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PELICAN, premier album disponible !
Jason Glasser is an American musician, artist, painter, sculptor and video maker who
has been living in Paris since falling in love with a French woman years ago. He’s
taken his time to release his debut solo album under his own name, after his first
forays into music with the New York band Clem Snide, and under the moniker
Fruitkey on this side of the Atlantic.
Although the 12 songs on Pelican were recorded in just two days at Spookland
Studios in Paris in 2020, they were actually written and composed over a period of
10 years, tested and fine-tuned at exhibition openings for his artwork.
In 2015, Jason Glasser teamed up with his friend Étienne de Crécy (pioneer of the
late 90s French Touch electronic music scene with Super Discount) to release New
Wave, a sunny track flitting between surf music and electro pop, co-written and sung
by Jason. “Recording with Étienne transformed my approach to singing.” Jason no
longer hides his natural voice. On Pelican, he accompanies himself on cello backed
with drums, trumpet and Buchla analogue synthesiser by pop activist Jérôme
Lorichon, one third of the Parisian band Zombie Zombie.
Having seen Jason’s acoustic gigs at art galleries and heard his more reworked and
rearranged studio versions, Étienne suggested to radically mix his magnificent
miniatures (which all last less than three-and-a-half minutes). Convinced of their
simple beauty, he wanted to take them back to basics and strip away the
arrangements to get to their naked essence. Jason gave Étienne's artistic vision the
green light, which is pushed to the extreme during the full 100 seconds of Anthem,
where the vocals completely dispense with the original accompanying music. From
the opener Cannibals to the closing track Just Visiting, the gamble has paid off.
Bouncing, the beautiful declaration of love, and Mi Oh My with backing vocals from
Madame Glasser herself, (whom he doesn’t give up on the idea that she’ll one day
make her own record…) are some of the various odes to married life on the record.
Meanwhile, Person is an exercise in style worthy of a soothing Springsteen, and
Sweetheart features mantric cellos and surprising backing vocals by Anissa
Bahraoui. Blue borders on jazz, The War which, despite its title, has less to do with
current events than with the empty and absurd aspect of modern daily life in Western
society, Hunter's Heart and the catchy single Good Luck have an element of mystery.
The album’s title Pelican is in reference to the nickname given to Jason by his friend
Alexandre Courtès. It was only logical that he asked Alex to design the cover. With
his good sense of humour, Jason accepts the Pelican comparison: every time he
wants to tell a story, his oft-hesitant French makes him stumble on the first words,
making you expect the worst, before the magic happens and he whisks his listeners
away, the story or the song winning you over. Jason Glasser may recount his tales in
a ramshackle way, but he always reaches his destination.
