Music: 'Easy' pop with Mai Lan

From a family of multi-disciplinary artists who thrive on being open to the world, Mai Lan has always been immersed in a universe of multiple facets. Daughter of the famous designer Kiki Picasso (member of the Bazooka collective) and a Vietnamese mother, the artist collaborates with her Kim Chapiron, her brother, on the soundtrack for the film Sheitan (released back in 2007 in the UK). With a mesmerising voice of innocence contrasts with the harder lyrics, creating an adult lullaby with a dark meaning that is hardly implict, while her childish voice lightens the mood.

Released 10 September, her first album, simply titled Mai Lan, is a compendium of a range of types of folk music; as well as more post-punk melodies with hip hop undertones . The young artist combines the eccentricity of Wes Anderson and the strangeness of Tim Burton, biting its thumb at reality creating a dreamlike journey. This patchwork sung in French, brings together 11 tracks, 11 stories, simultaneously fun and optimistic, with rhymes tinged with poetic surrealism directly inspired by Boris Vian all with a hypnotic dimension. More than an album, Mai Lan opens the doors to her studio, a real cabinet of curiosities exuding a sweet scent of the quest for the absolute. As for the album cover, it recalls the treasure trove that was found in French writer and poet of the surreal, André Breton's office and sums up exactly the world of the young artist.