For those not so fluent in French language, what we have here is His Umbrella (Son Parapluie) coming up with an album titled Paris Does Not Exist (Paris n’existe pas).
Well, maybe it does not exist anymore – the Paris of the ’60s, the swinging, psych-tinged Paris, where Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin dominated the airwaves, not only in Paris but around the world.
So, if it doesn’t exist it anymore, why not do two things. One is to recreate the original sound, and then do remixes that would re-interpret that sound in a modern setting?
That is exactly what French artist Jérôme Didelot of the band Orwell along with an excellent cast of guests does here. Isobel Campbell (Belle & Sebastian, Mark Lanegan duet albums) leads the sterling cast as featured guest vocalist. Jah Wobble (PiL, Invaders of the Heart), Martin Carr (The Boo Radleys, Brave Captain), and noted French engineer/producer Yann Arnaud also appear providing remixes of songs from the project. Japanese singer Sugar Me rounds out the performer list by singing an alternate version of one of the songs.
Did this Paris really exist? Doesn’t really mean much, because Didelot and his guests do make sure that it did/does through their music, making this in a way quite a fitting alternative soundtrack to Wes Anderson’s French Dispatch.
