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Revolt! Strikes Back With A New Va And Powerful Sounds Made By Greece's Man Of The Moment Lee Burton, Moroccan Uncompromising Producer Adil Hiani And Romania's Uprising Talent Sonohat, Who Join The Label For The First Time.

Following the release of his third album Dans cent ans (2023), which brought to a close the pop trilogy begun with Léviathan (2015) and Contre-temps (2018), Flavien Berger returns with a now classic 'counter-album': contrebande 02. le disque de l'été

Conceived as mirror albums to the trilogy, the counter-albums tell another side of Flavien Berger's creative process. Like contrebande 01. le disque de noël (2016) and radio contre-temps (2019), Flavien navigates between sonic experimentation (gervase weatherboy type beat), encounters (magie vermeille with Pomme), previously unreleased songs (sapon, plongereuse) and interludes (music 2000 beat titi poisson skit) reflecting an alternate itinerary of the making of his latest studio album Dans cent ans.

Ever since the late 1950s bossa-nova revolution, Brazil’s influence on French music has been undeniable. Pierre Barouh, Georges Moustaki and a vast array of lesser known artists, all made the Musica Popular Brasileira (MPB) an axis of promotion at the service of a cool and metaphysical, modern and mixed Brazilian lifestyle. Some were seduced by the poetic languors of the bossa, some were looking for fun, and others just loved the American hybridization of jazz-bossa, jazz-samba.



What is bossa nova? One of its creators, Joao Gilberto said: "Its style, cadence, everything is samba. At the very start, we didn't call it bossa nova, we sang a little samba made up of a single note - Samba de uma nota so .... The discussion around the origins of bossa nova is therefore useless”. It is nevertheless useful to remember that these magnificent Brazilian songs, which the guitarist describes as samba, were shifted and balanced around improbable chords. "I like things that lean, the in-betweens that limp with grace," said Pierre Barrouh, quoting Jean Cocteau.



With emotion, arrangements for violin and supple guitar licks, bossa nova rapidly changed. A transformation that can be heard in the Tchic, tchic, French Bossa Nova 1963-1974 compilation, the result of a cultural reappropriation, which traveled through the United States and supplemented itself in France.

A musical revolution that has remained significant, bossa nova was born in Rio. From 1956 to 1961, Brazil lived through its golden years. In five years, the country had invented its modernist style. Elected president in 1956, Juscelino Kubitschek de Oliveira, an elegant man with a broad forehead, brandished a promising slogan: "Fifty years of progress in five years". He quickly got to work. Not worried about increasing debt, he launched the project for a new federal capital, Brasilia, designed by the communist architect Oscar Niemeyer. Volkswagen opened state-of-the-art factories and created the “fusquinha”, the Beetle. In Rio, the Vespa made its first appearance. The Arpoador Surf Club crew run into the “girl” from Ipanema, Helô Pinheiro - the tanned garota ("chick"), between a flower and mermaid, who at 17 walked by the Veloso bar, where the fiery author and composer, Tom Jobim and Vinicius de Moraes, were getting drunk on whiskey. From then on, bossa symbolized cool.

In 1958, Joao Gilberto recorded Chega de Saudade, which the directors of Philips denied, calling it "music for fagots". The marketing director, who believed in it, secretly pressed 3000 78-inch vinyls and distributed them at schools around Rio, creating a tidal wave.

American jazzmen then took over. In particular, trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie and guitarist Charlie Byrd. In November 1962, the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs funded a "Bossa-Nova" concert at Carnegie Hall in New York, inviting the genre’s pioneers. Unprepared, the show soon turned to disaster. But the troupe was invited to the White House by Jackie Kennedy. The first lady loved "the new beat" and in particular Maria Ninguem, a song by Carlos Lyra, later covered by Brigitte Bardot.

In Brazil, the 1964 military coup quickly ended this euphoria. The destructive atmosphere that ensued pushed many Brazilian musicians to leave, if not to exile. Thus, Tom Jobim, Sergio Mendes and Joao Gilberto arrived to the United States. In New York, Joao Gilberto met saxophonist Stan Getz. At the time, he was married to the Bahianese Astrud Weinert Gilberto, who had a German father. She had never sung before, but she knew how to speak English. Getz therefore asked her to replace her husband on The Girl From Ipanema. The Getz/Gilberto record with Tom Jobim on piano, was released in March 1964. Phil Ramone, the "pope of pop" was in charge of sound.

Bossa nova arrived in Paris through the classic “guitar-voice” channel (Pierre Barouh, Baden Powell, Moustaki…) But France loved jazz and Paris had already welcomed its American contributors. All these good people were to pass through Saint-Germain-des-Prés. The cabaret l'Escale became the Mecca of Latin American sound where one could find Pierre Barrouh and his friends, such as the Camara Trio, samba-jazz aces, whose only record was published by the Saravah label. With a band strangely called Les Masques (a band that included Nicole Croisille and Pierre Vassiliu, among others), the Camara Trio recorded an interesting Brazilian Sound, including the track Il faut tenir which is present on this tasty compilation of rarities.

Other enlightened musicians can also be found on the compilation, such as Jean-Pierre Sabar (songwriter for Hardy, Auffray, Leforestier ...) and the French pop rock organist Balthazar. In 1975, Sabar recorded Aurinkoinen Musiikkimatka on a Finnish label, which featured the crazy Vai, Vai, included on this record. We are now following the footsteps of Brazilian electronic musicians such as Sergio Mendes, Eumir Deodato or Marcos Valle who created funk and disco sounds on their keyboards and synthesizers. A style that influenced Véronique Sanson when she wrote Jusqu’à la Tombée de la nuit in 1969 for Isabelle de Funès, the niece of Louis and a great friend of Michel Berger - Sanson did end up singing this track on her 1992 Sans Regret record.


The pinnacle of exoticism and travel, Sylvia Fels’ Corto Maltese includes bongos, sea mist and ocean sounds. The title was taken from Jacky Chalard’s concept album written in 1974, Je suis vivant, mais j’ai peur (I am alive, but I am scared), based on Gilbert Deflez’s science fiction novel.


However, bossa nova extended the scope of popularity. "In the 1970s, I was a fan of Sergio Mendes, Getz / Gilberto. I fell in love with this music that I knew because I had been an orchestral singer, " explained Isabelle Aubret, who in 1971 delivered a composite record of covers by the very funky Jorge Ben, Orfeu Negro, Tom Jobim, Vinicius de Morais and Jean Ferrat. "I recorded this album for Meys Records in Paris, far from Brazil, with wonderful musicians, François Raubert, Roland Vincent, Alain Goraguer...". The latter wrote the arrangements for Casa Forte, a very percussive title borrowed from Edu Lobo, one of the initiators of the bossa who spent time in California. "Jazz and bossa came together and produced very rhythmic music. I love singing, it allows me to dream, to have fun, to feel a high on stage, and these songs brought me joy, made me swing, my singing felt like a dance.”


The world tours of French singers and their desire for the tropics, often brought them to Rio with its hills, forests, caipirinhas and tanned bodies. There are surprises though, like this Iemenja (Iemenja is the goddess of the sea in the Afro-Brazilian candomblé religion). Not unlike the composer and musician Jean-Pierre Lang, based in Sao Paulo, Claire Chevalier taught Brazil to Brazil. In 1970, the singer and painter published a 45-inch vinyl, Mon mari et mes amants (My husband and my lovers), under the improbable pseudonym of Clarinha (little Claire). She was then living in Rio, with her husband, Joël Leibovitz, who founded a band called Azimuth, and who owned a record label specialized in "sambas enredos" songs for samba school parades.


For its B side, she asked Pierre Perret to come up with lyrics for a song composed by Carlos Imperial: "Oh goddess of the sea, o goddess Iemenja, I bring a white rose to adorn your long hair ..." . "Perret came to see us, and we had fun, remembers Joël Leibovitz. We wrote Lemenja for fun, we recorded it at the Havaí studio, behind the Central do Brasil the central station. Erlon Chaves, the arranger who worked with Elis Regina, joined us" adding his share of Afro-Brazilian percussions and funky brass to the mix.

There is a common misunderstanding in Franco-Brazilian history: that bossa, admittedly hedonistic, is perceived as funny, even though the poets who wrote the texts are often philosophizing on the human condition. Its French interpreters pull it towards a carnival inspired universe, far removed from its fundamental essence. Thus, Jean Constantin covered the famous Samba da minha terra, an ode to the art of samba written by the classic Bahian composer Dorival Caymmi, renaming it with the enticing title of Pas tant de tchi tchi pompon: "On your pier there is no tchi tchi / when you arch your back, you know everything is alright ”(lyrics by Gérard Calvi). This expedited bossa aims for the absurd, but retains a certain elegance.

Indeed, Jean Constantin was not an idiot, the rather large man had a huge mustache and liked fantasy, (Les pantoufles à papa, Le pacha, inspired by cha-cha-cha-cha, salsa and jazz) but he was also the lyricist of Mon manège à moi interpreted by Edith Piaf, the composer of Mon Truc en plume by Zizi Jeanmaire and the soundtrack of François Truffaut’s 400 Blows. Le Poulpe, published in 1970, from which this bossa is extract, was arranged by Jean-Claude Vannier, an accomplice of Serge Gainsbourg’s Melody Nelson. In short: "There is enough of samba / By looking at the parasol / Because my poor cabeza / Is going to die in the sun".

Even the American actress Marpessa Down, who was at the heart of the bossa nova revolution with her role as Euridyce in Marcel Camus’ film Orfeu Negro, winner of the 1959 Cannes Palme d'or, fed the clichée with Je voudrais parler au petit cuica - "Tell me how you manage to always make people want to dance / It's true, I must admit that I cannot resist your magic" - in consequence, once can hear the cuica, a little drum inherited from the Bantu.


But bossa nova had many angles. Societal, of course, pushing actresses who were symbols of women's liberation like Brigitte Bardot, Jeanne Moreau, or Sophia Loren to engage in the exercise of accelerated bossa. In February of 1963, Sophia Loren made a record in French in Rome, Je ne t'aime plus, featuring the song De jour en jour, a bossa written by two Italians, Armando Trovajoli and Tino Fornai, which was released a little later by Barclay. Bossa accompanied the 1960s, a decade of moral liberation. Ann Sorel, who interpreted La Poupée des favellas, caused a sensation with L’amour à plusieurs, a provocative song written by Frédéric Bottom and Jean-Claude Vannier. As for the actress Andrea Parisy, she displayed her bourgeois cheekiness in Marcel Carné's Les Tricheurs before interpreting Les mains qui font du bien. And Magalie Noël, the friend of Boris Vian, who sung Johnny fais-moi mal, was hired to sing Une énorme Samba, composed by Alain Goraguer (arranger to Gainsbourg, Bobby Lapointe and Jean Ferrat) with lyrics by Frédéric Botton.

But in the end, of what wood is bossa nova made of? The answer is given by Christianne Legrand, daughter of Raymond the conductor, and sister to Michel the composer: "With me, with jà" - jà means "immediately" in Portuguese. In 1972, the singer, an expert in vocal jazz and a member of the Double Six, published Le Brésil de Christianne Legrand. Two songs included on the Tchic Tchic compilation that demonstrate how bossa, jazz, funk, rock, etc. work like a swiss army knife: the music is used to denounce broken systems, or miracles, HLM et ciné roman, Cent mille poissons dans ton filet, two songs from the O Cafona soundtrack, a successful telenovela broadcast, at the time in black and white, on TV Globo. The first was adapted in French by the fighter and friend of the Legrand tribe, Agnès Varda. The second is content with a play on words, jostling them into a summer fun.



Véronique Mortaigne

repressed !

It's been a busy 3 years since Danny Berman aka Red Rack'em released on his own Bergerac imprint.

Since then he's toured relentlessly, released a whole album of live music based disco/punk funk for Sonar Kollektiv as Hot Coins, managed to completely update his biggest track 'In Love Again' to make it a hit the second time around plus released spaced out, wonky party smashers on Wolf Music, Phonica, City Fly and Telefonplan.

While all this was going on Bergerac was largely on ice but now Berman is turning his energy back to the label with a vengeance.
Wonky Bassline Disco Banger is accurately titled. An uplifting intro breaks down into a slamming disco house number and just when you think you know what's going on...
Then the trademark Red Rack'em wonky bass drops in. 150% Guaranteed party smasher... Jazzy House Extension is super vintage Red Rack'em from around 2004 - something for the jazz heads out there - cracked out piano and far too loud double bass come together to birth a euphoric yet banging snapshot of a producer learning his chops. Destined is a slightly demented leftfield house number featuring mangled, pitch shifting fretless bass and vocals samples discussing someone's destiny.
A woozy end to the EP.

Creator of Le Châ, a chimera emerging from the margins, Lutèce Lockness builds worlds where dreamlike imagery and satire intertwine, inviting us to embrace the bizarre, the strange, and the intimate. With her debut album Le Châ, she crafts powerful, incantatory soundscapes. Her compositions blend psychedelic tones, medieval timbres, drifting drones, bouzouki improvisations, and digital textures, enriched through collaborations with Christoph Fink, Maxime Denuc, and Jean Rondeau.


Inspired by David Lynch, Jim Jarmusch, and Hayao Miyazaki, her practice shapes sonic material like exquisite corpses. Across disciplines, Lutèce Lockness explores new territories through projects such as the collective book Bande organisée (Seuil), born from the transport of a stone book across France during lockdown, and as part of the feminist punk group Forsissies. On stage, she has opened for Bonnie Banane at the Olympia and Flavien Berger at Le Lieu Unique in Nantes, and is also preparing for the opening of Kanal Pompidou in Brussels - continuing a trajectory where music, performance, and visual experimentation converge to create spaces of freedom.

The fifth album from H. Hawkline (Huw Evans), ‘Milk For
Flowers’, is released via Heavenly Recordings.
Following the 2017 album, ‘I Romanticize’, and 2015’s ‘In
The Pink of Condition’, the album was produced and
features musical contributions from long-time collaborator
and celebrated solo artist Cate Le Bon. Artwork is
designed by H. Hawkline.
Recorded at Rockfield Studios in Monmouthshire, the
album features a host of musical collaborators - Davey
Newington (Boy Azooga) on drums, Paul Jones (Group
Listening) on piano, Tim Presley (White Fence, DRINKS,
The Fall) on guitar, Stephen Black (Sweet Baboo) and
Euan Hinshelwood (Younghusband, Cate Le Bon) on sax,
Harry Bohay (Aldous Harding) on pedal steel and John
Parish (PJ Harvey, Aldous Harding) on infrequent bongo.
The record was then engineered by Joe Jones (Aldous
Harding, Parquet Courts) and mixed, after an unlikely and
fortuitous crossing of paths, by the Grammy-nominated
Patrik Berger (Charli XCX, Robyn, Lana Del Rey), and
mastered by Heba Kadry (Deerhunter, Cass McCombs,
Cate Le Bon).
‘Milk For Flowers’ is at once visceral and enlightened, its
soundscapes verdant yet delicately rendered, and with this
latest, most intimate work, H. Hawkline bares his blood,
bones and soul beautifully. And quietly, along with the
entrails and rubble held in ‘Milk For Flowers’’ reliquary,
there hides a small, green kernel of life; hope, perhaps,
that today’s decay might nourish tomorrow’s blooms.
Available on CD and LP with rigid ‘tip-on’ sleeve with antiscratch matt lamination and digital download code.

repressed !

It's been a busy 3 years since Danny Berman aka Red Rack'em released on his own Bergerac imprint.

Since then he's toured relentlessly, released a whole album of live music based disco/punk funk for Sonar Kollektiv as Hot Coins, managed to completely update his biggest track 'In Love Again' to make it a hit the second time around plus released spaced out, wonky party smashers on Wolf Music, Phonica, City Fly and Telefonplan.

While all this was going on Bergerac was largely on ice but now Berman is turning his energy back to the label with a vengeance.
Wonky Bassline Disco Banger is accurately titled. An uplifting intro breaks down into a slamming disco house number and just when you think you know what's going on...
Then the trademark Red Rack'em wonky bass drops in. 150% Guaranteed party smasher... Jazzy House Extension is super vintage Red Rack'em from around 2004 - something for the jazz heads out there - cracked out piano and far too loud double bass come together to birth a euphoric yet banging snapshot of a producer learning his chops. Destined is a slightly demented leftfield house number featuring mangled, pitch shifting fretless bass and vocals samples discussing someone's destiny.
A woozy end to the EP.

Red Rack’em returns with a surefire summer smash ‘Italo Disco Banger’ which immediately evokes the most euphoric festival vibes ever.

The feedback has been INSANE with Gerd Janson immediately responding ‘Sounds like a hit!’ and huge support from a wide range of artists including DJ Harvey, Crazy P, Roman Flugel, Luke Una, Leon Vynehall, Avalon Emerson, Jamie 3:26 and many more.

Italo Disco Banger does what it says on the tin and more. Tailor made for Tisno and Adriatic vibes, from the first few bars of the heart tugging, eyes closed intro, you’re locked into a beautiful, sun kissed joyous ride.

Hotline is another party starter anthem. No soft B sides here. A heads down filtered disco sub bass club wrecker.

Endless Revisions- Chloé's first LP in over six years - saw the musician turn a new leaf in her creative journey. Not content with pushing the boundaries of her creative output with this wider palette of an album, Chloé released Endless Revisions Live, which saw the producer graft the new material and inspiration that came out while playing live on stage back onto the album's compositions. Following The Dawn and Recall, it was time to deliver other versions of the album's tracks. Enter this four-remix EP, imprinted with the almost-opposite horizons of top-shelf producers.

"Ballad of a Small Player" ist eine der großen Veröffentlichungen von Netflix im Jahr 2025. Der Film mit Colin Farrell erzählt die Geschichte von Brendan Reilly, einem in Ungnade gefallenen irischen Finanzier, der sich als der aristokratische "Lord Doyle" ausgibt und in Macau lebt, nachdem er vor seinen Finanzverbrechen im Vereinigten Königreich geflohen ist. Reilly wechselt zwischen Hotels und Kasinos, während seine Abhängigkeit von Alkohol und Glücksspiel wächst.

Die Musik für diesen Film wurde von Volker Bertelmann komponiert, einem der bekanntesten zeitgenössischen Filmkomponisten. Nach "Conclave" und "All Quiet on the Western Front" ist dies die dritte Zusammenarbeit zwischen dem Komponisten und dem Regisseur Edward Berger. Bertelmann verleiht dem Film eine angespannte, paranoide Atmosphäre, die die Welt von Brendan Reilly perfekt einfängt.

"Ballad of a Small Player" ist auf Translucent Red Vinyl erhältlich und enthält eine Beilage.

Here, Flavien departs from his usual creative process to embrace collaboration—because plouf! (Léviathan) is also the story of a dive, his first collective adventure with musicians he had always dreamed of working with: Michelle Blades (guitar), Kiala Ogawa (keys), Akemi Fujimori (bass), Cédric Laban (drums), and Thibaud Merle (winds).



Reworking these songs is a way of revisiting forgotten musical landscapes, shedding new light on them with a different perspective. It’s about transforming a solitary electronic record into a collective piece by exploring new textures and instrumental approaches.



With this album, Flavien Berger uses his early tracks as raw material—as if the 2015 Léviathan were now a kind of demo from which to extract the essence and create something entirely new. The project, like the music that drives it, is rooted in the idea of reinvention.



The result is a fresh sonic exploration where Léviathan’s tracks take on new forms—some staying true to their original versions, others completely reimagined, blending past and present.

First solo EP from the german producer Oliver Berger aka Zarcon with 4 killer cuts truthfull to the early electro / proto-techno sounds

Superstar Silvestre strikes strong on Studio Barnhus, bringing moronic dance music and stupendously haunting
ambient ditties to the forefront once again, following his highly reputable It's 2024!! EP, released in 2024.
On his most expansive and accomplished work yet, tensions between Silvestre’s many expressions – bass-faced rave maker,
hazy lo-fi crooner, absurdist beat poet, etc. – reach catastrophic levels, resulting in an album that shimmers and convulses
with both inviting warmth and that rare, essential hint of danger at the core of club music's spirit.
There's just never a dull moment with this Silvestre guy, whether he's out blessing club crowds with electroid techno sets or
effortlessly delivering instant classic albums like this one. Delivered via 16 digital tracks and/or cassette tape designed by
Stefan Fält, Silvestre’s Fantasma arrives on Studio Barnhus on Sept 26

Hologram Teen is the solo project (and anagram) of former Stereolab keyboardist Morgane Lhote. Her colourful playful songs are heavily influenced by disco and 80s French pop.

Initially from Paris, Morgane relocated to Los Angeles where she concentrated on her solo material. Captain Fluo is a disco-fuelled love letter to 1980s Paris and its underground nightlife, record store discoveries and the exhilaration of growing up as a gay teenager in a world of self-discovery.

Produced and mixed by Andrew Claristidge (Acid Washed) at Duca Sonora Studios in Brittany Captain Fluo is a vibrant fusion of propulsive beats, bouncy synths and funky basslines. Morgane’s signature keyboards weave through a constellation of guest vocalists including Sandra Zettpunkt, Maxwell Farrington, Eric D Clark and Alex Aikiu. From the euphoric pulse of ‘Lust Pill’ to the radio crooner nostalgia of ‘Fréquence Gaie’ each track is a portal to the dance floors and late-night airwaves of a bygone era.

Drawing inspiration from French pop icons like France Gall, Michel Berger and Louis Chedid alongside the sleek productions of Italo disco pioneers Kasso and the genre-defining touch of David Bowie, Nile Rogers, Quincy Jones and Depeche Mode, Captain Fluo is a heartfelt ride through an era when music was liberation.

Flutter Ridder is the duo of Norwegian multidisciplinary artists Espen Friberg and Jenny Berger Myhre, both of whom play important roles in Oslo’s contemporary art and music underground. The pair first collaborated during the production of Friberg’s debut solo record, “Sun Soon” (Hubro, 2022), quickly recognizing in one another a creative kinship rooted in a playful, intentionally naive approach towards making art. In November of 2023, the pair decamped to the coastal town of Hvisten in southeastern Norway to record what would become this debut, self-titled album in an ancient wooden church. Drawing from a palette of Friberg’s idiosyncratic Serge modular system and the church’s resident pipe organ and intoxicating acoustic reverb, they began recording and sculpting music informed by the notion that air and electricity share a common flow, a continuous current that can be directed through valves and potentiometers. The pair came to think of the Serge and pipe organ as sibling instruments, the former yielding characteristically unpredictable and complex timbres that complement the wooly, reedy drones and strange, microtonal overtones of the latter. At once sublime, liturgical, and whimsical, Flutter Ridder offers its listener a series of moving, cinematic natural landscapes, affirming the sensibilities of its makers and the indelible influence of the environment in which it was produced.

Boytronic was founded in the early 80’s in Hamburg by Holger Wobker (aka Bryllyant Berger) and Peter Sawatzki. At the beginning, under the moniker of Kapitän Sehnsucht, they were in charge of making the soundtrack for some seedy sex shows on Hamburg’s famous ‘Mile of Sin’. After a while, the boys found that not so satisfying and, through it was a well-paid job, they decided to leave hoping to break into the world of pop music as Boytronic. They already had some demo songs that got the attention of Mercury Records. The first single “You” was recorded highly influenced by the sound of New Order and Patrick Cowley. It didn’t go very well at the beginning. It was just a moderate club hit, but soon after they got lucky and performed “You” on a German TV Show. Just after this, sales reached 80,000 copies in the first week and had a major hit in the German charts reaching position 10. This sudden success was followed by the recordings of the debut album “The Working Model” that was finished in only fourteen days and released at the end of 1983. “The Working Model” is considered as one of the best techno-pop releases coming from Germany in the 80’s. An album more than 40 years old and still sounding so fresh and authentic.

Limited edition of 400 copies on black vinyl with gatefold sleeve, A2 poster and sticker. Includes all tracks from the original album plus some classic remixes of “You”, “Diamonds and Loving Arms”, “Trigger Track” and “Bryllyant”.

Pascal Obispo, französischer Singer-Songwriter aus Bergerac, begann 1988 ber der New-Wave-Band Senso als Bassist und übernahm später die Rolle des Leadsängers. Sein erstes Soloalbum, Le Long du Fleuve, erschien 1990 und wurde mit den Mitgliedern von Senso aufgenommen. Das Album blieb von den Kritikern weitgehend unbeachtet, aber es verhalf Pascal Obispo zu einem Plattenvertrag mit Epic, wo 1992 Plus Que Tout au Monde erschien. Mit dem Titeltrack und anderen Singles wie Tu vas me manquer" festigte er seinen Status als einer der am schnellsten aufsteigenden Stars der französischen Popmusik. Diesem Erfolg ließ er 1994 Un Jour Comme Aujourd'hui folgen, das Platz 17 der französischen Charts erreichte und mit Platin ausgezeichnet wurde. Sowohl Superflu (1996) als auch Soledad (1999) erreichten in Frankreich Platz 2, und das Live-Album Live 98 (1998) brachte ihm seine erste Nummer-1-Platte ein. In den folgenden Jahren wiederholte Pascal Obispo dieses Kunststück noch einige Male mit den Alben Studio Fan - Live Fan (2004), Les Fleurs du Bien (2006), Millésimes (2013) und Billet de Femme (2016). France, sein elftes Album, erschien 2021 und verfehlte nur knapp den Spitzenplatz der Albumcharts und landete auf Platz 2. Das neue Album L'Archipel des Séquelles besteht aus unveröffentlichten Songs von Pascal Obispo - aufgenommen und abgemischt von seinem treuen Begleiter Youri Benaïs in seinen Pariser Studios. Dieses Konzeptalbum mit intimen, akustischen, jazzbeeinflussten Liebesliedern wurde erneut von seinen beiden New-Wave-Jazz-Freunden Fred Nardin und Max Pinto produziert und basiert ausschließlich auf Begegnungen mit Künstlerinnen mit inspirierenden Stimmen: Da wären Zazie, mit der Obisipo seit ,Les meilleurs ennemis" nicht mehr gesungen hatte, mit einem Lied, das sie gemeinsam geschrieben und nie aufgenommen hatten, Carla Bruni, die zwei Songs beisteuert, Elodie Frégé, mit der er bereits auf ihrem Album ,Le grand amour" gemeinsam aufgenommen hat. Oder Nolwenn Leroy, für die er seine allererste Single ,Cassé" produziert hat. Anne Sila, die grandiose Interpretin der Maria in seinem Musical über Jesus von Nazareth. Sharon Laloum, die Interpretin der Myriam in der neuen Version der Zehn Gebote, und nicht zu vergessen sind Isabelle Boulay, die große Künstlerin aus Quebec, für die er bereits Lieder geschrieben hat, und Nawel Ben Kraïem, die junge tunesische Künstlerin, mit der er an seinem ersten Musikprojekt gearbeitet hat. Der Rest des Albums wurde gemeinsam mit Pierre-Dominique Burgaud geschrieben. Mit dem Album ,L'archipel des Séquelles" setzt Pascal Obispo seine Suche nach Schönheit und Stille fort. Als CD oder farbiges Vinyl.

Typically, a band's big indie label debut doesn't come 15 albums into its career, but with Constant Smiles' Paragons, here we are. Primary songwriter and sole "constant" member Ben Jones_who considers Constant Smiles a collective_sees its impressive output as a way to document the group's evolution. Since its live debut as a noise duo on Ben's home of Martha's Vineyard in 2009, Constant Smiles has grown to include contributions from 50 other members, all of whom have personal connections to the group's extended family. And while the collective has indulged an array of musical whims along the way - including Ben's penchant for penning a new set's worth of material for each live performance - Constant Smiles' sound has tightened up considerably over their past couple of albums, in large part as a result of Ben's working relationship with Mike Mackey, who has become his main creative partner. This increased focus manifests on Paragons in the band's most cohesive batch of songs to date, ranging from shimmering psych-pop excursions to bittersweet, piano and string-accented strummers, and an execution that feels like a massive step forward for the band. Through its recent forays into dream pop and shoegaze (Control) and synth-pop (John Waters), Constant Smiles has learned how to incorporate its experimental inclinations more fluidly into the mix. Artists like Yo La Tengo, and the more recent Rat Columns, are good touchstones for Constant Smiles' musical approach - tethering to an indie-pop core while perennially mining genres, always finding new ways to intrigue listeners and pursue a unique vision. Paragons was produced and engineered by Ben Greenberg in the last two weeks of December 2020 at Gary's Electric, with additional recording done by Ben Jones at his home studio, The Void, and his Aunt Leanne's house. The album was mixed at Circular Ruin Studio and mastered by Josh Bonati. The band on Paragons consists of Jai Berger (who performed "Introduction"), Spike Currier (bass and synth), Matthew Addison (drums), Emma Conley (violin), Nicky Wetherell (cello), Adam Lipsky (piano), and Ben Greenberg (guitar and Mellotron).