Comfort music by Stephan Eicher

(Paris) “I wanted a luminous cover, a neon in these dark and complicated times”: the criteria chosen by Stephan Eicher for his visuals also stick to the songs of his new album, Ode.

The disc, 17^e studio album, “tells a story”, as the artist met in Paris by AFP says. Ode opens with Without touchinginspired by the first months of the health crisis, and ends with Thinninga word that seems to have guided the whole.

The cover, which plays on a sparkling red color, is signed by the contemporary Swiss artist Sylvie Fleury. ” Since Homeless SongsI ask contemporary artists to formulate the cover, because music has always inspired these artists,” explains the Swiss singer-songwriter.

He had also recently worked with the French visual artist Sophie Calle. “It’s a way for me to receive pieces of contemporary art and exhibit them, without having to spend a fortune.”

Ode brings together unreleased songs and others already directly released this year on the platforms, by handfuls, far from the physical album format expected for an artist of his rank.

What did he get out of this digital delivery experience? “I thought the public would be happy to receive music like that, without waiting for the album. It was a bad idea, a total failure, like Stephan Eicher. We are not going to do things that work, ”he blurts out in his communicative bittersweet laugh.

All is not so dark. In 2022, there is still a wait around the author of success lunch in peace. In any case around the album format, since Ode ranked 8^e place of the best sales in France for its first week of operation, according to figures from Snep (National Syndicate of Phonographic Publishing).

“It will take magic”

It is also the only record of songs in a top ten dominated by rap, r’n’b or modern pop (from OrelSan, number 1, to Angèle, number 10).

Stephan Eicher is now turning his attention to stage transposition for an upcoming tour which will incorporate pieces fromOdemany of whose texts are once again signed by Philippe Djian, French writer and longtime accomplice.

For the stage, the 62-year-old Swiss singer with a d’Artagnan mustache is teeming with ideas, he who had formerly performed with musician-automata.

Lately, he was touring with his musicians (in the flesh this time) on a stage in the shape of a raft (with hull made of barrels, ropes and sails). A decor symbol of the resilience of artists, sometimes abused by theThunderstorm (one of the new titles), but always embarking the spectators towards the shores of Reverie (another piece ofOde).

For the next concerts, “it will take magic”, he says. “We are told at the moment that we must expect the worst, with power cuts. I want to simulate that on stage, with the sound system going down, but with a trumpet-automaton that would play on its own and float in the audience before the bass picks up again,” the musician gets carried away.

“Well, only a third of my ideas are going to be feasible, as usual, and you’re going to say that I’m chatting when I come to see the show,” he laughs. He had also been told that his tour with his traveling raft stage would be impossible. It did, however, take place.