Icare - Charogne - DOUBLE LP GATEFOLD

“Charogne” is Icare’s second album. Whereas the first one wasn’t meant to be performed live ever, “Charogne” was actually conceived with the opposite idea. It was then totally logical that his recording would be done as “live” as possible.

The whole album is a tribue to Charles Baudelaire’s poem “Une Charogne”. It’s actually some sort of musical adaption of it. Composition process has been largely inspired by Baudelaire’s text, confering the music his contrasted character by alternating tumultuous and contemplatives parts.

The artwork is made of two photographs taken at Charles-Rodolphe Spillmann’s “Salon Bleu”. The “Art nouveau” style of this typical place from La Chaux-de-Fonds (Switzerland) matches the album’s music as well as the atmosphere from Charles Baudelaire’s time. Plus, it’s also the city of origin of the band.

The choice of using Memento Mori’s symbolic is justified by the fact that Baudelaire’s poem is illustrating it quite obviously. Meaning “Remember that you’re going to die”, this latin’s locution evoking life’s vainness is like a common thread in “Charogne” music. Sometimes loud and implacable, sometimes cold and vulnerable, it always strives to remind human being’s tremendous helplessness towards the vacuity of existence.