Bumcello, a pair of free radicals

New album from Atef & Ségal

Paris 

03/11/2005 - 

Five records in ten years! No-one could ever accuse French duo Bumcello of slacking. Especially as Cyril Atef and Vincent Ségal have also been busy working (both separately and as a team) for a number of other music stars including M, Piers Facini, Yves Robert and Susheela Raman. Despite their hectic schedule, the quirky double act have somehow managed to find time to record a new album, Animal Sophistiqué. The title says it all!

Picture the scene: late September in a Parisian café. Cyril Atef and Vincent Ségal are perched in front of their espressos, taking stock of the ultra-packed agenda that lies ahead of them in the next few weeks. In a few days’ time, the double act fly off across the Atlantic to play dates in the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Peru. Then, when they return, Atef is due to start rehearsals for a series of live shows with Congopunk, an ambitious new project concocted between himself and Dr Kong, "a performer whose role is to upstage me at every turn! The project was inspired by (the Congolese outfit) Konono No 1, although we're obviously putting a different spin on things!" Meanwhile, Ségal will be busy with a new solo project, his second venture after the acclaimed T-Bone Guarnerius, "a series of 'cello suites in tribute to my cello teacher ... It’s not exactly classical though!"

Nothing about Bumcello, the oddest of oddball couples, could be deemed classical. Bum (the tall one who plays the drums) and Cello (the little one who plays, what else? The cello!) have invented their own musical universe where nothing is quite what it seems. The pair's latest album, Animal Sophistiqué, bears a symbolic title that the pair feel "sums up exactly who we are!" Wild and feral on stage, but beneath their crazy exterior, the double act are a powerhouse of melodic gems and harmonic treasures. To sum Bumcello up in a nutshell, their music punches you in the face with a velvet fist!

The duo's latest album is a musical UFO, a flying saucer that spins through a galaxy of musical styles with aplomb, tackling classical and electro music with equal fervour. This pair of free radicals, who currently rank as one of the most active musical exports from France (playing everywhere from London to the trendiest venues in California) have adopted a simple philosophy: throw caution and prejudice out the window, defeat all expectations and, most importantly, take - and give - the greatest pleasure with what you do! And, one might add, function via the most perfect osmosis. Take the duo's approach to their latest album, for instance. "Cyril wanted to do real songs this time round," says Ségal, "When we're up on stage we have a really energetic sound and his vocals are pretty extreme. That's why we went for a very rock format, recording the whole thing in one go!"

Bum, drummer turned lead singer on this occasion, chimes in at this point, defining the new sound as "more of a pop-rock thing with melodies that don't stretch much beyond four minutes!" Whatever the result, it’s the speed with which the new album was recorded that impresses. Animal Sophistiqué was recorded in a mere ten days. The songs were born on the road in a series of hotel rooms, between concerts with M, then "laid down" in Cyril Atef's basement. "That's the way I  composed most of it anyway," says Bum, "but a couple of songs were directly inspired by ideas we got playing live."

Urban stress, sperm and Britney Spears

"The album just explodes in your mouth!" declares Cello, before expounding on the duo's closely collaborative way of working. "That's essential! We'll start out with one of Cyril's gimmicks, then I chime in with my point of view, he corrects that and then I go off on another tangent again ... And 'voilà'! " The result is a series of twelve highly strung tracks with a brief lull on the instrumental T Tris(te). "A reference to the saddest game on earth," declare the pair enigmatically. T Tris(te) aside, Animal Sophistiqué revolves at the speed of light, venturing beyond the normal frontiers, as it spins its playful, hypnotic mix. Questioned about their high-octane approach, the duo insist that "that's what gives us our originality, taking things to the hilt!" (Those who wish to catch Bumcello in quieter, more reflective, mood should turn to the soundtrack the pair have just written for Cyril's sister, Emilie, and her film Molly’s Way).

Animal Sophistiqué finds the radical duo inviting an interesting mix of musical acquaintances on board, most of them singers. "The idea was to create a contrast with Cyril's nasal tones!" quips Cello. Guest vocalists include an old American friend, Tommy Jordan; Piers Facini, an advocate of quirky neo-folk and Vic Moan, a poet based in Paris "for as long as anyone can remember." As for the lyrics on the album, these all sprang from Bum's pen. "He talks a lot about stress," complains Cello, with a broad grin. This is certainly true on the opening track, Gogo, a song about "life in the city's hostile milieu" or Dalila, a tale of impossible love "set against a backdrop of religious dogma." Then there's Sierra Mountain Top, a disturbing ballad "about turning inwards and being scared of 'the other.'" Interestingly enough, the latter is sung trilingually by Cyril (a French Californian with Persian origins).

The album ends with Monolife, a masterpiece of sensitive strings and exploded beats that recounts "the day-to-day life of a guy with pretty limited horizons and a pretty negative outlook on life." But there's nothing downbeat about Animal Sophistiqué taken as a whole. Before listeners get to Monolife they are regaled with absolute gems of comic fantasy such as Djizzney, "a story of sperm and Britney Spears!" and the inimitable Jet Set, a funk-punk number the pair came up with "a couple of years back at this special 'soirée' organised by Cartier at the Palais de Chaillot. Grace Jones was playing after us and it was hilarious! Nobody took the blindest bit of notice of us at all, apart from Moebius," a comic strip creator and, apparently, an animal just as sophisticated as the zany pair.

Bumcello  Animal Sophistiqué (Tôt ou Tard/Warner) 2005

Forthcoming gigs include 9, 10, 11 & 12 November at La Maroquinerie, Paris

Jacques  Denis

Translation : Julie  Street