Émilie Simon releases a luminous new album “Polaris”

Every day, a personality invites itself into the world of Élodie Suigo. Thursday April 18, 2024: the author, composer and performer, Émilie Simon. She is releasing a new album: “Polaris” and will be on stage at the Trianon on April 22.

Émilie Simon is an author, composer and performer, driven by music since her early childhood with a sound engineer father who knew how to pass on to her the love and importance of making and creating. This is his first album, Emilie Simon, in 2003, which allowed him to meet both the public and the critics and even the profession, with a Victoire de la musique in the electronic music album category. There was also, in 2005, the soundtrack of the film The emperor’s walk by Luc Jacquet, also awarded a Victoire de la Musique. She also created this character of Lily Mercier with the gothic musical tale Phoenix in 2023 and the same year, revisited, 20 years later, his first album and it gave: ES. Today she comes out Polaris And will be on stage at the Trianon on April 22.

franceinfo: Why this title, Polaris ?

Émilie Simon: I was first quite obsessed with the image of the winged tiger who came to kidnap this character with his emerald eyes and took him to a star. And what was clear to me was that she was someone who had lost her north, so she had to find her north again and there was nothing better than the North Star for that. So it ended up on Polaris.

There really is a zone of light and shadow. You alternate a bit like a tightrope walker. You sing in French and English with ease. We discover your voice more than usual. Is that also a message or is it something you experienced?

It followed this path. I think when I started my very first album, I had a voice that was different. I was much younger. My voice was much younger too and there was this sort of discretion. And there, today, I think it’s evolution over the course of a life, it’s also about positioning yourself in your life.

“I am always a discreet person, but I believe that over the years, I have more and more taken my place, known how to take my place and wanted to take my place.”

Emilie Simon

at franceinfo

You have a laboratory side, a sound craftsman. Is this the obligatory creation process for your songs?

But I love ! It’s alchemy. They’re like magic potions. Sometimes songs just happen like that. It’s a magical operation. There are pieces like that like Lily’s Witch who were born in one night. Even when I wanted to retouch these pieces, I felt that it wasn’t necessary, that they had come as is, but most of the time, it’s still a process that can be very long. Yes, it’s a little bit of alchemy.

Stars can be shooting, this is not your case at all. You have been with us for over 20 years. Does it touch you to be there, to be able to offer us things, to be followed?

It deeply touches me. It’s true that after taking a lot of time to write, I realized that there were people who were really waiting for me, for whom it really mattered. I have a real community on social networks, on my Discord. I have fans that I really adore, I have an audience that I adore. When I meet them, it’s often in concert and I know we’re on the same wavelength.

“With my audience, we speak the same language and we connect on the same things. It’s very true and it touches me a lot because I feel that things circulate and that it’s beautiful.”

Emilie Simon

at franceinfo

How do you approach the scene? You will be at the Trianon on April 22 before a tour.

It’s a moment of celebration. So I also have a lot of stress, stage fright, that comes with it, of course, but for me, it’s a joy to come and play Polaris. These are pieces that I have carried with me for so long and that mean so much to me. Expressing them on stage, these are the only moments where we can really be in this spontaneous exchange. It’s a celebration for me.

You have the feeling when listening to this album that someone is with you. Does it also allow you to keep those you miss in the world of the living?

I have a very personal perception of this which is that people don’t really disappear. Afterwards, there are portals, things that exist between different dimensions and… Love when it is there, it never leaves. He changes shape, just physically, but that’s my belief!

Crystal And Celestial are titles that transport us and take us out of our routine. I feel like you’re reborn. Is that also the strength of writing?

Yes, it already allows us to express a lot of things that need to be expressed and also transformed. And that’s often what’s beautiful, is how to take pain and transform it into hope, how to take pain and transform it into love. And it is this transformation that is important since we cannot stay stuck in something dark, harmful or toxic. And that happens to everyone, of course, and it’s human, it’s part of us. This transformation, it’s true that art in general allows you to do that.