Emilie Simon
&
Melanie Pain


French flavours grace Australian stages…
Known for their effervescent, engaging and
sometime offbeat performances, Australians are
once again invited to embrace the hip double bill
of Emilie Simon and Melanie Pain who will warm
stages around the country late September.
With more than 300 shows under their belts, the
much-loved French singer-songwriters promise
an evening of savvypop, intriguing stories and
delicious melodies.
Emilie Simon the artist who makes every song
an adventure will be showcasing her third album,
The Big Machine, which was written and recorded
after she moved to New York. The breathtaking
result is a collection of rich and sensual songs
featuring musicians like Kelly Pratt and Jeremy
Gara of Arcade Fire and Beirut’s John Natchez.
Inventive and charming, as she always is, The Big
Machine is Simon’s most accessible and personal
record to date.
Rave calls her music a masterpiece and says she
has a masterful control of timbres and the ability
to leap between registers in a single phrase.
If Melanie Pain were to sing the phone book, she’d
make it sexy purely on conviction. Best known as
the lead singer of the French band Nouvelle
Vague, Pain seduced audiences with her breathy
renditions of 80s pop. If Nouvelle Vague is like a
beach, then Pain’s solo material is city-bound and
more intense. Her romantically-tinged solo album,
My Name, draws on influences like Nick Cave,
Harry Nilsson and Leonard Cohen but you’ll also
hear Pain’s love for American folk and pop
intertwined with chanson.
As cultural tastes have become more and more
fragmented and the power of niche styles has
increased, nowhere is that more obvious than the
popularity of French music in Australia. Alongside
a continued love for French cinema, our taste in
French music is rapidly maturing as fans seek an
interesting and intelligent alternative to Hollywood
and mainstream pop.
Emilie Simon and Melanie Pain’s return to Australia
is proof audiences embrace the unique when it has
an interesting story to tell.
Linked to Cartell Music’s successful So Frenchy
So Chic series this double-header tour promises
an intimate evening from two brilliant and welltravelled
singer-songwriters.
Emilie Simon’s third album takes the trend for
cabaret off-stage and into recorded music, says
The Daily Telegraph.
Paris Les Inrockuptibles trumpets Emilie Simon’s
The Big Machine as having horizons as wide as
Texas and spirits as light as helium in this surreal
cabaret backdrop, the tricks, illusions and contrasts
are countless.
Pain’s first album is practically a beginner’s guide
to contemporary French pop, says Rave.