The Offline unleashes villainous theme, 'Cap Camarat'
Returning with another cinematic gem, The Offline reveals ‘Cap Camarat’, the second album from his forthcoming debut album ‘La couleur de la mer’.
Watch the music video + order the LP below.
Dramatic horns and decorative flutes open proceedings, picking up the story where lead single ‘La mission commence’ left off. The Offline sets an off-kilter tone, with the composition creeping along, painting a mysterious picture of fog-swept, silhouetted manors, and sailing boats off the coast of Cap Camarat. It continues the records’ cinematic journey, blending MF Doom-style spectacle with delicate arranging.
“Cap Camarat was one of the last tracks I wrote for the album. I guess it started off with a drum groove from an old funk record as a foundation, then we added guitar and bass and all other instruments while playing along the beat. After the demo was set every instrument was recorded again in different studios.”
Reminiscent of film scores from the 60s and 70s, The Offline worked with co-producer Tim Liztenberger to channel the influence of film composers such as Francois de Roubaix and Brian Bennet, creating his own soundtrack on ‘La couleur de la mer’. Inducing images of manorial, fog-swept villas at the sea's edge, silhouetted sailing boats and cigar-chomping villains attempting to thwart the mission of an imaginary hero, the record is a masterfully composed sonic journey. Experimenting with themes and atypical song structures, the music moves from dramatic cues to fragile romanticism. It incorporates psychedelic spaciness, retro soul and hip-hop sensibilities informed by The Offline’s extensive record collection and crate-digger status.
“Ever since I was a child, I was fascinated by the soundtracks from the 60s and 70s, and I always wanted to make an album in the film score direction. I wrote about 30 demos, kicked half of it and stuck to the ones that felt right in the dramaturgical structure of the ‘movie'. Interestingly the main theme was set really early on while writing the album, which made the writing process much easier.”
Aptly named, ‘Thème de la couleur de la mer’ opens proceedings, establishing the core motifs of the record. Haunting flutes and xylophones lead the way into Khruangbin-esque guitar lines, which sit against a hip-hop canvas that returns on boom-bap head boppers like ‘Quelque chose reste’. Retro soul revival takes precedence on deep cuts like ‘Un bout de chemin’, with wah-gated guitars interacting with emotive cello lines and symphonic string & horn sections.
The Offline came to life when composer and photographer Felix Müller travelled the Atlantic coastline in the south of France with his analogue camera, capturing beach life on film. After coming back to Hamburg, he started writing songs as the sonic counterpart to the analogue visuals. His Debut EP ‘En Clair-Obscur’ includes five tracks that capture the essence of his journey and the feeling of a cool summer soundtrack.