This morning we welcome Fragrance., Matthieu Roche’s solo project for a MailTape between the coast of Saint-Malo and somewhere in the infinite space.

Quite ambiguous, Fragrance.’s synth pop songs oscillate between asserted mainstream influences (he released an amazing cover of Gala’s Freed From Desire) and lo-fi music, in the same way that his melancholic voice and dancing beats are mixed: you never really know how you should feel when you listen them.

Fragrance.’s selection

Galatée - Ne Sois Pas Triste

Fragrance.: ” I am currently obsessed with Galatée, I listen to their mini album, ‘Sans Titre’, on a loop. The band is Russian, but they sing most of the time in French, which gaves them an incredible charm and a mysterious poetry. The perfect time to enjoy this track is the moment rays of sunlight begin to shine through the curtains of a room. “

Lia Mice - Saint Malo

Fragrance.: ” I discovered Lia Mice in 2015 during a concert in Lyon. This song mesmerized me. I don’t know its story but it evokes a lot of images, so its a perfect track to play in the morning if you want to inspire a creative atmosphere. I regularly listen to this track when I travel to Saint-Malo, which makes it even more special. “

Orchidée Noire - Mordorée

Fragrance.: ” Each time I am in Brittany, I listen nearly every day to this song from Orchidée Noire, burnt on a homemade mixtape in a car with a friend. It has become a ritual. It is now impossible for me to dissociate it from the first or last shimmers of the Breton sky. “

MailTape’s selection

Fragrance. - Through the Wall

Charlotte: ” I often put this track when I go back home after partying. It is enough catchy to prevent myself from falling drunkenly asleep in the subway (once the driver had to wake me up at the end of the line), but also enough smooth to initiate a soft landing in my bed. “

Solid Space - Destination Moon

Charlotte: ” I am fan of minimal wave music and when my friends realized that I didn’t know Solid Space, it reminded me of some of my classmate’s reaction when I was 14 and told them that I’d never watched a single episode of Buffy The Vampire Slayer: I was clearly missing something. Indeed, Solid Space’s sole album is amazing and full of references – not only musical. Destination Moon, for example, is based on The Adventures of Tintin novel of the same name. “

Baron Rétif & Concepción Perez - Blanchiment

Charlotte: ” This track definitely makes me want to get lost in space. But not in a tragic and suicidal way like George Clooney in Gravity. No, I would joyfully jump from planet to planet in a Michel Gondryish starship. “

Sputnik - Beep

Charlotte: ” Electronic sounds (and more precisely music) have often been associated with space. In 1957, aside freaking out the Americans, Sputnik 1 produced one of the most famous sounds in the world and the first one manmade in orbit. This « beep » launched the space conquest, which quickly became an inspiration for many bands. Meanwhile during the late sixties, the electronic notes of Robert Moog’s first synthesizers started being frequently connected with outer space. (I recommend you this short article from the sociologist Trevor Pinch : Space is the Place, The Electronic Sounds of Inner and Outer Space.) “

That’s all for this morning. Thanks for listening and much gratitude to Fragrance. for being our guest this week, and to Pierre-Julien Fieux for this episode’s illustration!