Stay with the bizarre: Marie Davidson’s favorite books

Marie Davidson takes us through 13 of her favorite books, taking science fiction, economics, meditation, Miles Davis and the main inspirations of her new city of Clowns LP

You would be forgiven to think that you were about to hear a soundtrack from a science fiction film, to play on the first piece of Marie Davidson’s new album CLOWNS CITY. The creation of a dystopian world – a “human hive” seems to be in progress. The walls of the synth fall and are rebuilt, the instruments and the machines work in apparent harmony, and all in time, there is a feeling that a greater and larger force is at work. “You walk with certainty, like smart machines,” recites Davidson, while his familiar Quebecer opposes the generic voice of the AI ​​dispection text tool of Amazon. “You learn to sacrifice your freedom for collective knowledge imposed by others and for their guaranteed results. The progress of the third modernity offered by surveillance capital is the response to the quest for an effective life together. »»

These words are an extract glued to the disturbing volume of Shoshana Zuboff 2019 The age of surveillance capitalism: Davidson’s Baker’s Dozen’s first book. “The passage explains what we have sacrificed for the idea of ​​progress with artificial intelligence and algorithmic predictions,” explains Davidson. “I changed the” we “to” you “, so it’s as if the machine, the AI, speaks to us.”

Unsurprisingly, many books that follow on his list are either openly science fiction or in one way or another relate to favorite concerns of the genre: technology, economics, environment, future of humanity. CLOWNS CITY Repercussions with references to AI, human verification captors and data markets, perfectly underlined by the minimum and usual hard -style electronic style of Davidson, the one who defined his 2018 album Working class.

What is different CLOWNS CITYHowever, is that Davidson co -produced the album with his longtime collaborator and his mixing engineer – and her husband – Pierre Guerineau, with David and Stephen Dewaele de Soulwax. The Remix of the Dewaele brothers of Davidson 2018’s single work, he became a must-have in Dancefloor, while Davidson and Guerineau worked together for the last time in 2020 as part of his group of all-but-Club Music. “I failed to work with other people,” says Davidson. “I asked if Pierre wanted to co -produce because he is good and likes pop structures and melodic ideas. `Fun Times ” was the first song I asked him to co -produce and he turned out to be so great that we decided to co -produce the whole album. A year later, I decided to work with Deewee (the label founded by Soulwax). We went to Ghent several times and worked with Dave and Stephen in the Deewe Studio. It was a long evolution and a long process of many chapters in the manufacture of the album, which is new to me. »»

The final product is a record made for sweaty basements, for humanity to its most noisy and happiest and released. Davidson wants “all your asses on the ground”, especially during the propulsion almost as a Madonna of “Pleasure Time” and the “opposite” acid. “I was back making music after a while and I intended to have fun. I wanted to do something energy, ”she says. She had also recently taken behind the terraces. “It was when I started Djing for real, professionally, not only by playing tracks, that I had the wheel of making an album. It was the reading mixture Surveillance of capitalism at the same time as the start of the DJ. »»

The album merges heavy intellectual concepts with an unhindered emotion, an approach reflected in its choice of books. In addition to the treaties on technology and the economy, there are books on psyche, femininity and music, books that celebrate the most raw and grumpy parts of what is human. In a similar way, CLOWNS CITY Built a dystopia, then wakes up powerfully against her. This city is a place for lust and sweat and humor and unsuitable. “Don’t be fooled / I’m not so cool,” Winks Davidson. “I stick to the crazy people.”

Marie Davidson’s new album, City of Clowns, is released on February 28 via Deewee / because music. To start reading his dozen bakers, click on “First selection” below