The reference magazine Les Inrocks itself was not mistaken, in 2019, when it bombarded them “a group that the whole world was waiting for”.
Taxed by “phenomenon group since its first album” by some, of “Belgian collective that reinvents hip-hop” by the others, Glauque has inevitably piqued our curiosity.
And listening to the album “Les gens passant, le temps reste”, a sumptuous musical UFO made of literate rap, enveloping electronic carpets and soaring cinematic atmospheres, we were really blown away.
Color and atmosphere
The project was born in 2017, when Louis Lemage, a student who had dropped out of school and wanted to transpose his raw writings into songs, made a few demos with Aadriejan Montens, a student at the Namur Conservatory in Belgium. Just like Lucas, Louis’ brother.
“We started as a two-person team with Aadriejan, rewind Louis, reached by telephone. We always played our songs to my brother and his friend Baptiste, who gave us advice.. We got a date pretty quickly, and that’s when the other two joined us.”
As for their battle name, Glauque, which refers as much to a color (iridescent green) as to an atmosphere, it reflects their music with a double reading. Their contemporary poetry, their sophisticated texts, a succession of flows where alliterations are brilliantly aligned.
“It was by listening to rap referring to works that I did not know that I started to read, Louis specifies. Among the authors who have left their mark on me, there were Murakami and Kundera. With his consummate art of paradox. His brilliant way of presenting the human being. A small collection of Prévert, too. Who convinced me that there was a way to make something pretty by making it simple.”
And to evoke his unbridled consumption of manga, those of Inio Asano, which evoke, he says, “the demonic part in each of us, without us being bad people. That spoke to me a lot for this album. Where I wanted to say that we can admit this dark side, without looking for excuses or wanting to force empathy. Without playing the moralizers on my side either.“
Moreover, he does not hesitate to proclaim “that he is not an artist” in “Several Me”. As for the very 7th art atmospheres that run through this album, from “Plan large” to “Noir” via “Bleu(e)” and “Plan près”, we owe them to the other musicians of Glauque.
Youth Spleen
“We also had to give the music this freedom to take its place, for each member of the group to express themselves. “ Hence the originality of the project.
On arrival, this polymorphic album that is “People pass, time remains” where the relationship to time is strong, makes us experience the spleen of a generation.
A youth confronted with solitude, consumerist injunctions, a fluctuating relationship with self-esteem and the need to mourn the past.
The title “Rance”, which could rhyme with “despair”, concentrates the fears and disillusionment of a youth deprived of the idea of fatherhood.
“I wrote these texts during Covid. As a form of catharsis. Since then, the world has not improved on the contrary, but I have taken a step back. And met someone with whom I plan to start a family.“
Contrary to the title of this opus, time has passed, and some people will end up staying, in the end.
Glauque Saturday September 21 at 7pm at Stockfish in Nice. Prices: from 5 to 10 euros. www.my.wilout-online.com
