A pioneer of French synthwave, revealed by "Les otaries" and "Lente dépression", Arne Vinzon is back with his fifth album, summoning the ghosts of the past who, from the depths of mines to flowery shores, joyfully drag their cannonball. Boo!
Here, ghosts act as compasses frozen in time, like soft comfort blankets draped in slightly faded white. There's Paul Verlaine, who, from the Batignolles cemetery, must be grooving to an unexpected and rhythmic cover of his poem "Charleroi." Or "Jeremiah Johnson," the solitary hero of Sydney Pollack's film, played by Robert Redford, in the eponymous song that opens the album to set the mood. To save them, "À propos de fantômes" sounds like an optimistic incantation that transcends time, an invitation to a journey through emotions, precious memories, and well-hidden, almost revealed secrets.
In an era where our world, burning, bleeding, and bustling, sees its old ghosts re-emerge, Arne Vinzon plays Ghostbusters made in Leos Carax. Better yet, he doesn't chase them away but welcomes them with open arms, a swaggering dandy who, with this latest album, sets a new beat against his time.