Albin de la Simone (Feature film jury)
Albin de la Simone carved out a place for himself, in a modest yet profound way. Among the great family of the French chanson, he is the sweetest. His vocation was however not linear: he thought he was a jazz musician for a long time before discovering he was a singer. The fragility of his tone immediately led him to an intimate register: he has made it his strength. When Albin sings, it feels like he is whispering in your ear. He speaks his own language, which he has refined from album to album, and which gives his songs a truly unique taste. Un homme, released in 2013 and L’un de nous, released in 2017, unanimously acclaimed by the critics, definitely rank him among the most brilliant authors of his generation.
Released in the fall of 2021, the album entitled Happy End, a term borrowed from the cinema is entirely instrumental. It could be the tape of this strange time, made of stops and starts where life looks like a scenario written with erasable ink. It was recorded in 3 days, with only his instruments and sound engineers, without a safety net, without a precise plan, but with the fierce will to surprise himself as much as to surprise those who are used to hearing his songs.
When he’s not writing a new “singer’s” album, as he is at the moment, Albin, is always very active: touring musician (for Iggy Pop or Vanessa Paradis), illustrator whose drawings are exhibited and collaborations are multiplying (notably with the Cinémathèque/Exposition Funès or with Charles Berberian), film score composer (recently for the animated film La Vie de château), album producer (Pomme, Miossec…), author of books, visual artist with multidisciplinary creations such as the ” Films fantômes” (Ghost Films), performances-concerts-exhibitions about films that do not exist.
In short, as Libération wrote last September, “he is a discreet, multi-talented and essential link in the contemporary French scene”.
