Maud Geffray Ad Astra

In 2017, with the release of her first album Polaar, Maud Geffray – half of duet Scratch Massive – took a sidestep and imposed a fascinating, floating, melancholic and elegiac solo output.

Written, started, and finished within the last two years, and co-produced alongside young prodigy Krampf, Ad Astra is the logical continuation of Polaar, but much more pop, light, luminous, open to the world.

From ‘Break’, the first single, with its whipping beat, its undertaken Eurodance chorus and distorted vocals, to ‘I Fall at Five’, a sad electropop banger featuring Rebeka Warrior – from ‘All Around Me’, the opening track with its repetitive synth, edgy vocals and chilling melancholy, to ‘Fallin’, an extremely minimal song with harrowing piano and liturgic vocals – from ‘Don’t Need’, a sunny dance hit à la Pet Shop Boys, to ‘Royal Bellies’, a futuristic rnb featuring Koudlam – Maud Geffray is emerging from her cocoon with a new milestone in her singular and bewitching musical world.

Ad Astra is an electronic album without any complexes. Its beats are more asserted and dancey, its pads are erected like cathedrals, its vocals, while pitched and processed, are spotlighted, and references to 90s dance abound. Ad Astra switches from experimental to commercial with the same ease, the poppier bias shines throughout the danceable, exhilarating songs, as well as the more nostalgic and contemplative numbers, all the while bursting with energy and melancholy, youth and innocence, as if hanging suspended on the dancefloor.