M83 surprise launches “Chapter 1”

Editor February 10, 2023

2 minutes read

“Chapter 1” includes the first six songs from the musician’s new album, “FANTASY“, which will be released in full on March 17th.

“Aerodynamic, but explosive when it needs to be; like NASA, Gonzalez never wants you to forget how he made the impossible possible. When he sings ‘beyond adventure!’ – soaring with every guitar harmony and every drum beat – there’s a sincerity that can’t be manufactured” – Pitchfork on “Oceans Niagara”

“M83 is back and now we’re going ‘beyond the adventure’ into epic territories where the synths glow like neon diamonds and the horizon glows in massive walls of sound.” – billboard

After announcing last month the release of his 9th studio album, “FANTASY”, and has revealed the first theme taken from the album, the transformative “Oceans Niagara”, now M83 (Anthony Gonzalez) shares “Chapter 1”, the first six songs from the new album.

For Gonzalez, the direction and aesthetic of “Fantasy” was immediately clear. “I wanted this album to be very impactful live,” he says. “The idea was to come back with something closer to the energy of ‘Before The Dawn Heals Us’. The combination of guitars and synthesizers is always in my music, but maybe it’s more present on this new record than on the previous ones.”

Reserved by nature, Gonzalez has also sought to continue a trend that has become more prominent in later albums. “I wanted to be more present lyrically and vocally, even if it was scary at first,” he says. “I thought if I achieved that, this album would be more personal than the previous ones.”

“Fantasy”, M83’s ninth studio album, proves an awe-inspiring sensory delight and is the producer’s most personal album to date, an alternate world that Gonzalez created as an escape from the disconnected world we live in today.

Sonically expansive yet intimate in a tender way, Gonzalez harnesses a juxtaposition of the relentless and the omnipresent in a way that leaves the listener feeling unabashedly alive.

M83 is the musical vision of French multi-instrumentalist Anthony Gonzalez. Over two decades, he has firmly established himself as an artist whose work transcends mere escapism in favor of total world-building. Whether it’s his celebrated studio albums, movie soundtracks, or compositions for stage productions, Gonzalez has proven that nothing beats his ability to perfectly encapsulate a specific time period, emotion, or sense of belonging.

Initially inspired by shoegaze, Gonzalez’s body of work spans and blends multiple genres and sound fields, from the synth-laden dream-pop heard on “Saturdays = Youth” to the ambient soundscapes of “Before The Dawn Heals Us”. The musician achieved worldwide success with the platinum, Grammy-nominated album “Rush Up, We’re Dreaming,” which featured the explosive single “Midnight City,” and has embarked on sold-out tours around the world. His career also flourished in the world of cinema, having composed the soundtrack for films such as “Black Heaven” (2011) by French director Gilles Marchand, “Oblivion”, a science fiction film by Tom Cruise, his brother’s films, “ Knife & Heart” (starring Vanessa Paradis, **** The Guardian) and “You And The Night”, as well as the soundtrack of “VOLTA” by Cirque Du Soleil.