Photography by Mayli Sterkendries
The beauty of Nature and family love, and the demolition of landscapes and communities are topics dear to Nicolas Michaux and served as an inspiration for the text to his new song Amusement Park; the first release out of his upcoming album Les Chutes, which will be out on the 1st of October on Capitane Records. The talented Belgian songwriter and producer constantly deals with the sentimentality of everyday life in his songs. And despite the often melancholic tones, the music never seems heavy and oppressive, but rather inspires like sweet poetry.
His music and lyrics touch us deeply, as they communicate those kind of thoughts, that often occupy our minds, in form of sound. The many questions that life raises. And also the pain that those questions might bring; answers that we don’t really want to hear. That somehow everything goes on inexorably, in a direction that is obviously wrong and destructive. So much the better the warm sound of songs like Amusement Park help us to still see the many beautiful things that the world and people have to offer. And ultimately leave us with a feeling of lightness.
All the instruments are played by Nicolas himself – accompanied only by Morgan Vigilante on drums. The cinematic video, directed by Kevin Antoine and director of photography and colorist François Dubois, invites us to join the artists road-trip through Copenhagen and its suburbs – symbolizing the contradiction of our modern world, where all is destroyed and rebuild, and nature continues to push back.
Michaux explains in more detail: “I started writing Amusement Park in the apartment of my friend Grégoire Maus, founder of Capitane Records. He has a splendid upright piano which stands there majestically in a corner of the living room. Grégoire and his wife Chantal were out that evening and I was alone in the apartment. I started playing and improvising around a few minor chords and a melody popped into my head. I looked up and next to the piano were some vacation photos taken while Gregory’s family was staying in Norway. I started singing very simple words to this melody and pretty soon the song took shape. “Holidays in Norway sure were a lot of fun and we starred at the sun for a while”.
He continues: “Through the juxtaposition of happy and painful images, I have tried to express the fragility of beauty and love in the face of the long work of demolition that is underway. There is a fundamental anthropological issue at this time: can the human being again become something other than a robot that destroys everything in its path, can we still as a species cultivate a different relationship to the world than the one that is currently ours based primarily on looting and destruction. I think that in one way or another, we are all more or less crossed by the questions that the song evokes. We are all more or less fallen angels, wild animals circling their cages, Greek gods wandering across shopping malls parking lot.”
Enjoy the video below:
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