Every year since 1983, Art Rock combines the best of artistic production, with a strong emphasis on multidisciplinarity. Founded by a passionate couple, Jean-Michel Boinet and Marie Lostys, the event has become a sure value on the festival calendar. Every Pentecost weekend, the town of Saint-Brieuc comes alive with multiple offerings.
Saturday night, on the big stage, the crowd only had eyes for Zaho de Sagazan. Awarded three Victoires de la Musique last February, the Nantaise released La symphonie des éclairs, a remarkable first album, in the spring of 2023. Between French song and electro, Zaho de Sagazan has carved out a special place for himself in the landscape. After filling the Zénith in Paris a few weeks ago, the artist is traveling the festival stages with great enthusiasm. It will be essential this summer.
It was a good twenty minutes late than the scheduled time that the twenty-year-old took the stage. Dressed in a black cycling top, she sets off like an athlete. She is far from the shy young woman that we discovered a few years ago, with only a handful of songs in her repertoire. The scenography is made up of an assembly of quite stylish steel structures, within which four accompanists who she describes as “friends” operate: two keyboard players with impressive arsenals, and two percussionists.
Composing an intriguing stage personality, the singer, invigorating and quite radical, delivers a new set. We can doubt the choice of performing an average song like The Last of the Voyages in second position, but the young woman comes out of it with a pirouette. “This one’s not on the album but we’re going to play it anyway.” Guts and audacity, Zaho has it in spades. Last year, she already performed as part of this festival, but on a smaller stage.
This time, she is the undisputed queen of the evening. “I have a great capacity for imagination when it comes to love,” she says. “I’m 24 but I never knew him.” She made it the central theme of her excellent songs. His mastery is impressive. A very good singer, she knows how to balance her effects, from an intimate confession on the piano to techno exuberance. The intensity increases throughout an entire show devoted to music. Of great modernity, Zaho de Sagazan shows true savagery. She is capable of conveying stylistic daring in songs that leave no one behind. Nice feat. We don’t see anyone in the landscape capable of taking the audience into an electro trance with such personal lyrics. With Zaho de Sagazan, this never comes from the splits. It is with great finesse that the singer and her musicians increase the pressure. “It’s time to wake up and sweat a little,” she tells the audience. “There’s going to be kick on all beats now.”
A cult piece, his symphony of lightning is taken up loudly by the audience, white-hot. It feels like a Berlin techno club. She chants “Hab sex mit mir (make love with me in the language of Goethe)” with beautiful conviction. “Dance, dance, it’s time to dance, go ahead, let go Saint-Brieuc”… After having wet the swimsuit for an hour and a half, the singer does not seem ready to leave the stage. She announces a new song before changing her mind. “I’m sorry, we won’t be able to continue. “I’m not the one who makes the rules,” she says disappointed. In a parallel world, Zaho de Sagazan will have played all night. Great artist, great concert.