Asynchrone reimagines Ryuichi Sakamoto

 

Asynchrone release a new single, ‘Behind The Mask’, lifted from their forthcoming debut album ‘Plastic Bamboo’, due for release on September 29, 2023 via the Nø Førmat! label (Ballaké Sissoko, Oumou Sangaré). The French collective (established in 2021) assembles musicians from the Parisian free jazz and electro scenes, to honour the music of late Japanese legend, Ryuichi Sakamoto. ‘Behind The Mask’ is now available on all platforms from here, with the accompanying video streaming from here.

Speaking about their propulsive reimagining of ‘Behind The Mask’ - which originally featured on Yellow Magic Orchestra’s second album, ‘Solid State Survivor’, released in 1979 - Asynchrone say; One of Sakamoto's greatest hits, covered by YMO, Michael Jackson and Eric Clapton. The synth theme is the archetypal Kraftwerk riff, epic, futuristic and instantly recognisable! We wanted to make a sunny arrangement of this song with its enigmatic lyrics, questioning our relationship with time, ageing, our fears and our perpetual search for identity. Lightness as a weapon of resistance to our existential anxieties. You were afraid, now dance!

Speaking about the animated video for the track, director Sagans notes; The video for ‘Behind The Mask’ uses innovative techniques to create a unique visual universe: surreal images, illuminated with iridescences and inspired by Japanese culture and its traditional masks. It captures the duality between tradition and modernism, highlighting the role of women in this social evolution while exploring the notion of masks as a symbol of these changes. ‘Behind The Mask’ takes place in an animated retro-futuristic world of iridescent colours, where shifting hues evoke both the magic and complexity of this social transformation. Our intention is to depict women wearing masks that symbolise tradition and the past, while the freer, more abstract elements embody the modernism and emancipation of today's society. As the music intensifies, bolder, more contemporary images gradually emerge. These abstract images symbolise social progress and individual choices, creating a symbiosis between past and present. Traditional masks dissolve, giving way to a brighter palette of colours, representing liberation and the celebration of identity.

Asynchrone’s personnel is a link-up between cellist Clément Petit (Aloe Blacc), producer and musician Frédéric Soulard (who produced Jeanne Added’s Victoire De La Musique-winning album), clarinet/saxophone player Hugues Mayot, flautist Delphine Joussein, pianist Manuel Peskine, and Vincent Taeger (Tony Allen, Oumou Sangaré) on drums. Influenced by Sakamoto’s freedom, his mysticism, and his ability to draw inspiration from Debussy as much as from Kraftwerk, Asynchrone revisits his Homeric back catalogue with a breath of rebellious freedom and a communicative pleasure of playing. More than a tribute to a frozen work, it is a tribute to creative freedom.