2024-05-13

RB128

Love Is All I Need

Born at the end of the 80s in Bastia, Corsica, François Dagregorio alias "Valerj" comes from a generation in which long formats occupy a special place in the discographies of electronic music artists. It was with this in mind that the production of "Le début du beau", Valerj's debut album, began: an almost fantastical desire to show something more intimate, to tell a story, perhaps his own story.
A child of dance music, dj since the age of 16, in the space of just three ep's Valerj's productions have already toured the world, appearing in the sets of major players on the dark disco / indie dance scene such as Jennifer Cardini, Curses, Perel and Modular Project. Always keen to collaborate and exchange ideas, since 2022 he has
also crossed paths with renowned artists such as Damon Jee, Roe Deers, Amarcord and Joe Lewandowski on remixes.
Despite his obvious affinity with the dark disco scene, which is still very active today, the artist has chosen a completely different path for this "debut album", reconnecting with influences that are much more house, ambient and electro.
Metro Area, Dj Koze, Boards of Canada, Nina Kraviz, Anthony Rother, Miss Kittin & The Hacker, Jimmy Edgar - the list of heroes could go on and on, but that's not the point. Avoiding the trap of the "dancefloor compilation", offering music that can be
heard everywhere but heard nowhere before, that is the "ambitious ambition" of this eight-track collection: music that "speaks", that speaks of love, that speaks of the night, music that dances, that dances as well as lives.
In today's fast-paced world, "Le début du beau" is an attempt to give us time, by offering us a signposted route, a 47-minute guided loop that asks questions - universal questions about our ability to get back on our feet, our ability to remain hopeful, questions about our ability to give love, to give love and to receive it.
"Le début du beau" is an object, an object to be listened to in its entirety, an object to be revisited several times to better understand it, to better apprehend it, a nostalgic object that pays tribute to those records that sometimes change our lives
through their singularity, their ability to resonate with a moment, an era in our lives.

2024-05-13

Ilka Onisim