career: "I dreamed of being a star in Italy. I had been. Afterwards, competing with others didn't interest me. I wanted to undertake something else, theater, painting ... I told myself that if it didn't work, i might do the showman, i might travel ... "

What matters is finding new colors. "

Ten years later, new technologies will bring it back to the record. "Synthesizers, I always liked. we do not work with the first sounds, we create. The samplers had arrived. it had been madness. We spent nights there. "

In 1996, Christophe resurfaced with the disc Bevilacqua (his surname), a phonographic UFO full of electronics and strangeness, gone rather unnoticed. Regardless, he puts it back five years later with Comme si la terre lean, where his singing, so singular, walks on synthetic tablecloths, loops, samples.

He creates universes

It takes attentive taking note of enter this universe, to understand it. Christophe not releases songs, he creates universes for the duration of an album. and it ends with an aquatic and symphonic instrumental.

Between the 2 , the esthete deploys his rainbow. an area synth laboratory, where percussion, guitars, an accordion or saxophone line are moored. during this region , one crosses the distant echo of a mariachis orchestra, the raspy monologue of the old bluesman Big Joe Williams, an offbeat confidence of Isabella Rossellini… With a galaxy of chosen and scintillating words gauding archangel in exile of melancholy reveries on crystalline melodies. "

It takes him another seven years to record, to create Loving What We Are, a masterpiece. Harmonious mixture of synthesizers and strings, piano and guitar solos, choirs and various sounds overflown by this unique song, like oxidized, almost extraterrestrial. With flashes just like the voice of Isabelle Adjani, the trumpet of Erik Truffaz, the drums of Carmine Appice ...

"I'm a shopper "

Christophe is that the latest French musician of his generation. "I am a researcher, a bargain hunter," he explains to elucidate his work as a "builder", creator of songs. Thus, the artist had been struck, several years earlier, by the emotion released by the old woman’s voice of photographer Denise Colomb, within the film Artaud le momo. He had recorded it.

Much later, by writing a melody on his piano, a Josef Sko Vien from 1920 (!), Bought on ebay ... "to the sound of romantic classical music", he thought of this voice. "Together, it had been magic! He adds choirs of small Andalusian gypsies and strings. It's called It must be a logo and it's breathtaking!

Each song on Christophe's latest albums features a story. Tonight Tonight started with a couple of scribbled words: “The doors of the night are never locked. the ultimate text came only a month before the album was released. Like that of Tell him about me ... "I remembered an infinite chorus that Florian Zeller wrote to me. It fell right.

"My culture is emotion"

"My culture is emotion. I even have to feel that it's strong to urge it across. On some songs, I tested several moods. Creation isn't by lot. "

For subsequent album, Les vestiges du chaos (2016), Christophe continues his research of musical supports, sounds recorded here and there, which can make him want to place his voice, inspire him a melody. Before choosing a topic , ask the authors for words and build, with them, a text "with strong words. For me, perfection is within the find, the originality. "

This 13th studio album may be a disc of affection songs, written mostly with women, magnified by electro music and rhythms, strings, piano, voice, sounds. a really sensual universe, with a song always as upsetting. He imagines especially the last moments of Lou Reed, on a beach, together with his wife, and it's a love scene. He invites Alan Vega for an electro-rock title, before a vaporous romance where strings and programming get tangled ... Great art.

In 2014, after a solo piano tour, he burned another album, Intime, publicly this one, where he resumed a number of his hits. then tackles a replacement project. Resume, once more , his most famous songs, but in duet, by dressing them differently. this is often Christophe etc, volume 1 and a couple of , released last year. With guests as varied as Eddy Michell and Camille, Juliette Armani and Arno, Laetitia Casta and Etienne Daho, to quote the simplest known ... an outstanding rewriting, often magical, sometimes disconcerting. Then Christophe had to travel on the road ...