The clip posted by Enzo on Youtube has everything to give cold sweats to those suffering from vertigo. Hooked to the top of a tree, 35 meters above the ground, in Graissessac (Hérault), this 26-year-old musician recorded an acoustic cover unlike any other Night call, by Kavinsky. Be careful, don’t reproduce this madness in your garden. This stunt was performed by a professional: Enzo is a pruner.
Climbing trees is a habit for him. But to push the song, it’s the first time. It was colleagues and clients who unknowingly suggested this idea to the young man. “I told him I was a musician, he entrusts him to Enzo 20 minutes. In a humorous tone, several times, some have told me “It wouldn’t be bad if I played in the top of a tree!” I said to myself “Why not!” “
“Getting to the top is a real adventure”
After many months of working on the feasibility of this challenge, Enzo took the plunge. He presented the idea to the municipality of Graissessac, where he grew up. “My passion for trees was born there,” he says. In the heart of the village there are huge cedars, more than thirty meters high, or about ten floors. I’ve seen them since I was little. As a child I often wondered what was up there. “After hesitating for a while, and consulting, in particular, the services of the gendarmerie, the small town hall finally yielded to the wishes of the country girl. “I still filled out a document, stating that I would not sue if something happened to me and that I had the necessary qualifications to climb trees,” notes Enzo.
The municipality, however, asked him for a small favor: to carry out, once at the summit, a small survey on the health of these gigantic cedars, which have always been truncated in the middle of the town. Then came D-Day. For Enzo it was first necessary to climb the tree. And “getting to the top is a great adventure”, he confides. As part of his work, the young man climbed, little by little, from branch to branch, using ropes and a harness, to the top of the cedar. A tree that was not chosen at random by the young man. “The cedar forms a kind of plateaus with their main branches,” he explains. I managed to position myself on the last plateau, on branches with a diameter large enough to support my weight. “
“I look pretty relaxed, but it was tough! “
When he reached the top, the young man was “full of emotion”. “I had seen the trees in my village all my life, from below,” he smiles. I never imagined, as a child, to be there. Once at the top, Enzo then hoisted his guitar to the top of the tree with the help of a rope. Not without some difficulty. “There are small passages where he got stuck, but I got there, he laughs. What was really hard was when I took the guitar out of his case. I told myself that if she fell, it would be over for her! “
Filmed by a drone, for two hours, the pruning artist chained the footage. If he is so used to emptiness that he is not afraid, the challenge was, however, particularly physical for him. “When you climb a tree, you always feel a kind of natural inclination, notes Enzo. We always have to fight against gravity, which pulls us to one side or the other, depending on the wind that blows. I look pretty relaxed in the video, but it was pretty exhausting! That day was market day in Graissessac. Thanks to the echo of the mountains, street vendors and customers cheered him before he returned to land. “It was pretty amazing,” he recalls.
Enzo really wants to start over, somewhere else. He hopes to be able to do it soon in Montpellier (Hérault), where he lives. Maybe even, one day, with the same songs as him.