“Contre toi”, the 26th album by Charlélie Couture, “is the soundtrack of a life”

Every day, a personality invites itself into the world of Élodie Suigo. Friday February 9, 2024, the multidisciplinary artist, Charlélie Couture. Today he is releasing his 26th album: “Contre toi” and will be in concert at the Théâtre de l’Atelier on April 16 and 17, 2024.

It has always been difficult, if not almost impossible, to define Charlélie Couture. Multidisciplinary artist, in turn painter, graphic designer, photographer, poet, singer, author and composer. The scan of the artist that he is, in all his aspects, highlights his inability to remain without creating.

franceinfo: This album talks about the loving feelings of the family, of the couple. Why this title: Against you ? At first glance, it seems like it’s something negative, but in the end it’s absolutely not.

Charlélie Couture: “Against you, everything against you”, it is precisely these ambiguities which give the salt of existence. How do we interpret the world? That’s what gives it its meaning. So it’s the whole interpretation, the relationship we have with life that I evoke in this record, which is a bit like the soundtrack of a life.

This album was to be called Over Loverthen finally, a change of program thanks to a title, a song written when your daughter Yamée was just a teenager: The absence. You understood very quickly that this song was going to become the keystone of this album.

Over Lover was a record I started a few years ago at a time when I was still living in New York, so this English title made sense. But today, it no longer had the same meaning. And I came across this song, The absence, which my daughter had composed. And I thought it was the most beautiful song ever and I said to him: “I changed a few things to be able to interpret it. But go ahead, take it !“Because she is an actress, but also a singer. And then she said to me: “No, go ahead, do it!“And so, it was this song that was the starting point for the record.

It’s a huge declaration of love from a daughter to her father.

I have two daughters that I have worked with.

Yes you work with them on this album, it becomes a family album.

I don’t know if it’s a family album. Shaan just made an absolutely stunning music video for a song called He only has eyes for herbut at the same time, I believe that it is a record about the intimate.

“In this album, I try to talk about this relationship with others in the depth of what we can experience.”

Charlélie Couture

at franceinfo

Music enters your life when you are around six years old, through your grandmother, who introduces you to the piano. You first encounter classical music. Do you understand at that moment that music will, whatever happens, be part of your life?

In fact, I gradually learned the joy that things of art in general gave me, whether it was the museums that I would visit with my father and who would explain to me the meaning of paintings or music with my grandmother who listened to France Musique while deciphering the scores at the same time.

“In my life, culture is something that is not a distraction, but associated with a purpose.”

Charlélie Couture

at franceinfo

It was actually at 12 years old, while watching an exhibition with your father on Dadaism, that you realized that your life was going to be a bit like that of your father ultimately, who always mixed the arts as well.

My father had studied architecture, interrupted by the Gestapo when he joined the Resistance alongside Stéphane Hessel. Then they were denounced and sent to a concentration camp. But he had a relationship with art that was much closer to the artisan, if you will. While I often defend the point of view of the “artist”, some ask questions about the way of doing things, others about the intention. And so I had long discussions with my father on these subjects.

Is the little boy that you were happy with the man he became then, with the artist he became?

“I don’t know if you can really imagine what you’re going to become later. There’s a part that’s your responsibility, and then there’s a part that’s what others give you.”

Charlélie Couture

at franceinfo

I could have done something else and at the same time I couldn’t have done anything else. I had the chance, a few years ago, to be able to revisit the apartment in which I had lived until I was 17-18. I watched my whole life go by and said to myself: so, that was my life.

Is it glory that we seek, or is it to live honestly with ourselves and those close to us? What I know is that the people around me who knew me can look at me and vice versa, in the eyes, without shame. Yes, dignity is really something we need today.

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