On October 18th, Nicolas Michaux will release his third album, titled Vitalisme. This album consists of twelve recordings made over the years on the Danish island of Samsø and at the Free House, the studio of Capitane Records in Brussels. Much like in his previous album Amour Colère, Michaux navigates between polarities in Vitalisme: dawn and dusk, birth and destruction, hope and cold lucidity, past and future. However, this time it is less about exploring the different poles of human experience and more about bringing them together at a precise point where life unfolds. Armed with impeccable writing in both French and English, Michaux traverses the familiar lands of inspired songwriters, addressing grand themes of timeless poetry as well as the empirical realities of the contemporary world: love, illness, war, wisdom, resurrection; but also climate change and class war.
The album's title, Vitalisme, is both solar and mysterious, chosen by Michaux in homage to Gilles Deleuze who wrote in Pourparlers: "In the act of writing, there is an attempt to make life something more than personal, to free life from what imprisons it... There is a deep connection between signs, the event, life, and vitalism. It is the power of non-organic life, the one that can exist in a line of drawing, writing, or music. It is the organisms that die, not life. There is no work that does not indicate an exit to life, that does not trace a path between the cobblestones. Everything I have written was vitalist, at least I hope so..."
In essence, Michaux offers a profession of faith here, a commitment that his work has to do with life. And evidently, this is a commitment held true as the album emanates a truth, a monastic-like simplicity, and a beauty that can almost be described as rural. Recorded partly on the island of Samsø and partly at the Free House, Capitane Records' studio in Brussels, Vitalisme, like Michaux’s previous albums, blends indie rock and French chanson, constantly rooted in a soundscape reminiscent of the warmth and freedom of 70s records. In an approach akin to Brazilian tropicalists, Michaux has always chosen the honesty of an artistic proposition that fuses his inherited culture and knowledge of French chanson with various "external" sources: early rock , Ghanaian highlife, new wave, to name a few.
Earlier this year, Michaux shared single "She’s an Easy Rider", a cover of the American songwriter Tucker Zimmerman, who has been living in Belgium since the 1960s.
"I discovered Tucker Zimmerman and his work about fifteen years ago. A musician friend from Liège told me about him and the incredible story of this San Francisco songwriter living in the Liège region for over 40 years, whose magnificent work has largely gone unnoticed. Around 2010, I listened a lot to his first two albums, Ten Songs and Songpoet. Then I moved on and didn't listen to Tucker Zimmerman for years," Michaux recalls. "In May 2022, my second daughter was born. For some reason, during the days before and after her birth in Samsø, as spring was in full bloom and everything exuded life, this particular song that I had almost forgotten kept coming back to me, constantly, for several days. It felt like a calling."
Michaux's version is very different from Tucker Zimmerman's original. From its folk starting point, the song is transformed here into a great and beautiful indie ballad that can recall the wooded ambiance of the first solo albums of the former Beatles and the elegant coolness of Mac DeMarco. “I see this single as a tribute to the women in my life and women in general. I am convinced of the profound necessity for them to live freely now, as they have lived in a straitjacket for so long and their bodies have been controlled by the opposite sex. "Father don’t deny your daughter her own highway" is a phrase that resonates deeply with me; it's almost like a mantra that I try to keep as a guiding principle in my role as a father.”
The track is accompanied by a video directed by Kevin Antoine. It is a cinematic work in its own right, resembling more a short film than a strict music video.
"She's An Easy Rider" is out now, and you can check out both the official music video and the In The Garden Session. Vitalisme is due for release on October 18th via Capitane Records. |
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