Carla Bruni and Pascal Obispo form a unique duo

Every day, a personality invites themselves into the world of Élodie Suigo. Friday, September 13, 2024: the authors, composers and performers, Carla Bruni and Pascal Obispo for a duet that comes out today, “Son âme d’enfant”.

Carla Bruni and Pascal Obispo had never worked together. In any case, had never sung together. One of their common points? Having collaborated a lot with other artists. Today, they offer us the title His childlike soul which will be included in Pascal Obispo’s new album which will be released on November 15, The Archipelago of Aftermath.

franceinfo: What made you meet and want to sing this song together? His childlike soul ?

Carla Bruni: Pascal and I have known each other for 30 years. We met before I wrote music. It was my dream to work with him. He sometimes asked me for lyrics. He loved what I had done for Julien Clerc and from that moment on, something opened up. And then we never could because he is very fast and I am very, very slow. And then, we succeeded!

Pascal Obispo: In fact, it started with a little surprise birthday party for Nagui, there were lots of artists. He came to tell me after the show that two artists were apologizing for not being able to be there, including Carla.

Carla Bruni: I was sick as a dog!

Pascal Obispo: And it’s true that this show also kind of triggered this album. And yes, the fact that I fell in love with her a long time ago, she knows it, I wanted to know how it could work between us. It was a request from me. After my painting exhibition, when it was necessary to tell a little about the genesis of painting, I asked my mentor Dan Ho the question: how do you paint? He answered me: “the important thing is that you keep your childlike soul“And when I saw Carla, I asked her: can you write a text about the child’s soul?

Was it immediate?

Carla Bruni: Yes. It came to me quite easily. The child’s soul, for me, is almost a pleonasm, because the purest and most precious place in our soul is the place where we are a child. And until we are very old, people discover their naivety. The child’s soul exists for everyone. I think it is not at all something trivial even if the song seems sweet and tender. In truth, it says that there is a place in ourselves that can save us from disaster.

Pascal, the child’s soul is also something you both have in common. Do we ultimately keep the early years that allow us to build ourselves?

Pascal Obispo: We always come back to what we loved, to what marked us when we were little. And it’s not even a question of music anymore. It’s a question of place and well-being. Hop, there’s a music that was there and we find it again.

“Thinking hinders us and limits us. We must let ourselves go in art and in music, that’s always what I’ve done. This song totally corresponds to my way of being.”

Pascal Obispo

to franceinfo

So as you invite us to listen to the song, to return to the paths of childhood, I would like to know what you keep from your childhood.

Carla Bruni: From my childhood, I keep melancholy and a real taste for solitude and a kind of refuge, already at that time, which would be music, fantasy. Indeed, I believe that creation comes from that moment. I believe that all children are creative, whatever the profession they choose later, all humans have access to that and I believe that they remember it. That’s what I’m talking about His childlike soulit is a refuge.

Pascal Obispo: What I remember is that everything I did, everything I am, from my childhood, was born, from my suffering to my joys, my pleasures. And this song, really, was perfect in terms of defining what we are, what I am, without going into details. That is precisely the strength of Carla’s lyrics, we don’t talk about us, we talk about everyone.

What is striking is the range of your voices, that is to say that you are both with an unrecognizable voice. You are in unison. It is quite incredible.

Carla Bruni: When we make boy-girl duets, it’s incredibly complicated.

Pascal Obispo: Unrecognizable, I don’t think! You’re exaggerating because I really recognize Carla.

In the softness, in any case in the way of singing, in the rhythm.

Pascal Obispo: Yes, but I am gentle because I am with her, I have to be gentle with her, I have to be kind.

“To perform ‘Son âme d’enfant’, I changed my entire phrasing because I’m with him. I changed everything. I did like him!”

Carla Bruni

to franceinfo

Pascal Obispo: I wanted that little rock, rock and raucous thing.

The next thing is that it will be incorporated into an album.

Pascal Obispo: It’s an album called: The Archipelago of Sequels with eight female artists.

The album comes out on November 15th?

Carla Bruni: Yes, and the album is beautiful. There are a lot of amazing songs and everything is surprising. It has a great quality, it is an extremely comforting album. It is really a kind of quiet refuge. You have to put it in the car and go on a trip with it.

Pascal Obispo: There’s Zazie, Anne Sila, Nolwenn Leroy, Isabelle Boulay, Sharon Laloum, Nawel Ben Kraiem. There are really quite a few different vocal universes and it’s true that I needed softness in this album.