Since storming onto the scene a dozen years ago with her award-winning self-titled album, Émilie Simon has crafted a reputation for experimental pop in the vein of Kate Bush and Björk.
The Montpellier native has won three Victoires de la Musique (the French equivalent of the Grammys) and will make her return to Shanghai on March 19 at QSW Culture Center.
“I have great memories,” she says of her 2010 Splitworks organized tour. “I didn’t know what to expect at all, but the people were so warm and welcoming. I was very inspired by the landscape and also got wonderful musical instruments from the trip.”
While her 2009 English-language disc The Big Machine incorporated traditional instruments inspired by her stay in New York’s Chinatown, her 2014 French-language disc Mue has Paris on the mind.
“Mue is an album about romanticism, and Paris is almost a character,” she explains. “It’s a bit of a love story, and goes through all the stages like falling in love, contemplation and unconditional love, but also tears and lies.”
No VPN? Listen to Émilie Simon on Xiami.
Describing the disc as “more open” than 2011’s Franky Knight, her sixth album is the latest acclaimed addition to an eclectic discography. It’s an intentional attempt “to make every album a different story,” with past highlights including the floral-themed Végétal and her widely praised soundtrack to the Academy Award-winning documentary La Marche de l’Empereur (March of the Penguins).
Although her albums artfully mix guitar, piano, strings and brass, Simon’s preferred songwriting tool is her computer. “Making electronic music for me is like sculpture. You have the tools to sculpt your sound,” she says. “By working on music, my sounds finds me organically.”
A drummer and bassist/guitarist will back her for her show with “plenty of electronics” thrown in. She admits that some songs will hue closely to their recorded versions, but promises that the group will stretch out on others.
“It’s nice to play around with the songs,” she says. “The album versions are a starting point to have fun.”
// Mar 19, 8.30pm-late, RMB150-180. QSW Culture Center, tickets. For more JUE Festival, check out our preview.
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