CASCADEUR

In a period that glorifies expositions and precipitation, Cascadeur, the latest French act signed to Casablanca Records, is a UFO figure in the musical landscape. Even exposed in a window display the paparazzi will have a hard time: never will they see the face of this artist. As for the rhythm, Cascadeur takes his time. The Frenchman, who as a preface to his upcoming album (to be released early 2011) has already given birth this autumn to an elegant maxi (Walker), wasn’t born from yesterdays rain. Besides a victory in the competition CQFD organized by the Inrockuptibles in 2008 Cascadeur offered to the last Francofolies de la Rochelle one of his biggest moments surrounded with an impressive children's choir. Nevertheless, Cascadeur is not a bird but an ant: a hard worker, one who perseveres, prolific (we’ve seen him next to bands such as Orwell, Variety Lab and Sharko, in which the members participated in his recordings). Years of practice, which allowed this young man to perfect his cards: at the same time, author, composer, interpreter, musician, arranger and mixer, Cascadeur does everything alone from the refuge of his home studio that he baptized the Cascadrome.
He was the one behind the musical project Chut! And after teaching arts in a college, founded Cascadeur five years ago, then published three auto-produced albums in which he revisits his never ending musical courtships, from Radiohead to Nina Simone, Antony & The Johnsons to Erik Satie. “A Cascadeur (Stuntman), is someone very careful, who knows the risks, and knows how to last. It’s the opposite of a reckless person.”
And then there is a childhood memory: a motorcycle stuntman action figurine, white, fixed to a trampoline, with whom he played for a long period of time. While avoiding the stumbling block of the nostalgia for lost time, on stage, the Frenchman likes to use instruments with malicious tones (Dictée magique) and carry a soft adult glance on his childhood that has since passed. At once fascinating and lively, magic and playful, Cascadeur’s concerts are not childish, but concerts for children who have become adults. They could be summarized with John Lennon's words on his track Woman: I hope you understand the little child inside the man.
Whether he puts on a fighter pilot's helmet, boxer's obe, or a Mexican fighter mask, the costume, for the Frenchman, has nothing of a clown's artifice: rather than taking on the role of a character, the outfit allows him above all to be himself. “I have never wanted to arrive like a great hero. What interests me in the hero is his fragility. At first, the idea of the helmet was to protect me from myself. I was afraid of being moved too much” Especially from sensitivity, humanity. The Human Octopus will be the title of this first album: determinedly human, the music of Cascadeur is a summary of sensibility and feelings for this way of drafting small sublime chapters of melancholy, we think of Antony without his Johnson’s, Robert Wyatt or the Neil Young period After The Goldrush. At the same time dreamy and precise, the homemade songwriting of the Frenchman shows a rare innocence and promises some of the musical flagrances of 2011. The top headliners are warned, this (stuntman) Cascadeur has all the assets to get the leading role.