The rock group The Big Idea releases an album recorded at sea, between La Rochelle and Guadeloupe

Who said that a disc had to be recorded in the studio? The history of modern music is full of singular and itinerant experiences for the production of legendary albums. The Rolling Stones had well fitted out the basement of the Nellcote villa on the VSCote d’Azur to record their legendary Exile on Main St. in 1972. So why not push the approach even further and produce a record during a journey at sea? This is the somewhat crazy bet of the group The Big Idea, undertaken in the fall of 2021. The six musicians from La Rochelle crossed the Atlantic while creating an album which will be released on March 17. The Fabulous Expedition of Le Grand Vésigue retraces this human and musical adventure.

The Great Vesigue is quite simply the name of the monohull sailboat converted into a recording studio which took the group from La Rochelle to Guadeloupe with an album to boot. Traditional conditions and many constraints related to the environment on the boat, but the unique experience of recording in the middle of the Atlantic and crossing dolphins between two catches.

The departure was given on October 3, 2021 and after two stopovers, one in the Canary Islands, the other in Cape Verde, a concert in Pointe-à-Pitre celebrated the end of the trip two months later, on December 8.

A record that breathes the open sea…

The six musicians then separated from their boat, but it was for the start of another adventure: the mixing of the album. Sound engineer Stéphane Gillet was entrusted with the precious tapes recorded at sea and had the task of mixing the album and restoring the atmosphere of the Grand Vésigue cabin. Quite naturally, we hear the swell and the spray, according to the ten titles, and between certain chained pieces, the lapping of the waves or the spinning of the cranks to raise the sails.

But we also put our feet on the ground, especially during the two stopovers. The one in Cape Verde was an opportunity for the group to record the atmosphere of a football match and especially the choirs in Cesaria Evora’s house. We hear them in the second part of the single King Cabrala title in reference to Amilcar Cabral, who allowed the independence of the archipelago.

… and also the mainland

The stop in Cape Verde was the last stage before the big ocean crossing. But if most of the trip obviously took place on the water, The Big Idea did not necessarily record a record of sea shanties. Set apart Enjoy The Illuminations which voluntarily recalls this style with its heady chorus, the influences of the Rochelais are rather eyeing the Britpop of the 90s such as for example Sailway To Hell or even the Beatles on I Wish The Weather Will Be Fine.

The last single Last Chance Desk, released at the end of February, offers a mix of New Wave and electro-pop with ultra-saturated guitars. As for his clip, he takes the opposite view of the marine world by wanting to be a parody of road-movie. By their own admission, the band sought to “set up a slow and meditative atmosphere” in a visual “ironic yet contemplative.”

Robert Louis Stevenson’s famous phrase “The important thing is not the destination, but the trip itself”, cannot be better illustrated than by this disc. And it’s no coincidence that the album ends with the same musical theme with which it began – O Darma, a cover of Pond, an Australian band of which The Big Idea is a fan. The idea of ​​a loop is very present in the project, as if the six people from Rochelle already had in mind to set off again. It will be on the roads this time and on the stages of France. But before that, the release of the album on March 17 will be accompanied by a documentary retracing this Fabulous Grand Vesigue Expedition.

Find the logbook, the cartography and the history of the project on the official website as well as the news and future concert dates of The Big Idea on the Facebook page.

The Scrapbook The Fabulous Expedition of Le Grand Vésigue out March 17 via Room Records/Idol.