Tom Poisson - Jean-Michel

His career started just twenty years ago. With 14 records under his belt, and his seventh solo album out soon, he takes the slow road when the whole world rushes forth. He wears intuition on his sleeve, and is compass is sincerity. 26 January 2024 will mark the release of Tom Poisson's new record, plainly entitled Jean-Michel. DisquietJean-Michel, that's his officially registered name. That's him. All fourteen songs from this new record are him, at his most intimate.One record after the other, Tom spreads his flying fish's wings, and rewards us with a theater in relief, imbued with humanity. Thus he fuels his Imagination Too Wide (i.e. Trop grand imaginaire). His flaws are ours; his flights relieve us.This is like discovering uncharted territory. Tom knows, or he doesn't know, how beautiful the adventure will be if he takes this or that road. He has a hunch, a hope. His love for songs sung in French, as well as sincerity, are the common ground of all the lands where Tom Poisson has ventured hitherto. But this record also provides something new. This was made possible by collaborating with Denis Piednoir, which Poisson directed and "coerced" - in the sense that coercion, sometimes, makes the playground bigger. As a multi-instrumentalist, composer, and arranger, Denis has become Tom's main man - first, on stage during the latest tour (Se passer des visages - 2020 / 2022), then during the recording of Jean-Michel, which they produced together. The pair of them have been playing with sound, as with Lego bricks, blending acoustic and organic sounds, electronic music and French "chanson", at the crossroads between James Blake, Jeanne Added, and Mathieu Boogaerts. The CrewThe rhythm section was strengthened by Emiliano Turi, alias Don Turi (a highly skilled drummer, DJ, and Jeanne Added's musical director) for some of the programming and various sounds. Alex Léauthaud, a musician for Francis Cabrel, and one of Poisson's bandmates in Les Fouteurs de Joie, participated in completing the string arrangements. Alice Chiaverini (vocals, acoustic piano), Marine André (vocals), and Fabio Milone (alto, violin), joined in to beef up the outfit. The album's photos and artwork are Frank Loriou's. The songs inspired Frank to shoot a true-to-life Tom Poisson, warts and all, from head to toe. That picture of Tom, sitting on a Formica chair, legs folded, looking both inactive and animated all at once, was the unanimous choice for the record cover.