The recording project of Montreal-based duo Adèle Trottier-Rivard and Nicolas Basque, Bibi Club describe their sound as “living room party music.” Taken from their self-titled debut EP, single ‘Jean-René’ serves as a great introduction as to what exactly this means. Despite using synths and shimmering keyboards, the track maintains a certain modesty, as though in humble restraint lies the truth of the human experience.
The song is inspired by a person who shaped Basque as a teenager, introducing him to bands like Suicide, Sonic Youth and The Melvins and inadvertently influencing the direction he took as a person and a musician. Unfortunately, the person was troubled, sabotaging relationships and refusing help despite the best efforts of those around him.
Visual artist Mégane Voghell used footage filmed by Basque’s son to create a video for the track. “I liked the the idea of working with simple gestures and assemblages—putting together a sort of diary of teenagehood, not by producing images coming from my idea of it, but by using the very ones that are produced by kids these days,” she explains. “I like that the structure’s simplicity leads the way to the core of how fun or boring a teenager’s life can be.”
Basque’s son was born just five days after the death of the person who inspired the track, and with this in mind the footage takes on a newly poignant quality. “I feel like this video succeeds in mirroring a part of Adèle and Nico’s life and work through its sincerity and intimacy,” Voghell continues, something made apparent as the track progresses and sounds from the video clips bleed into the song.
Bibi Club EP is out now and you can get it from the Bibi Club Bandcamp page.
Album artwork by Mégane Voghell