Bloodsuckers, ghosts, werewolves, witches, an Egyptian mummy and a pirate named Bluebeard: the new, eighth album by acclaimed Parisian singer/ songwriter Thomas Fersen is all about magic realism, and much less scary than the assembled nightmare characters suggest at first sight. In fact, Comte Dracula here features as a romantic fool, and the song also tells the story of „une fille dont le sourire pointu est plus cruel que celui de Nosferatu“. Full of rich imagery, laid-back irony, twisted tendresse and mature melancholy, Je Suis au Paradis might be Fersen’s most accomplished work since 1997’s Le Jour de Poisson. The after-hours frisson of Paradis teaches a simple, but effective lesson: You can’t have light without a darkness to illuminate.
Bonus: From the fine A Boris Vian compilation, Fersen’s heartbreaking rendition of Barcelone.