10. AstrobalAustralasie
This is Emmanuel Mario, who I met in Toulouse thanks to Julien Gasc. Julien also does his own great records and is part of Aquaserge. I could have put Aquaserge in the list, because they would totally fall into this category of people who’ve been working very hard for many years and who eventually make a masterpiece. But they’re all part of a group of people in Toulouse who I finally met. I say finally, because I left France absolutely appalled that I couldn’t meet anyone that could mirror my taste and my desire to make music. So I immigrated to this country, for the music, and of course I had met Tim, so it made a lot of sense. In France it was impossible. But anyway in 2003 or 4 I came across this group of people who were all incredibly talented and sexy and good-looking and had no big egos, and with no shame about what they were doing, exposing their vision. There were a lot of complexes in the French music scene which got better later on, but to me these people were like, wow, I’ve found my brothers and sisters, it was absolutely wonderful. So Emmanuel became a long-time collaborator and he’s very good at working with other people, but there was also a desire to do his own stuff. He was kind of doing it before he started working on this project, but then I guess he found his focus and made this incredible piece of work. From one track to another you’re transported to very different countries, but it’s also very familiar to Emmanuel, and I find that to be a real strength: to have such a variety of different styles, but still be familiar and to have some similarity. He reaches really far out to find certain tracks and to bring them back to a whole. I think it’s a brilliant album musically and also for its variety. It also tells a story, about the Kerguelen Islands, which were discovered by this French captain. He was sent to go and find new islands and new places to conquer, and I think he was trying to conquer these islands but they’re not conquerable. There’s too much wind and it’s too hostile. But he said that they were worth conquering; he lied about those islands and was treated like a hero, but eventually the truth came out.
