Arthur H’s new album, “La Vie”, is a marvel. Flamboyant orchestrations, superb poetry, and always the battered voice of our Tom Waits.
After the excellent “Amour Chien fou” (2018, certified Gold) and “Premature death of a popular singer in the prime of life” (soundtrack to Wadji Mouawad’s play, 2019), Arthur H continues to reinvent himself, at 56, as a wacky crooner and punk and discreet observer of the world. “Where are the ideas of the future that will help us reinvent our relationship with living things to stop destroying the ecosystem that makes our existence possible? he wonders. Each of the titles of this twelfth album could be that of a film or a book: “The road”, “Life”, “The star”, “The ocean” or “The secret” (this last title , poignant and modest, recounts the abuse that his father suffered as a child, revealed in the book by Valérie Lehoux to be published on March 1 and for which Arthur H signed the preface). It is an album that we like to taste from beginning to end, alone, to immerse ourselves in it without being distracted, exploring new tracks with each listening.
“Expedition to Uncharted Land”
“A record is always an expedition into unknown territory, explains the artist. At first, you get lost, no more landmarks, a fertile uncertainty. I conceive of all my records as a travel proposal, a great journey in sounds, in words, in stories. “La Vie” is about the life drive, an ode to the life drive. »
After a few false starts due to the Covid, the journey will continue on stage, at Le Bikini, on April 20. “Sorry for the delay but I have to take the time to do beautiful things, to then have big wild parties with you! “, he promises us. We would have done well to wait.
