LP | LE COLLAGE DE FRANCE - MENTAL LANGUAGE

PRE-ORDER ITEM
RELEASE DATE: 03/28/2025

After a notable first EP (Rue des Boulets, released in early 2023), Le collage de France continues its investigation into the words and woes that stir France, from its Jupiterian summit (and its "first in line") to the (yellow) life jackets ("those who are nothing"), on a debut album that refines a unique writing style. With a baroque and lively, melodic and catchy pop music, Rémi Nation (also behind the band Orouni) further explores the different functions of language to talk about love and politics in 12 songs, highlighting the ambiguity that constantly inhabits words, conversations, speeches, and the incomprehension that results. From social media addiction ("Autoporté", "Jamais tranquille") to the fragmentation and compartmentalization of society by sociological groups ("L'archipel", inspired by Jérôme Fourquet's essay, L'Archipel français) or communities ("La malachite"), including police violence ("Le vent du boulet"), trickle-down theory ("Monts et merveilles") or the interference of politics in our clothing choices ("Un peu de tenue"), Rémi Nation uncovers all the contradictory and oppressive injunctions in a cryptic and playful language.

Because, true to the popular and universalist ideal that animates the institution whose name he has détourned (the Collège de France, which has been offering free courses in all fields of letters, sciences or arts since 1530), Rémi Nation combines this ultra-modernity with a classical culture, freely associating the Ariane rocket with the one that helped Theseus escape the labyrinth ("Flagrance décollée", a delicate anagrammatic declaration), multiplying formal research ("Les biches et les faons", all in choir and heart, "Méthode au logis", hyper-corrected when it goes from oral to written), evoking with tenderness the richness of childish language ("Le langage de force"). There is also joy, love, and great curiosity for others, all others, in these songs.

This is also expressed in the collective dimension of this project, involving numerous musicians, first and foremost Cyriane Girouard (Aldwin, Cymbaline) who sings with her clear and ethereal voice a good half of the album's lyrics (solo or duet), but also Marie Pierre and Ari for the female voices. Recorded at Studio Tropicalia (Paris) and mixed by Guillaume Jaoul, Langage ment unfolds an ambitious and spacious pop music, supported by the unshakeable rhythmic foundation of drummer Antoine Kerninon (Jil Is Lucky) and bassist Théodora De Lilez (Barbagallo, Lucie Antunes). Jérôme Pichon's colorful guitars (Canari, Barbara Carlotti), or Steffen Charron's more abrasive ones, and Rémi Foucard's masterful string orchestrations, and Raphaël Thyss's brass, vary the atmospheres, from airy synthpop to baroque psychedelia, featuring marimba, horn, harp, and bass clarinet. But it is above all Rémi Nation's own words that, often reduced to their simple sound, become music, punctuate the song, and unfurl the melody.