IDOL Session : Frànçois & the Atlas Mountains
At the end of last summer, the news was received with enthusiasm: Frànçois & the Atlas Mountains had joined the Infiné label. For Pascal Bittard, President of IDOL, who is presenting this new IDOL session, “we’re even happier than usual because our friends at Infiné have signed a project we’ve admired for a long time”.
So it was that fervent fans of Frànçois & the Atlas Mountains braved the pouring rain to come and preview Âge Fleuve, François Marry’s eighth album. For this dress rehearsal in the basement of IDOL’s Paris offices, the composer was joined by Colin Russeil on drums and Laure Sanchez on bass.
Frànçois & the Atlas Mountains opened the set with ‘Adorer‘, the first single released last September, which the audience starts to mouth back.. As soon as it begins, François Marry, very much at ease, launches into a little improvisation. The trio follows with the dreamlike ‘Party‘, then ‘Pas Lents dans la Neige‘, composed 18 years ago in Bristol on an old, out of tune piano, the composer confides.
François Marry undulates with his guitar and loses his strap, a detail that amuses as much as it testifies to his letting go.
“You're carried away by Frànçois's gentle voice and poetry, set to lovely guitar chords,”
says Gaston Le Nair on Jamais assez toujours trop.
A swaying bass introduces ‘Aïeul inconnu‘, flirting with Moroccan rhythms, and the atmosphere becomes more festive. Frànçois & the Atlas Mountains follow that up with an older track, ‘1982‘. As the set draws to a close, the audience, who have been following the story for over a decade, are more than ready to discover Âge Fleuve: “An intrepid record. Its best since Piano Ombre in 2014”, says Les Inrockuptibles
Listen to Âge Fleuve
More info
Frànçois & the Atlas Mountains will be in concert in Paris on November 25 at Le Trianon, and on tour in Europe between now and then.