FLAvien berger at pitchfork music festival, paris

Words by Samantha Potter

At this years’ Pitchfork music festival in Paris, whilst there were some big names amongst the line up - including M.I.A and Chet Faker - these were mixed with an equal number of up-and-coming artists. The festival is held in the venue of the Grande Halle de la Villette, a space so vast that a sound check takes place on the stage at one side of the hall whilst an artist is playing at the other side. So when one act finishes, the crowd flocks to the stage at the other side as the next performance starts only minutes after the previous one finishes. With this layout, it’s impossible to miss any act at the festival unless you go out your way to do so, and thus, you find yourself watching live performances of artists you’d probably never otherwise see. For me, those unlikely artists included German band Brandt Brauer Frick, American rapper Joey Purp, and the eccentric singer-songwriter Bat For Lashes. 

But one in particular stood out, that of French electro-house artist Flavien Berger. As an electronic-based festival, upon seeing Flavien Berger’s mixing desk set-up, it seemed as though he’d be nothing too out of the ordinary. But as the only French act on the line-up, the crowd’s enthusiasm peaked to the highest I’d seen it as the 29 year-old Parisian walked on stage. After the first minute or so of relatively mundane beats, Berger broke into impactful Asian-sounding vocals, encapsulating the crowd as he sang into the microphone at the centre of his set-up. At the same time, with one hand on the mixing desk on his left and the other on that of the right, the crowd’s attention remained focused solely on Berger as his voice built in momentum. The split-second break between the vocals and the introduction of a beat with his left hand worked to break the suspense in the most effective way possible, making it difficult for any member of the audience to stand still as the beat reverberated throughout the venue.  The split-second of silence before the beat drop was a frequent feature throughout Berger’s performance, and despite being such a small and predictable thing, contributed a lot in terms of crowd reaction. 

As Flavien Berger progressed through his set playing mostly tracks from his 2015 album Leviathan, he built up a connection with the audience, chatting in between songs and altogether just coming across as a really nice guy. He seemed to be enjoying the performance as much as we were, dancing whilst managing the various technicalities and at times improvising with sounds. During crowd favourite La Fête Noire, he even interjected to say ‘merci’ to the technical guy who fixed his microphone stand. Despite the vast size of the venue, his charismatic stage presence created a kind of intimacy that was absent in so many other performances. The highlight of the set came with the track Trésor, where Berger managed to break the performer-audience barrier that no other act had achieved at the festival (with the exception of London band Shame, who aggressively sought to emulate a 70’s punk band with an episode of crowdsurfing). Berger jumped down from the stage and over the barrier into the crowd, walking straight through the middle whilst singing the mellow track with an extremely long-wired microphone. He got the whole audience to sit down, danced with everyone when the beat dropped, and slowly made his way back to the stage as various crowd members embraced him. In a festival with much more of a stand-back-and-listen vibe, this was a surprising yet refreshing segment that broke the audience’s constant gaze toward the stage.

As he ended with the lengthy and atmospheric track Leviathan, the crowd remained encapsulated by his performance, in awe of Berger’s talent and hoping for it not to end. Flavien Berger’s performance was undoubtedly my highlight of the three-day festival, perhaps because it was unexpected, or perhaps because of the relative disappointment of some acts placed higher on the line-up. Chet Faker (now Nick Murphy), the first night’s headliner, played few of his old and much-loved tracks, instead basing his set and even ending (without an encore) with new, unknown, and frankly underwhelming music. So I do have one criticism directed at the festival organisers: as the only French act at a French festival, and therefore the most favoured among the crowd, Flavien Berger should have featured later in the programme with a longer slot. The crowd’s energy levels were at their highest at only quarter to eight in the evening. However,  that does say something about Berger’s undeniable talent, and he deserves much more exposure in the UK’s electronic scene. 

You can watch the full performance below: