Retriever
Memory Lapse
Mental Tattoo
Live
Purple
Retriever, or the fantasy of the Beach Boys’ West Coast and cool jazz revisited through a French touch 2.0 lens. That’s one way to describe the universe of this trio (Fr–Swe–Be) who compose, arrange and produce all of their music themselves. A true lesson in pop: airy, elegant and deeply cinematic. Vintage sound textures, subtly jazzy harmonies and contemplative atmospheres… Paradoxically, Retriever evokes the vertigo of wide open spaces while providing the comfort of a reassuring cocoon. It is precisely these contrasts that give the band its distinctive signature. Likewise—and this is precious—the group’s influences are never explicit. It is up to each listener to recognize echoes of Bryan Ferry or David Sylvian’s elegance, the modern pop melancholy of the Canadian trio Men I Trust, or the electronic components of the French touch. From the immediate and deeply cinematic single Purple (3M views on YouTube) to Jaguars, via Air or the perfectly sunlit single Murmur, an intoxicating and rare fragrance emerges—one that belongs to music living at the crossroads of sophistication and simplicity, exploration and discovery, risk and comfort. Retriever as a pop ideal.
