Sit up and listen

Emilie Simon has an electronic arm. It's a home-made instrument she uses to alter her vocals, built for her by a friend, Cyrille Brissot. Fully possessed of all actual limbs, the Montpellier-born electro-pop chanteuse maintains that the appendage, which she straps to her wrist during live performances to control her computer remotely, is 'part of me now'. It's the sort of unselfconscious quirk you learn to expect from Simon, who combines low-key eccentricity with an intelligent and unshakable commitment to her art. As she'll show with an intimate gig at Grappa's Cellar on September 25, she's the kind of young musician for whom fame is a by-product. For seven years, she has been happy bubbling just below the surface of the general consciousness. That, by most predictions, is about to change. Raised in southern France, Simon released her eponymous debut in 2003. Her rich vocals and experimental soundscapes made French music critics sit up and listen. The EP went on to be named album of the year at the prestigious Victoires de la Musique awards. Shortly after her win, documentary filmmaker Luc Jacquet asked Simon to compose the score for his La Marche de l'Empereur (March of the Penguins)), which follows the astonishing yearly journey of Antarctica's emperor penguins. For his work, Jacquet collected the 2005 Academy Award for best documentary feature. The film's release and extraordinary popular success (the English-language version is narrated by Morgan Freeman) was a turning point for Simon, whose haunting music provided no small part of the documentary's emotional clout. She earned her second Victoires de la Musique award for best original soundtrack in 2006. The same year, the multilingual artist made her American debut with The Flower Book - a compilation of her first three albums (including third studio-release Vegetal, for which she used sound samples from real plants) and live material from her breakthrough US tour. It was on that tour that Simon first performed in New York City, where she now lives. Her latest album, The Big Machine, a faster-paced, more accessible project that enlisted members of Arcade Fire and a children's choir as collaborators, is based on her three years in the metropolis. It is written entirely in her second language. 'It was very natural to me to start singing in English,' Simon says. 'There have always been English songs in my work, but living in New York, being surrounded by [American] culture and speaking English every day has had a new impact: this album is all in English. It was not a choice. It was just that life gave me that path. 'I decided on [The Big Machine's] direction and wrote most of the songs in New York. It helps creativity to get out of your comfort zone. It was a long process, inspired by the experience of moving from my country and arriving in a very electric place: how do you adjust, how do you make your everyday life work? How do you react to a different context?' Her relocation was impulsive. 'I went on vacation without planning to move. I loved New York right away. I was crazy about the city. I felt very comfortable and very curious there. I pushed my return flight until the point when I thought, 'Well, I don't want to return.'' She rented her first apartment in Chinatown, on the Lower East Side. The brew of cultures there made a profound impression on Simon, who as a result mixed samples of traditional Chinese instruments with synthesisers to produce tracks Chinatown and Dreamland. In general, the singer says, The Big Machine moves away from the more poetic nature of her previous work. 'It's about balancing the dark side [of my music] with an uplifting, energetic and positive side.' As well as inviting Arcade Fire's Kelly Pratt, and John Natchez of indie-folk band Beirut, to organise the dark brass fanfare for opening track Rainbow, Simon also collaborated with English science fiction writer Graham Joyce on lyrics and relied on sound engineer Mark Plati, who worked with David Bowie, to realise her vision. 'I was the captain of the boat,' Simon says, 'but a lot of other people were important for the final product.' The Space Oddity showman has left a clear mark on Simon's album, alongside inspirations Kate Bush and Peter Gabriel. The Big Machine owes a lot to 1980s pop, but it's a mixed bag. Rocket to the Moon, co-written with Scandinavian singer-songwriter Teitur, is an unexpected nod to cabaret. Partly recorded in Jimi Hendrix's legendary Electric Lady Studios (which, incidentally, marked its 40th anniversary in August), The Big Machine was the result of a challenging creative process during which Simon banned herself from programming sounds. Before starting work on the album, she explains, 'I wanted to know where I was. It's like food. You go on a diet to clean the system. It's the same with music. I would be lying if I told you I didn't play any instruments. I can't not play, that's for sure. But the only way I could have found the sound I was looking for was to stay away from the computer for a while.' On her previous albums, Simon wrote songs directly on her laptop. So the electronic elements of her music were part of the creation early on. This time, she wanted to approach her work in a purer way. 'I brought the computer in when I thought the songs were mature enough to stand by themselves,' she explains, 'so the electronics came in as the colour, not the bones.' The bones are her vocals. Simon's voice is high, expressive and full of grace, the glowing product of a focused development from natural gift to trained instrument. 'From the first album I liked the idea that the vocals were an instrument,' she says. 'The most important thing was the song, and the balance between each arrangement. For me the vocals are naturally the centre, because they're saying something.' Her new album is special because it represents a landmark in the way Simon uses her voice. 'I hadn't pushed it that way or that much before. I had things to say that I wanted to sing in a more ornamented way. I wanted to play around with the vocals. Sometimes you're in a cocoon and things are happening inside, like my first album, and sometimes you want to break it and be outside and that's The Big Machine.' The title, she says, is open to interpretation. It might represent the heart of a hectic metropolis, or it might be a reference to the music industry at large. What's not up for grabs is Simon's connection to what she does. You get the feeling that if you ask her why she sings, she'll reply that she has to. Instead, she says: 'Writing songs is my balance. It's my way of being.' Emilie Simon, Sat, 8pm, Grappa's Cellar, B/F Jardine House, 1 Connaught Rd, Central, HK$300 (advance), HK$320 (door). Inquiries: info@thepeoplesparty.tv