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Nicola Sirkis, Oli de Sat, Marc Eliard, Boris Jardel and Ludwig Dahlberg have already announced a tour in France, starting in early 2025. An intimate concert will be broadcast on Friday evening on TMC.
After a XXL tour in stadiums, Indochine delivers on Saturday Babel Babel, a double combative opus whose essential titles were unveiled by the group led by Nicola Sirkis during an intimate concert, broadcast on Friday on TMC. « It’s super risky what we’re doing, because you don’t know any titles… I hope you’ll like it! », Sirkis says, dressed in all black with silver hair, to the group of fans a few meters from the stage, their ears wide open to discover the essence of this 14th studio album.
For once, the popular pop rock group with strong commitments decided to use the magic of live performance to deliver ten of the 17 tracks from this double album, offering places to around three hundred people from France and Belgium. This Babel show was recorded on Wednesday evening in Roissy-en-France (Val-d’Oise), in a venue with the exterior appearance of a logistical hangar overflown by airplanes, before being broadcast on Friday at 9:25 pm on TMC, the day before the official release of the album. The setting was much more intimate than their last shows in stadiums – up to 97,000 people at the Stade de France – with a huge stage, central tower, and a 360-degree screen.
The wars, their fight
Touring is again a topic in this new opus because Indochine, never short of references, tackles the myth of the Tower of Babel this time, a biblical reflection on human vanity transposed into a modern world marked by noise and conflicts.
For example, Ma vie est à toi evokes the war in Ukraine, triggered by the invasion of Russia in February 2022, while Le chant des cygnes, a title already available, encourages women to resist for their freedoms in Iran. « The bastards, the heroines / Warriors, orphans / Assaulting tombs / It’s the heart, the song of the swans / Be strong, even stronger, » sings Nicola Sirkis with force.
Some songs also sound like tributes, such as the unequivocal title Sanna sur la croix, dedicated to the former Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin. This very popular social democrat, who led the government for three and a half years until 2023, has taken strong stances against Russia, breaking with her country’s historical neutrality. These themes cannot be separated from other core values of the group such as love, hope, solidarity, all wrapped in the poetry of guitar riffs.
Initiation to electro-reggae style
Indochine also sometimes ventures into other sounds, trying their hand at electro-reggae style (La belle et la bête) and especially signing two symphonic pieces recorded at the AIR Studios in London (Le garçon qui rêve and Seul au paradis).
All of this was mixed by Mark Spike Stent, a renowned British sound engineer known for his collaborations with Beyoncé, Madonna, Coldplay… and already with Indochine, forty years earlier, on the album Le Péril jaune (1983) where he served as assistant producer.
At the Babel Show, fans appreciate the moment and point out the musical « universe » of a group that has managed to renew itself to last. « They bring people together. In the concerts, there are generations, the old and the young, » says Olivier Michel, 52, who came from Rennes with his 21-year-old daughter.
« They advocate for respect for others, for being equal. Growing up with that made me more tolerant, » says Charline Videau, a 33-year-old artist and photographer. Fueled by this energy, Nicola Sirkis, Oli de Sat, Marc Eliard, Boris Jardel and Ludwig Dahlberg – with an average age of 56 years – have already announced a tour in France, starting in early 2025.
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