On his new Album 'Grand Départ' Fritz Kalkbrenner stays loyal to his signature sound, which he developed with his last Album 'Ways over Water' in 2014. The East-Berlin singer, producer and composer reaches superior levels of expert arrangements and powerful-analog sound-design, where it’s easy for one to get lost within the music.
The "Grand Départ" is the first day of the Tour de France, and for Fritz Kalkbrenner it stands for the starting shot of taking an idea and turning it into a Gesamtkunstwerk – thus a deserving name for an album. Kalkbrenner’s thinking goes against the grain: For years, people - especially those in the electronic music genre - have been heralding the death of the album format, but he can’t and will not let go of it. Even today, in the age of the self-curated playlist, he is obsessed with getting the track order just right.
The album title also references French cinema of the late 1960s – the heavy, smoky and earthy sounds of woodwind and brass brings the listener into the Film-Noir feel of the Melville classics like "Le Samouraï" with Alain Delon and the “stains, on the napkins and curtains in smoker-yellow”, as Kalkbrenner jokingly adds. Exactly this aesthetic is carried on in the cover artwork for 'Grand Départ'.
'Grand Départ' is a big album, a statement from a non-conformist who out of principle doesn’t live in the past – but who at the same time isn’t ready to lower the bar out of indifference. Kalkbrenner always quoted a phrase when chatting about music with his peers: “He who doesn’t go with the times, goes in time”. The quote is still relevant to him, but his point-of-view has changed. “Maybe I will actually go at some point”, he laughs. “But that time has nowhere near come.” 'Grand Départ' bears witness to this.
Watch the video for first single ‘In This Game’ here.
‘Grand Départ’ ‘is out today through BMG Chrysalis/8Ball Records and a PIAS distribution.
Live
11/02/2017: Ancienne Belgique, Brussels