Sheraf - Highs and Lows

Lie down! Here is some good, refreshing music that quenches your thirst.
An entirely homemade beverage. Raphaël Campana worked almost alone. Barely supplemented by a few pieceworks by friends from Le Havre. Among them are Pauline Denize, whose violin and voice also embellish the latest tour of Pomme, and Erwan from the group Shubni, whose hyper inventive videos delight the curious persons.

I find that overall this music sounds quite 70's, synonymous with freedom, often folk, a little psychedelic sometimes ("Looking for Someone"), until the wordless, last drop at the bottom of the glass ("The Die is Cast"). Not to mention the dedications to his daughter ("Suzanne" and "Suzanne II") and his son ("Juanito's Song").

A lot of sunshine in there, immediately from the 1st track ("Shining Like the Sun").
If he didn't want to decide between his ups and downs, we don't feel any gloom, the album is overall bright, as if he had left the dark side to City of Exiles, a project in which he participated.
In addition to the easy resemblance with the protean band from Corrèze, I establish one with the German Norman Palm, and another with the Limiñanas in the more repetitive tracks ("Venus in Surf" – a strong reference to "Venus in Furs" by the Velvet Underground).
In the way they throw and stack the nerve loops, "The Easy Way Out" or "Suzanne II" could almost be part of a laudanum album.
As for the only track in French ("Bien Loin"), all in head voice, how can you not think of Malik Djoudi?

A perfect transition to talk about singing, which here never overdoes it. The trickle of voice that escapes gives the whole a very pleasant humility.
Pleasant could be the key word to describe this work.
Is there a cooler track on Earth than "In the Dumps"? (However, a quick glance at the text immediately ruins this impression since – surprisingly – it’s completely in the doldrums.)

Poetic guitars, sparkling synths and light backing vocals do not take long to bring the bubbles to the surface of this beautiful summer album.
In short, lie down...