I:Cube live au Forum des Halles, Paris, 18 Mai 2019.

A few words by I:Cube.
I've always been collecting records—for the pure essence of music, of course, as a sound source for sampling, for my DJ sets in various clubs, and, not to forget, for the weird and captivating album covers.
During my teenage years, I had a unique Saturday tradition. I would explore Parisian public libraries in search of unknown records to feed my sampler.
Records were expensive, and without the internet, apart from the radio, this was my way of discovering new music and refining my musical taste.

Fast forward more than three decades, a serendipitous encounter took place with Damien Poncet, a cultural mediator who works at the Médiathèque Musicale de Paris. This remarkable institution boasts an impressive collection of over 100,000 records.
Following an extensive conversation, a captivating idea emerged: to craft a musical composition using samples from this vast vinyl archive.
The grand stage selected for this daring concert? None other than the iconic Forum des Halles, located in the heart of a historic Parisian district. Once renowned as Paris' largest food market, bearing the moniker "le ventre de Paris," the Forum des Halles underwent a transformation into a massive shopping center in the early 1980s.

Performing this diverse and otherworldly musical blend live at the very core of this consumer paradise was also an immense source of enjoyment and highly surreal.
The concert was open to all, inviting anyone passing by to join in and listen.
This project was a golden opportunity to pay tribute to Paris's public libraries in a place rich with history and full of personal memories.

Music written, produced and performed by Nicolas Chaix.