The deluxe version of Le soleil et la mer, includes, as a bonus track, a re-recording of the moving “Jean-René," sung in English and originally featured on Bibi Club's self-titled EP.

Jean-René was part of Nico’s life as a teenager and helped him discover music that shaped and influenced who he is now as a musician and a person. Nico would go to his apartment and they would listen to Suicide, Sonic Youth, The Residents, The Melvins, Tuxedomoon, The Stooges, ESG, Television, Joy Division, Talking Heads. They would spend hours listening to records and talking about music. Jean-René was a drug addict and he struggled to shake off his addiction, to no avail. Following several tumultuous years, he sold his record collection, and the listening sessions ended. Five days after his death, Nico’s son Miro was born.

“This song is inspired by little Nico trying to save someone who is sick but wants to feel alive and doesn’t know how. It’s about being a teenager and the rite of passage to become an adult. It’s also inspired by the music and the feelings from those listening sessions with Jean-René.” - Bibi Club

Le soleil et la mer is the debut release by Bibi Club, aka real-life lovers Adèle Trottier-Rivard and Nicolas Basque. Adèle has been singing for others for years, notably with Nico’s band, Plants and Animals, but The sun and the sea stunningly and confidently reveals the extent of her skills. Bibi Club effortlessly moved from home to the stage, with infectiously easygoing, fun-loving charm. You can immediately feel this euphoria on the album, which quickly makes you forget about the worries of the daily grind. It’s summertime, come out and dance!

“I imagined kids playing in a chaotic city,” reveals Adele. “Left to their own devices, these children do what they can to work things out. The resourcefulness of children somewhat inspired the lyrics. We often underestimate it. Kids pay attention to what surrounds them, they’re aware of the actions taken by adults. In the song I imagine them at night, getting together in the trees while everyone is asleep. I also imagined them dancing in the dust. Then it’s suddenly morning, way too early. We have to wake up, along with the sun rising, again. Too early. The night was rocky, but we must get up, the children are calling. But always with this backdrop of the sun and the sea, the light, the beauty.”

The pair named themselves “Bibi Club” for the discotheque in their living room, where the couple’s bibis — their loved ones — come and dance. With kids at home, Nico and Adèle had to sneak away to make music: five minutes here, two hours there. Accordingly, their songs imagine that a family’s everyday enchantments might be loaned to the dancefloor, to the nighttime, to a place that’s still thumping as the day breaks. Throughout The sun and the sea, Adèle and Nico set out to create music that is intimate, honest, sparkling with an energy that animates even its quiet moments — and inspired by artists as diverse as Stereolab, Suicide, Alice Coltrane, and Tirzah. It’s a sound as ready for revels as it is for rainy days. Bibi Club will remind you: if it’s not sunny here, it’s sunny somewhere.

Bibi Club Le soleil et la mer