Album review

Cocoon take to the high seas

Where the oceans end

Paris 

22/11/2010 - 

The second album from Cocoon, Where the oceans end, was recorded in the UK, Paris and Brittany. Mark Daumail and Morgane Imbeaud left their Clermont-Ferrand cocoon to set off on the high seas of acoustic folk, while still hanging on to their vocal duets and simple tunes. The impressive result takes us on a gentle cruise through twelve pop tracks.

The success of their previous album, My friends all died in a plane crash was partly down to the hit Chupee, which was adopted by ad companies and scores of French and foreign spectators, and must have encouraged Cocoon to aim higher with Where the oceans end. One of the attractions of the group’s music is its nursery-rhyme tenderness – sailors, animals and people are described in dreamlike, childish fashion in the space of twelve songs – added to their delicate approach of using pure, simple tunes that hit home.

The album’s sound is reminiscent of the late Elliott Smith, or even Scott Walker, both of them brilliant composers who have never been so present as in the orchestration of this new Cocoon creation. The piano has now found its place, even though the harmonic formula hasn’t basically altered: two voices that interweave almost right to the end.

The hedonistic melody of Dee doo (perhaps in admiration for Arcade Fire?) fleshes out just a little more thanks to the rich arrangements of piano, violin and trumpet. The songs are often simple and organic: life close to nature, bad memories buried deep under a blanket of snow, a teasing crowd of aquatic animals, and a stream of metaphors to describe a rudderless human race. The movie-like beauty of Oh my god plunges us into a “cocooned” world of slick narration and blurred atmospheres. A perfect album for those in search of musical adventure in a water wonderland. 

Cocoon Where the oceans end (Sober and gentle-Barclay/Universal) 2010

On tour in France. Playing live in Paris on 13 December at the Casino de Paris and the Olympia on 26 April 2011

Joseph  Tréflèze

Translation : Anne-Marie  Harper