In the last five years Fakear has become a leader of France’s electronic music scene. In those years tracks like ‘La Lune Rousse’, ‘Kids’ or ‘Morning In Japan’ have racked up millions of streams and become anthems. He also unveiled his debut album, Animal, released in 2016 which was certified gold. That five years has seen him tour around the world, from the United States to Australia, New Zealand, and Europe, which has helped Fakear gain international fame place himself at the vanguard of a new French beatmaker generation including the likes of Møme and Petit Biscuit. His sound has caught the attention of celebrated artists like Odesza or Bonobo, whom he supported live. Also, M.I.A., who invited him to Meltdown last year and for whom he produced a track on her 2016 album AIM.
A dazzling ascent that Fakear, aka Theo Le Vigoureux, was far from imagining five years ago, when he won the 2013 AÖC contest at Cargö in Caen, his hometown; a first success symbol for the one to be discovered as Fakear, who would soon soar outside the local scene in particularly fertile years. The rest is history: Fakear moved to Paris, released a series of EPs (Morning In Japan and Dark Lands in 2013, Sauvage in 2014, Asakusa in 2015) and forged his own strong sound identity, elegantly mixing British post-dubstep and oriental influences. After four years in Paris, driven by a will that has always inhabited him, getting closer to nature, he’s now based in the countryside, in a remote village surrounded by forests and mountains.
A breath of fresh air for Fakear, a lifestyle change symbolizing the quest for personal identity, synonymous with an irrepressible need for spirituality that nourishes the sixteen tracks of All Glows, the second introspective album with therapeutic virtues for which he admits a certain form of ‘letting go’, matured by greater technical requirements. An album with multiple moods, between pop manifestos and progressive songs, mixing harmoniously exotic sounds and R’n'B touches brought by the precious guest features on All Glows.
Partly imagined on American roads during his tour with Bonobo, recorded between Switzerland, London and Paris, a tribal spirit runs through All Glows giving a meditative trait to tracks such as ‘Lost Colors’ and its exotic flute, ‘Tokara’ inspiring sweet cavalcade, or ‘Sacred Feminine’ in which Ibrahim Maalouf’s mesmerising trumpet resounds. A more sensual pop is intersown between these tracks with ‘Vision’ (feat Claire Laffut), ‘Lost In Time’ (feat Polo & Pan and Noraa) or ‘Something Wonderful’ (feat Anna Zimmer).
In a live setting, a subtle blend of textures are brought to life on stage, when electronics mix with the organic, as Fakear’s drum machines are enhanced by a harpist, a bassist, a pianist and brass section: A triangular communion forms between Theo, his musicians and his audience, a unique moment that can reveal real moments of grace, as during his show at ‘Rock En Seine’ last summer. The two Parisian dates of his next European tour, April 13th at the Élysée Montmartre and April 14th at the Trianon, are also already sold out.
From ‘Prelude’ and its vivid jungle sounds to the catchy rhythm of closing track ‘The Last Tree’, All Glows unfolds like a long and peaceful invitation to contemplation, a call to lose yourself.