M83

For Anthony Gonzalez, the mastermind behind M83, I Wrote You a Letter is a return to instinct: a desire to rediscover the immediacy of M83’s earliest work, the bedroom recordings, the imperfections, the freedom of creating without expectation. Twenty-five years after M83 first emerged from the south of France, that impulse feels surprisingly radical. The soaring emotional architecture of Saturdays = Youth. The platinum success of Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming and its enduring centrepiece, Midnight City. From Oblivion to Cirque du Soleil’s VOLTA, few artists have built such an expansive universe while remaining so immediately recognisable. Yet beneath M83’s monumental sound something quieter has always lived. I Wrote You a Letter inhabits that space completely. What begins with walls of guitars gradually unfolds into an album of shadowy electronics, ambient passages and fractured pop forms. ‘This record reflects my state of mind over the past few years,’ Gonzalez says. ‘I wanted something less calculated, more spontaneous. More punk, in a way.’ The record marks the return of Benoît de Villeneuve, whose history with M83 stretches back to Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts, while Jean-Philippe Talaga, M83’s first designer and founder of Gooom, created the artwork. I Wrote You a Letter evokes an older form of communication: deliberate, private and deeply personal. That has always been the quiet promise at the heart of M83’s music. Twenty-five years on, it remains intact.