"Nouvelle Vague" is a French project initialised by multi-instrumentalists and producers Marc Collin and Olivier Libaux. Marc first came to recognition with his band Ollano, known for their Francophone trip-hop/ jazz-fusion & his movie soundtracks such as "the kidnapper's theme". He soon moved into the realm of club music, initially recording for the UK’s own Paper Recordings & progressing into a more creative and eclectic producer under the guises Avril on Fcom, & Volga Select on Output records.
Olivier Libaux has been involved with many French pop acts during the nineties and started working with Marc in 1998. He recently released his first solo album "L'héroïne au bain" on French label Naïve.
"Nouvelle Vague" which translates to new wave in English, & bossa nova in Portuguese revisits a number of both Marc and Olivier's favourite tracks from the early eighties, taking in bands such as The Clash, Joy Division, and the Cure.
Their idea was to forget the initial punk or new wave background of each song, keep simple fundamental chords, & work with young female vocalists (six French, one Brazilian and one New Yorker) who had never heard the original versions.
The result is thirteen expertly curated cover versions in a stunning combination of bossa nova, jazz and sixties pop - Imagine the cocktail hour smooch of Astrid Gilberto, or Juliet Greco’s Rive Gauche croon - but from a darker, stranger parallel universe. Yes, in theory, it might have been a novelty - even gimmicky - idea, but forget about that (as anyone who gets swept along by the album’s hypnotic opening inevitably will).
Instead, leave your prejudices at the door, turn the volume up, sit back and prepare to swoon.
