Arman Méliès is a songwriter, performer and multi-instrumentalist whose nickname refers to the Franco-American artist Arman, plastic sculptor and painter and to Georges Méliès. With eight albums already on the clock and several EPs, the artist is also known for his musical collaborations with Bashung (two tracks on the Bleu Pétrole album) and Julien Doré to whom he wrote and composed titles on his last albums while accompanying him as a guitarist on his tours.
Arman Méliès returned in 2020 with an album trilogy project that just ended this month with the release of Laurel Canyon. The first album released in March 2020 is Roden Crater, an album composed of nine tracks, followed by Basquiat Black Kingdom, also composed of nine titles. In February 2021, it is therefore the turn of Laurel Canyon to come out, also composed of nine titles.
This record trilogy has as a common point and common thread the United States. They are, however, very different. The first album is inspired by the work of James Turell, an American artist who works on lights and space. The title of the album, Roden Crater, comes from the name of a crater in Arizona that artist James Turell purchased to make an art observatory.
It is an instrumental album that gives off a melancholy atmosphere. Arman Méliès offers us electronic tablecloths on which languid guitars roam. A sort of musical road trip, it is ultimately a superb electro record. There are superb titles there such as “The child who walked in color“and”Great volcano“which make me think of the universe that we could find on certain titles of the Casino album.
The second album Basquiat’s Black Kingdom refers to the artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, died at age 27 of an overdose. With this album, we leave the horizontality of Arizona for the verticality of New York, a city associated with the city of Jean-Michel Basquiat.
The artist takes us into a musical universe very different from the one he offered us with Roden Crater. We go from synthetic, electronic and hovering to enter the world of what is called post-rock. The album is still instrumental, made of big guitars and big drums on some tracks but also much calmer songs with acoustic guitars. Some titles make us enter the universe ofEnnio Morricone.
The third album of this superb trilogy takes the name of a famous district of Los Angeles where the greatest rockers lived in the 70s as Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, Marilyn Manson, Iggy Pop, Zappa or Neil Young.
It is yet another musical universe that the artist offers us with here sung titles, rock songs and folk songs, an album where the voice often takes the leading role. There is a superb duo with his accomplice Hubert-Félix Thiéfaine. “Avalon“and”A promise“are among those superb titles that we are likely to listen to for a long time to come.
In the end, this trilogy of albums is just magnificent. She offers us a wonderful musical journey to the heart of the United States with as a guide an insufficiently recognized artist who does not lack talent.
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