"Superbe!"
Vibrations

"Un véritable objet d'art"
Magic

"This album is going to be a fixture on many year-end best-of lists"
Alex Gibon - Fluid-Radio -

"Ce disque marque une étape dans la carrière d’un musicien précieux"
Benoit Richard - Hop Blog -

About "Oldman"

« Oldman » is a work by Charles-Eric Charrier commissioned by the label Joint Venture Records – a commission made for our own pleasure, motivated by a deep desire to listen to Charles-Eric’s music presented in the most simple, and most profound manner. The idea took shape after having worked on different projects together: the CD “Gold & Wax” by Lokka which he produced, “Stay Gold” and “Two Head Bis Bis” in which some of us participated, and “Koïma” by Sidi Touré, where Charles-Eric accompanies the guitarist from Mali on the bass. The principle: to record an acoustic album with his favorite instrument, the bass, in basic conditions: a chair in the middle of a room, some mikes and one single day of recording; all this to aim at the purest sound, explaining as little as possible while plunging into one’s deepest self.

From this recording session evolved an album that is simple, intimate and sober, with Charles-Eric’s grating voice in evidence, somewhere between instrumental folk and popular tale, African blues and haïku, “chanson française” and contemporary music.
It does not matter what style, what label might be applied to define the music: Charles-Eric Charrier goes beyond the genres, does not recognize boundaries, mixes the metaphors and this time around, more than usual, brings his melodies to the fore. That’s also the comment of Covalesky, who produced the recording: “It was a pleasure to work on this melodic side which he rarely exposes – to aim for the essential, for the heart of his music, and to expose his talent as a composer, a songwriter".

The more so since the music, the words, sometimes spoken, sometimes murmured, follow this uncluttered path. No psychological introspection or holiday shots; Charles-Eric Charrier has looked back on his past and has assembled memories and sensations, those that have stayed inside through their intensity and their perfect state. Just perceptions, no intellect, just the present instant, without explanation, a voyage of the senses to his home town, Les Sables d’Olonnes, a fishing port in the Vendée region of France which has become a holiday resort. In the music as in the words you can hear the sea, the life at the port, the ocean winds, the boats that sway on the water, the wood cracking; you see the sun, the hot sand, the forms of a woman, you smell the freshly cut grass, the sea before the storm. Everything is in suspense.

While he composed and recorded the tracks, Charles-Eric has created drawings, some of which have been coloured by his wife, Béatrice Templé. Rather than being an illustration of the music, this is a second path, complementary to the album, another possibility, a digression, all in roundness, in curves, in simple lines.

The album is on release including a booklet of 24 pages with drawings and the lyrics of Charles-Eric, printed by the Dutch company Extrapool on an a stencil machine. It also exists in a "low cost" version (CD and cover, without booklet) for those that need to pay attention to their expenditure. The release will coincide with a concert on April 22 at the Pannonica in Nantes,  where Charles-Eric will be joined by Cyril Secq on guitar and Covalesky on percussion.

Biography

Charles-Eric Charrier is one of those musicians for whom it is difficult to sum up the career process with just a few lines; there are curves, digressions, great jumps,doubts, daring… Since his beginnings with Dreta Lorelie, he has never ceased to explore new horizons, to open up to the world, to look behind the scenes, to question his music, and music in general -  and thanks to all this, he has drawn the map of his inner world. We will avoid talking about rock, jazz, ambient, contemporary music, post this and that, we would be worried to lack certain labels… ! Charles-Eric is not an instrumentalist in the strict sense of the term. Obviously, the bass is central in his music, but neither in terms of a display of technical skills, nor in terms of musical theory, or through notes in excessive quantities; he rather searches for the perfect line between improvisation and composed music; depending on the context.

« I am trying to be simple, but not simplistic ». That bass is at the service of a musical creation, of a certain sound, of a whole, but it is, above all, the means to put forward music in which the musician is not on the forefront, like these Songhaï dancers of Holley who, once they have reached the state of trance, will become the “horses of the genies”, through them, despite of them, something bigger expresses itself over which they have no control. “Before, I made “intellectual music” -  I twisted and bent it to express something psychological, emotional. Since “Two Heads Bis Bis”, I am at the service of something that surpasses me (…). The challenge is to open oneself and to let the music come out.”

MAN, Charles C. Oldman, Oldman are the leftovers from the past, successive stages of metamorphosis, of change. Today, he signs his recordings in his own name, a sign that a new threshhold has been crossed. Is the story closed? No, the journey does not appear to have come to an end...


Collaborations

Sidi Touré "Koïma" (Thrill Jockey, soon), Lena & The Floating Root Orchestra (Plush, 2008), Rob Mazurek, The Clogs, Rhys Chatham, Jérôme Paressant "Under the House" (Oceanik Creations, 2009),...


Selective discography   

Charles-Eric Charrier "Silver" (Experimedia, 2011)
Oldman "Two Head Bis Bis" (Low Impedance, 2008)
Oldman "Son, father and son" (Arbouse Recording, 2008)
M.A.N. "Helping Hand" (Sub Rosa, 2009)