Savary Nina - Next Level Soap Opera [VINYL]

The best advice one could give a happy wanderer in order to pinpoint Nina Savary's universe on a map would be to proceed by elimination. Look for the absence rather than where she actually is ; for her place of residency is in the exact opposite direction of a state of emergency. And if we will not indulge in a tired eulogy for idleness, sloth or rest, we can assure that the french singer, dancer and actress strives for avoiding the chaos of the world. « To go where or stay there I am rejected / To stay there and there or go where I project », she sings on « Par Millions », one of the tracks from her debut album Next Level Soap Opera. A song that feels both uprooted and in a need for a great escape sums it all up for Nina. One foot in, one foot out. In, because of her familial and social upbringing ; in many ways, Nina Savary could be considered a home-bred entertainer, always in her element. She made her start at la Scala in Milan at age 4, learned the ropes behind the scenes of theaters and went on tour at an early age with the « Grand Magic Circus », her parents' explosive and free theater company from the 70's. She's bonr into this, has always taken to the performing arts like a duck in the water. Out, because for a few years now, she thrives to produce music with friends, in closed circles, road companions like Eddy Crampes, Marker Starling, Laetitia Sadier, Julien Gasc, and more importantly her partner Astrobal, aka Emmanuel Mario, a producer, arranger and composer with whom she formed the band Institut and the project Vivre ! in 2020, along with Arnaud Dumatin. Next Level Soap Opera is the result of many years of friendship, encounters and collaborations. It is a record that displays her most sensitive and personal side, an open window on her closest relations and on herself, composed and written out of any external consideration. It deals with companionship and camaraderie, it is a close-knit society where each writes, composes, plays. Themes are personal and intimate though, they talk about love, doubts, and draw a certain idea of an utopia. Next Level Soap Opera is a sum of a debut album, it is an extension of Nina's past life, her affects, but also her way of emancipate from them. One learns from the other, in a tangle of french and english, past experiences and countries defined by oneself. A record that will speak to uprooted people within their homeland, to fans of Stereolab of course, but a record that filtrates Nina's artistic splitting through the curtains : there's bits of library music, atmospheres of Lewis Carroll, cinematic hints and surreal accounts. All shed light on a record that is both the result of her esthetics influences and the explosion of her practices. Utopia wouldn't happen without the place that birthed it. Lost in the Corbières in the South of France, the sheep farm where Next Level Soap Opera was recorded is at once a work and a living place, a place of residency, celebration, leisure and encounters. It is a home studio where many artists were recorded by Astrobal (who produces the record), an old family house where ghosts of the past come visit, but also an anchor where to recoup. It's where everything falls back into place, where DIY videos clips are made in a family way (the video of « second guessing » was directed by Nina's own cousin, Lucie Bourdeu), where daydreams are crafted carefully. There, listening to Next Level Soap Opera, we understand that Nina Savary wouldn't choose between the verse « Anywhere out of the world » by Baudelaire and the quote « There's no place like home » from The Wizard of Oz. She might actually operate on both levels.