Four years after the inenarrable "Cerf, Biche et Faon", Julien Gasc ( Aquaserge, Stereolab) deliver us "Kiss me, you fool!" leads us far far away, into swarms of sound and sentimental, twisted tales, on a quest for illumination that traverses the rich palette of human passions. The title was taken from a graffiti discovered in the ladies' toilets of a London pub. It is through this peephole that we consider, like a voyeur, the paradoxical complexity of this album: At once witty, noble and degenerate, Julien struts his way through it with all the nonchalance of a night-owl dandy. A troubadour of modern times, he sings of unresolved love, self-mockery, the trivialities of daily life and the search for the Absolute. The fruit of an exceptional artistic collaboration (including Laëtitia Sadier (Stereolab), John Linger (Neils Children), Cathy Lucas (The Oscillation, Vanishing Twin), and Joe Watson), this contrasting, emotional and heterogenous album nonetheless forms a whole. Here, mirror plays, surrealistic songs and decadent poems unfold elegantly, seductive in their effortlessness. Countering the current norms, "Kiss me, you fool!" cultivates its powerful identity far from today's musical cliques and fads.