Florent Campana - "Et Dieu Pour Tous"
‘Et Dieu Pour Tous’ is
Florent Campana’s first release under his own name. The album title is French
for ‘And God For All’. Far from the egoist meaning of that sentence, the theme
of the album revolves around finding your own path in the world and developing
it.
After producing music
for a broad array of clients for numerous years, Flo decided it was time for
him to start releasing his own album. Why didn’t it strike him any earlier ?
During all those years he felt that he had nothing to say to the listeners, and
thought that releasing music without a message, meaningful to him at least, was
useless due to the already overcrowded state of the music scene.
Accompanied by
vocalists living in France, USA, Bahrain and Germany and several guest
musicians Florent has now created an outstanding album – mature but still
playful - and full of surprises !
‘Et Dieu Pour Tous’ is
a musical blend with no boundaries, typical of Flo’s sound, where synthetic
Downtempo with hues of Jazz, acoustic Hip-Hop and Pop melodies co-exist
together to induce both feel good and reflective moods.
The album appears on the
label Lemongrassmusic in May 2014.
Digital release date: May 2nd 2014 Catalogue number: LGM 161-4 Label: Lemongrassmusic - LC 12644
Link to iTunes (mp3) Link to Beatport (wav / mp3) Link to Juno Download (wav / mp3) Link to Amazon.com (mp3)
For those who have bought the whole album and who dig it a lot we have a nice special offer: A cassette audio master ! :-) If you are interested please send us a message with the date and store where you have purchased the album (incl. country) to: label (at) lemongrassmusic (dot) de We will make the cassette master available to you then !
Some little stories behind the tracks:
Roland Garros is a
laid back opener infused with the first hot days of summer 2013. I was watching
a Roland Garros game with my neighbor, Pierre-Alexandre Tanésy while i made it.
The track blends electronic textures with a rhythm and blues groove provided by
acoustic drums and the electric guitar which was played by PA. If i had to
describe it in one word i’d say: hybrid. In two words: orange hybrid.
‘Et Dieu Pour Tous’
(And God For Us All): was the first track composed for this album! It happened
during a time of transition who made me decide to release my music under my
name instead of keeping it for publishing companies only! The name of it
happened during a conversation me & my girlfriend had about us making our
own publishing stuff and calling it ‘Et Dieu Pour Tous’. While the meaning of
it could be seen in the egoistic way, it was only a cheeky joke who took
another meaning during the making of the album, which is: find yourself, lead
your own path, you have enough within yourself to sustain eternity.
Golden Hour: is a
suspended moment in life. It’s like remembering those things who give you the
chills, to be conscious at that moment that you’re alive, on earth, and
everything’s just right! A celebration of life!
Blushing Girl: is an
electronic jazz cutie. There is nothing much i can really tell you about it
because i made it on the same day as a group of other tracks. I was trying to
find a sound who could inspire my longtime friend and singer Marilyne Justin.
New Blue: is the
typical kind of music i do when i wake up. As always, this kind of track just
happen by themselves without you overthinking or actually thinking at all,
since you’re still thinking about that second coffee.
Pentimento: is a track
i liked for its chord progression. Daniel & Roland Voss of Lemongrass Music
liked it so much they wanted to have it on the album, cheers my dudes!! I did
it originally for a singer friend of mine, but that’s another story…
Blazing Star: is of
course named after the Neo-Geo video game! Indeed, i wanted to name a few
tracks in relation to what i like in life (lol). It’s a good example of my
sound, the kind of overwhelming stuff, with depth, tiny/cute sounds flying here
and there, solid but vaporous bass… It’s the kind of music i enjoy! If you ever
go for a walk with my album on, look at the sky during the bridge, you’ll love
it!
Epicness Within
Boredom Around: ah this track was done with the first synth i ever made
myself... So, crash test track in a way, yes, so listen to me having fun! That
track was mixed by my good friend Régis Nesti. I loved the care he gave to the
music. The way i saw the music initially was as if it was pure fun energy
hugging you from inside, and the added care Régis provided just made both the
track and him hug you, don’t look back!
Valise de Jour: My
very dear friend Vanessa Flöge joins me on this track! This track is a sweet
accident: I initially didn’t know i was going to make a reggae song, i didn’t
know Vanessa was going to sing it, I was just having fun with an 808 & a
hangdrum! Vanessa and I had done a track for my bro’s wedding a couple of weeks
before, we were still exchanging creatively. So i sent her the music, and it
matched her falling in love with her boyfriend! She actually wrote the lyrics
of the song while on the train in Germany on that same day, while i was
composing the music in France. We just didn’t know it. As Vanessa says it
’telepathic match’.
Ballerina Footprints:
Rochelle Hot16, my dear Rochelle Hot16 joins me on this one! One evening she
hits me and asks me what i’m up to, ‘making music’ i answer. She then proceeds
to send me a link to a video with a dancing cow. You’ve maybe seen it
yourself.. Well, i actually found the cow to be dancing pretty accordingly to
the track… So i shot a video with my track playing in the background, sent it
back to her, and we just laughed at it. Ballerina Footprints.
Velvet & Air: or
seizing the moment. A magical evening with my two very dear friends Maël Nesti
& Sébastien Ouvrard. We were experimenting with Maël’s vault of instruments
and his brother Régis’ microphone at this time . Maël brought us that night a
kalimba and a melodica. The track happened without us realizing it. After it
was done, the guys managed to make me cry for the first time of my musician life
by improvising a bossa nova together…
I Am Showing Through:
was not made for this album, it was taken from a group of tracks i’ve done in
september 2013 called Dysphories. I did this track with Maël Nesti one
evening.. We were just trying to see what could happen, trying chords etc… Maël
played several stuff on the guitar, i edited it all together, we had the vibe.
Next i used some vocals that Marilyne Justin had sent me. Marilyne has one of
the voices who inspire me the most, and i thought she could fit pretty well in
this bed of sound.
So well that by the
time i was finishing the track Maël was so relaxed he actually fell asleep
haha!
Etre soi: was once
again done with Maël Nesti. He played guitar and i played the bass. The title
means Being Yourself in french. We just had one of our eternal conversations
about how, as musicians, letting go of everything allows for an audience to
project themselves into the performance. Same rule in the studio applies. I’m a
studio rat and he’s a live musician, different job, but same means. Once we
finished it, calling it Etre Soi came instantly after pushing cmd + S.
Shifting Poles: I’m
always trying to make my friends sing. I’ve always been doing it, and i think
i’ll always do it! I made this track during a few days where i was helping out
my friend Amanda with the music for her video game presentation. So yes i tried
to make her sing. Shifting poles was about that! I’m often recording a topline
or vocal melody to show my friends what i’d like them to do.. And they more
than often end up not doing it… But this time i liked what i had done myself,
so you get to hear me singing!
Will I Still Love
You?: was not made for this album, it was taken from another group of tracks i
did around November 2013 called Parsifal, where i was experimenting with an
instrument i made out of a theremin. I did it with Marilyne Justin. We were
talking on Skype, i told her i had something very 80s in the work who could fit
her, i asked her if she’d be down to record something to it, she agreed, so i
recorded the vocal melody and sent her. She liked it, we proceeded to write the
lyrics of the hook together, she began recording it. I went back to working on
the track while she was recording. She sent me the vocals back, then i sent her
the verses melody, she wrote the lyrics and recorded her vocals while i was
producing everything together. It took us 2 hours to have the track done.
Take Off: I'll often use
vocals i'm being sent for a song to make another song. If that makes sense.
Marilyne knows this well. So i did it with that track, i pieced together a few
parts of vocals that i loved for their evocative power and built the rest of
the track around it. I don't know what led me to do this jazzy track, it was
once again following only the spur of the moment.
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