ArianeGroup x Pyramid: Musical encounter of the third kind 11-18-2019 |  2 minutes

ArianeGroup challenged the French artist and space enthusiast Pyramid to compose six tracks, in tribute to the six Ariane launchers, with help from Berlin-based artist Lucas Nätcher. Through the six tracks of the EP* (*Extended Play record format, between a single and an album), Pyramid revisits in his own inimitable way the European space dream, the “rocket science” spirit that drives its engineers, the whole Ariane adventure from the first Ariane 1 launch to the more than 100 launches of the emblematic Ariane 5, the benefits that the satellites launched by the rocket provide every day, and the future missions awaiting the new European launcher Ariane 6 – to the Moon and beyond.

This space universe and electronic music is a perfect fit for ArianeGroup. Electronic music made its debut, like Ariane, in the early 1970s, in the work of revolutionary artists such as German group Kraftwerk or French artist Jean-Michel Jarre, with sounds evoking the ambience of space and industry, and it is often linked to the world of space and science fiction. Its deeply-rooted French–German identity is another defining similarity with ArianeGroup.

The Pyramid EP will be released on vinyl in January 2020, and before that will be available on major digital music streaming platforms such as Spotify, Deezer, and Apple Music from November 22, 2019. Extracts will also be released through a Facebook Messenger lens. To accompany the release, sections from the EP and videos will be posted on social media; the videos include a clip which visually mixes the worlds of Pyramid and Ariane, particularly drawing on archived footage, and a “making-of”, explaining how the project came about. A competition to win the vinyl record will be organized in parallel.

Pyramid is one of the leading talents on the new French electronic music scene. Over the past few years he has been part of a cluster of star electro names which includes, notably, Busy P, Nekfeu, and Birdy Nam Nam, with whom he has collaborated. His inspirations derive from bands such as Daft Punk, Air, Boards of Canada, and Flying Lotus, signed by iconic labels Warp and Ninja Tune.