Romands Olympic Antigua released their second mini-album entitled “Heavy Heart” on September 6. The group is still navigating in this rock tinged with melodic, warm and chromatic soul that revealed it three years ago. It will perform at the Label Suisse festival in Lausanne on September 15.
The six tracks that make up “Heavy Heart” are even more sunny than the songs on their first eponymous EP released in 2021, thanks no doubt to a recording that took place in the large wooded rooms of the ICP studios in Brussels.
The experienced contributions of Lausanne musician and co-producer Marcello Giuliani – who plays bass for Etienne Daho and has collaborated with Sophie Hunger, Erik Truffaz and the Romands The Company of Men more recently – as well as a keyboard player have certainly also contributed to giving the quartet’s repertoire a new lease of life.
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Evolutions and sound levels
Igor Métrailler, guitarist who also provides some vocal parts for Olympic Antigua, returns in the Vertigo show of September 2nd to the genesis of these new titles as airy as they are chromatic: “It was quite natural for us to develop the sound towards a composition a little more provided with instrumentations, with a bigger and more present production. That’s also why we surrounded ourselves with Marcello Giuliani, because we wanted to have a more refined and woody sound, as well as finer compositions”.
Olympic Antigua believes that Marcello Giuliani brought them more rigor, forcing them to listen to themselves more, leading them to other horizons and paths in terms of compositions and choruses. With “Heavy Heart”, the group has certainly reached a milestone.
The quartet composed of Tiziano Zandonella (vocals, guitar, bass – Yellow Teeth), Kevin Ruffieux (drums – Mount Koya), Timothée Dorsaz (guitar, keyboards – Mount Koya) and Igor Métrailler (vocals, guitar, bass, keyboards – The Last Moan) has also now found within Olympic Antigua the possibility of a more collective, but not yet communist, writing style. “On the majority of the songs, there is basic work done by Tiziano, Tim or me, but then it is a real group work in terms of writing lyrics and melodies”, adds Igor Métrailler.
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More vocal harmonies
“Heavy Heart” thus represents a new level for Olympic Antigua, who have already opened for Fontaines DC and the Limiñanas and who have reached a new level thanks to the particular care given to the melodies, arrangements and vocal harmonies specific to the vintage soul of American Stax or Motown. “It’s true that there are even more falsetto voices, choirs and harmonies on the choruses. We worked on the voice as an additional instrument that embellishes the pieces and gives colour to the music”, explains Igor Métrailler.
Whether on the rhythmic rainbow that is “Get Rid Of The Sting” oscillating between acoustic and electric or the moody “So Long” and its luminous vocal parts, Olympic Antigua finds beautiful balances in chiaroscuro between soul and rock tending towards groove.
Olivier Horner
Olympic Antigua, “Heavy Heart” (Two Gentlemen). Sorti le 6 septembre 2024.
In concert among others at the Label Suisse festival, Lausanne, on September 15; Crock The Rock festival, Etagnières (VD), on October 25; Foucoupe, Monthey (VS), on November 1, 2024.
