Skygge

Skygge is a French-based MusicAL duo consisting of lead French songwriter and producer Benoit Carre and artificial intelligent composer Flow-Machines, which is engineered and handled by Francois Pachet. The both of them are currently working on their debut album, under the title “Hello World”, expected to be released in 2018.

Background

SKYGGE means shadow in Danish, the language of the writer Hans Christian Andersen, and Skygge is the title of one of his fairy tales, less known than his other fairy tale ‘The Little Mermaid’.

SKYGGE is the story of metamorphoses: from music to data, from neuron networks to musical notes, and from a scientific project to a pop-music album. Benoit Carré, composer, author and producer, shares with François Pachet, director of the Flow-Machines project, the same taste for melodic, harmonic and timbral twists, that make pop songs catchy and compelling.

Each of them with their own angle, these two friends explore creative sparks. One wants to capture them, the other one wants to provoke them. Benoit Carré makes songs for French stars like Françoise Hardy, Michel Sardou or Imany, and produces his own. His attraction to machines started in a dream he had as a child that never left him. Seduced by the Flow Machines project, he regularly visits François Pachet and his team. He plays with the technology they have, spends lots of time on it and starts composing a song “in the style of” The Beatles (because The Beatles had everything that make a song so fascinating). This is how ‘Daddy’s Car’, which is a solo song of Benoit's, started buzzing on the Web in September 2016.

This song was a first attempt, a style performance. While he was exploring the technology, Benoit Carré remembered Andersen’s tale, ‘The Shadow’. Symbols and poetry were gathered in one work matching with his discoveries. This shadow is also embodied by Flow-Machines from which emerges a new musical language. You should pay attention to hear its beauty.

‘Ballad Of The Shadow’ was the first original song of SKYGGE, known back then by their names Benoit Carré & Flow-Machines. This is a song with a voice as flexible as a reflection in a mirror, it will take various forms through the album. SKYGGE then opened the Flow-Machines studio to other artists. He wanted his experience to be collective and iconoclastic.

This is how big artists like Stromae, Kiesza, Kyrie Kristmanson, C.Duncan, Camille Bertault, Mederic Collignon, NZCA Lines, … had the desire and the curiosity to meet with Flow-Machines. They composed, wrote, sang, always keeping their artistic freedom, with the challenge to create amazing songs. SKYGGE has guided them in this experience. He saw them, like he was at first, fascinated, amused and disturbed by the music of Flow-Machines.

Flow-Machines is a new way of doing and exploring the creative process, paying more attention to the essence of music using the fantastic power of artificial intelligence.

Career

Skygge released their first official song as a duo under their own names, entitled "Mr. Shadow" back in 2016 and began to experiment as a duo, producing a lot of solo material.

Then, on 1 December 2017, they released their breakthrough single, entitled "Hello Shadow", featuring vocals from British singer and songwriter Kiesza. This was released alongside the single's side-B, entitled "In The House of Poetry", featuring upcoming musician Kyrie Kristmanson. Moments after, the duo announced their debut album, under the title "Hello World", revealing the release date set for January 2018. They also announced that the bulkhead of the album will be produced by Skygge, alongside Christine and the Queens affiliate Ash Workman and that each track will have a featured artist.

Discography

Studio albums

• Hello World (2018)

Singles

• "Hello Shadow" (2017)
• "In The House of Poetry" (2017)