Simon Dalmais

Before and after is a bunch of luminous, almost ferric songs, next to darker ones, against the light : Simon Dalmais’ second record is a bridge between two shores. A majestic suspension bridge like those built by Harry Nilsson or The Beach Boys. Alone in the Toulouse countryside in the winter 2013, Simon Dalmais wrote and composed the twelve songs released today. They enthrall with their apparent tranquillity and their inner turbulence. Like, among his masters, Caetano Veloso and Elliott Smith, Dalmais is not only an admirable arranger and a melodist without equal. His taste for beauty is always balanced by his taste for chaos and vertigo that must be mastered. A beautiful team of hardened musicians including Clement Ducol string arrangements help giving to these songs the meticulousness and breath that form great works. Like the track Listen suggests, again following senseless melodies, the listening of this record is a total sensory experience. After, one feels durably and deeply moved Christophe Conte, journalist, translated from french