In the wake of their new album La fin de l’économie (‘The end of Economy’), Aquaserge are releasing an EP featuring a cover of a song by the great Robert Wyatt, one of the band’s major inspirations.

Aquaserge’s version of N.I.O. (New Information Order), off Wyatt’s Dondestan album, comes with French lyrics written by the band. Also included is a new song, Escalade (‘climbing’, or ‘escalation’).

The EP sees the band further display their love for allegoric music, non-visual films, ostinatos, format-free songs, and keep spinning the thread of their socio-poetical ideas.
 
Aquaserge got in touch with Robert Wyatt to present their cover version project, here’s a loose transcript of their phone conversation:

"— Allo Robert, what do you think of our adaptation of the lyrics for N.I.O?
— You’ve perfectly understood the spirit of the song which, for me, is even more relevant today than when I wrote it.
— The world is marvellous, isn’t it?
— Well… there’s an escalation in progress… Isn’t this a mantra which is comforting as much as it’s scaring?
—  indeed, le monde amer est feu *… "

(* From the lyrics of Escalade: ’The bitter world is on fire’, an approximate variation on ‘le monde est merveilleux’ (the world is marvellous), .

tracklist
1. N.I.O. (New Information Order) - music by Robert Wyatt, lyrics by Audrey Ginestet
2. Escalade  - music and lyrics by Aquaserge