Albin de la Simone, Polysons – Liberation

Exhilarating, the spring publication of the book My beats Reveals the subtle verve of an author, doubled, for whom was not already in the perfume, of the funny and sharp gaze of a designer … that we first knew as a seasoned musician, instrumentalist, producer or arranger in the service of the fine flower of the French scene. Before, at the dawn of the 21st century, to start a career as a singer in his own name, as much as picturesque. But to properly plant the disheveled decor, you must still add to the Albin de la Simone panorama. An eighth album, revisiting personal or borrowed titles (in Johnny Hallyday, Salvatore Adamo…). A tour where, as a self -respecting ubiquist, the acrobat put himself in mind juggling with a leaning keyboard, a guitar, his frail voice and a tablet connected to a screen behind him. A substantial exhibition of drawings, inks or watercolors at the Frac Picardie in Amiens (before Paris, this fall), another consecration for the formerly trained boy in the plastic arts in Tournai, in Belgium. And even a photo novel, Machica loves, Pastiche imagined by the writer Marguerite Abouet in which he embodies a Parisian Clodo catapulted in Côte-d’Ivoire.

Morality: more than thirty years after its creation, the last page of Release could not decently continue to turn their backs with a Swiss knife-although the Hauts-de-France-of a hexagonal cultural landscape rarely carried by a single person to such a degree of creative boiling. “I see in everything I undertake an artistic dimension, even in cooking. In addition to music, the drawing has returned to my life and the text came like that. I had to exceed forty to have the impression of having become adult and ten years later, I still feel good in my sneakers ”, Albin frame of the Simone, in front of a house cocktail Vermouth Tonic without alcohol (that he has « A little stopped »), sipped in the colored bric-a-bric of the small living room of his Parisian home-an apartment with garden, on the ground floor of a trivial building.

« Ultimately, I think I know who I have managed to escape from loops that lock me in bad places, after having passed through psychoanalysis, separations, paternity … All these moments when one has the impression of being sometimes a shit, sometimes on a cloud », develops with a smile heard the one who hums Shoulders « Not well -gave, not barachers ».

Antidote of this figure of the alpha male, now in the crosshairs, that the totemic figure Alain Souchon once encouraged to jump in the main bath, Albin de la Simone enjoys a flattering reputation. Thus it is perceived of a pleasant trade, in which infuses a good dose of self-mockery, handled with tact, like a weapon of massive seduction. « I love myself and undoubtedly understand myself a little better through the eyes of others, with whom we can very well boast by making fun », admits the keyboardist and bass player who, an expert claimed to capture flies with bare hands, similarly spread his pride in having met, at 15, Assassinated Pan -African legend Thomas Sankaraas part of a school trip to Burkina Faso. Like having played on stage alongside Iggy Pop, Carla Bruni, Vanessa Paradis or « In front of 150,000 people, in stadiums in West Africa » of Salif Keïta. Or, in a completely different register, of having recently assisted, « Fascinated for two hours, a brain operation, practiced by a neurosurgeon friend » who invited him to the intervention.

« The human dimension of the character is really cool », CLAIR POMETT BASE, alias appleof which Albin de la Simone has customized the successful album The faults in 2019. “He knows how to hide the ambition and seriousness behind an apparent lightness. Just as a wise look, almost immutably childish, can spring up a humor sometimes borderline trash, or discussions on deep subjects ”, abounds the singer who, seven years after a first meeting in Montreal, continues to cherish a « Precious relationship » resistant to more spaced exchanges in time.

The evocation of childhood is also not harmless in Albin de la Simone who, in the autobiographical My beats, In exhumes several episodes tinged with adversity, or misunderstanding. Not obvious in the Picardy campaign to have a particle name, out of step with a profile otherwise commoner. The Longère twenty minutes from Amiens where the family lives is nothing like a palace and if old cars are parked in front, they are patched models and then sold by a whimsical father, also cuckoo pilot and emeritus jazz clarinetist. A figure as a release from a rappers film, « Exhausting, extroverted, fun, charismatic », scriptwriting « A crazy childhood » But does not simplify the emancipation of the youngest son, which Stallone posters in the room are not enough to protect from a « discrimination » Converted into blows and jibes by the village kids.

« More in tune with the sensitivity of our mother, a prosecution of plastic arts, Albin did not adhere to the expectations of our father who, from then on, feared to see him make bad choices. He constantly argued, clung, which generated tensions. In fact, the son was probably running after a paternal recognition, while trying to detach from it ”, recalls Sandrine, the older sister, now stylist and graphic designer, who, a few decades later, maintains with her brother « Attentive, curious and full of fantasy », a link « Very united » that consolid « Crucial moments ». Like this Parisian concert sealing the success of Albin de la Simone, where the son and the father exchange « A triumphant look », Shortly before the latter died from a stroke in 2009.

That, no more birth stories (an alice who, teenager, rhymes with « accomplice »)),, divorce, new romantic encounter (with an osteopath, which he admires « The quality of listening and care »). Far, among other pangs, of the spite inspired by this Parisian tribute to Aboubakar Cissé (The young Muslim stabbed to death In a mosque on April 25), where, present in the procession, the voter on the left in search of the candidate « The most ecological and the least stupid possible », observe, frightened, that « 98 % of the assistance is only made up of African blacks ». Without giving up hope that « Tomorrow will be better ». For the benefit of doubt.

1970 Birth in Amiens (Somme).

1995 Finalist of the National Defense Jazz Competition.

2003 First album, Albin de la Simone

2025 Eighth album, You there, book My beats (Actes Sud), Tournée (in Paris, May 19 Théâtre de l’Atelier, in November at the Centquatre), exhibition in June at Frac Picardie.