“It’s what I do that teaches me what I’m looking for…”. These words from Pierre Soulages, an artist with an unquenchable thirst for research and exploration who cultivated one of the most beautiful paradoxes – seeking light in the darkness – could have been spoken by Frédéric Lo. A never-satiated music lover, melodist, lyricist, producer and arranger, he has long since developed a gift for ubiquity and a talent for finding himself where he is least expected. In 2004, he became Daniel Darc‘s “resurrector”, releasing with him the admirable record Crèvecœur, one of those records that never gets old. Some twenty years later, Frédéric Lo signed the album The Fantasy Life Of Poetry & Crime with Englishman Peter Doherty, an instant classic. It was during this period of lockdown that Frédéric Lo began work on L’Outrebleu. A period during which Frédéric was forced to abandon the frenzy that seems to have always guided him. On L’Outrebleu, he took care of almost everything. Could it have been otherwise for a record that is perhaps his most intimate, a record in perfect balance between “gentle sadness and melancholy joy”? A solo record indeed, but one that would not have seen the light of day without the alter-ego François Delabrière, guitarist François Pioggio, singer Gaëlle Kerrien, ex-collaborator of Yann Tiersen, Pete Doherty of The Libertines, Robin Guthrie of the legendary Cocteau Twins and Clément Ducol, composer of the fantastic soundtrack to Jacques Audiard’sEmiliaPerez.Arecordthatknowshowtobegravelylight and slightly serious, a record of melodies to be whistled just about everywhere; a personal record and a universal record.
