BON ENTENDEUR

BON ENTENDEUR

Bon Entendeur virtuosizes the meeting of sounds, voices and eras. With each of their albums, the duo imagines a set of music written like a ballad.
In the early days, Bon Entendeur made a name for themselves with mixtapes featuring the voices of celebrities. Their first album, Aller-Retour, released in 2019, has the original idea of honoring the Francophone wave of the seventies with contemporary sounds. It proved a great success: four years later, the album was certified platinum, and its lead single, Le temps est bon, went on to become a diamond single. Their second album, Minuit, went gold in just a few months, and was released in 2021. It is an allegory of the hour of change and the furious desire to deconfiner the day until the end of the night. This was followed by two exceptional tours: one in France, at the prestigious Olympia and Zenith venues. The other was international: the Transatlantic Tour exported their French touch to sold-out audiences, following in the footsteps of their elders.

Autumn 2023. Bon Entendeur sails to the shores of Latin America. Their third album, Rivages, distils summer into winter and breathes a wind of newness. The sun is still high, the afternoon waning. Friends on the deck of a boat embrace the horizon, their feet sanded, their skin golden with salt. Rivages tells the story of a voyage by sea, from the French Riviera to Bossa Nova. In this album, Bon Entendeur gathers the cherished heart of their memories, and gives pride of place to the Mediterranean, the cradle of their friendship. Rivages draws on the scents of garrigue and maquis, the long light of the sun, and blends the fragrances of pine and immortelle in its tracks. The soundtrack climbs gently in decibels, to the rhythm of a haunting guitar instrumentation. Sicilia is the perfect island introduction. The crossing promises to be festive, the set ripe with sunshine.

Rivages sings of the geography of ports of call. Italian-style, we love the elegance of Rome. A stroll to listen to, body dancing, eyes closed. We can just imagine this loving couple strolling through the streets of Rome in a film, to the humbly inspired notes of Vladimir Cosma. Basta Cazzate blows its electro chords. Originally a soundtrack by Christophe, here by Bon Entendeur, reworked for a children’s choir background. The journey takes in the sounds of North Africa. Bodies move to the tasty seventies track, Disco en Égypte. Then it’s on to Spanish-language grooves and Petit Bonbon, sung by Rigoberta Bandini. Angelo turns up the volume before heading for the French coast. The duo revisit French classics in their signature style. Fio Maravilha, written in the 60s as a tribute to the soccer player of the same name, translated and then covered by Nicoletta, is reinvented as the waves flow. Baby c’est vous electrifies with Sylvie Vartan’s bewitching refrain “Comment donner l’amour”. The crossing was beautiful, the wind rises on Orages, the anchor can be dropped, Rivages has reached its Clair de Lune.

More than ever, Bon Entendeur have composed an album faithful to what they love: the dance of the night, the energy of the sun of their Mediterranean origins, the plurality of world music. Rivages is the signature of their vintage, disco and electronic aesthetic. It’s a more personal album, and one they can’t wait to take on their tour, with a star-studded stopover at the Olympia on April 4 and 5, 2024.