Nouvelle Vague

And what, you may ask exactly is a Nouvelle Vague? It’s “new wave,” it’s “bossa nova”…it’s “Nouvelle Vague.” Too vague? Nouvelle Vague is the marriage of “new wave” and “bossa nova,” two incredibly prescient yet improbable musical bedfellows. But it’s really not that simple. The key twist is the fearless music that is translated (so to speak) into Nouvelle Vague. Take, if you will, a trip down memory lane back to the most vibrant and exciting era of earnest music—the classic post-punk period between late 1978 and mid-1981---a time of faux existentialism, unnecessary glumness, and grey musical austerity that raged against the big haired, corporate rock of the time. Think Joy Division, PiL, or The Dead Kennedy’s. This period of inventive and lyrically rich music---all gloom and doom---has been well, “Nouvelle Vague-d” (if that’s a word). Nouvelle Vague is two well seasoned, multi-instrumentalists/producers, Marc Collins and Oliver Libaus, who have found the beauty and heart in the sounds from this era and transformed them--cleverly merging and arranging this radical music. Some of the songs are stripped back to acoustic arrangements with lithe shaker rhythms achieved by gathering a parade of heavenly chanteuses from all over the world (six French, one Brazilian and one New Yorker) as guest vocalists to sex up everyone from XTC and Modern English to The Clash and The Undertones. Marc Collins, Oliver Libaus, and their honey-voiced accomplices have achieved nothing short of jaw dropping music that is completely recognizable and true to it’s original meaning, just with a bit more “swoon”.