Journalist at RFI (ex-DW, BBC, CBC, F24...), writer (on art, music, culture...), I work in radio, podcasting, online, on films.
As a writer, I also contributed to the New Arab, Art UK, Byline Times, the i Paper...
Born in Paris, I was based in Prague, Miami, London, Nairobi (covering East Africa), Bangui, and in Bristol, UK. I also reported from Italy, Germany, Haiti, Tunisia, Liberia, Senegal, India, Mexico, Iraq, South Africa...
This blog is to share my work, news and cultural discoveries.
Hello people, I'm now fully based in England again, still working as a freelance journalist for the international radio Deutsche Welle and the BBC World Service, also writing about art and politics for different magazines and websites...
I am working the last edits of my book on Massive Attack and the Bristol scene, adding a few updates to the story. More soon!
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Massive Attack: Out Of The Comfort Zone The Story of a Sound, a City, and a group of revolutionary artists
Over the past four years, as a freelance journalist, I have been travelling between Bangui (Central African Republic), Paris, Istanbul, Calais, Erbil (Iraqi Kurdistan), the South of France and Ventimiglia in Italy, London and… Bristol. I have mostly been covering post-conflict issues and the refugee crisis for different European radio stations and magazines. So I went to Bristol to write about a brighter, engaging and inspirational story. To explore the culture of England’s West Country, retrace the history of my favourite music, a fascinating journey through an artistic and social explosion.
I decided to write about the band Massive Attack when I read they were travelling to Lebanon, in July 2014. They were about to perform at the Byblos International Festival and to visit Palestinian youth they help, in a refugee camp in Burj El Barajneh, in the southern suburbs of Beirut. I contacted a friend who is a writer and music journalist to convince him I could write a book about them…
I had always loved their music and I know all of their albums by heart. Their engagement suddenly seemed very authentic to me; it completely stands out in the current music business. I started to think of a way to find out what nourished their writing process and social involvement. After months of preparation, I packed my bag for Bristol in February 2015.
I contacted a snowballing list of Bristolians: some of MA’s co-workers including sound-engineer and co-writer Neil Davidge, talented instrumentalists, rappers and vocalists like Mike Crawford, Sean Cook, Andy ‘Spaceland’ Jenks, Krissy Kriss, Mark Stewart of the legendary Pop Group... And, six months later, Adrian Utley, Portishead’s guitarist.
I also spent a lot of time in venues and art galleries, in Bristol – spending a day with Inkie or listening to Roni Size at the Hamilton House.
I went to London, where I digger into Banksy's trails, to Paris – where I interviewed Tricky and met Nick Walker, then to Dublin, Nice and further, to see Massive Attack on stage.
All these meetings and events helped me recreating the key moments that made possible The Wild Bunch then Massive Attack and the scene that followed, from Smith & Mighty to Alpha, The Insects to Young Echo and Idles.
My book therefore retells the story of a rare group of unconventional and politically aware musicians and artists.
The story starts with Massive Attack’s first album, the remarkable and inimitable Blue Lines, then goes back to their first influences. The Beatles, reggae, punk, soul music, hip-hop, Jean-Michel Basquiat and the graffiti stars of the film Wild Style. These include their very own hometown’s history, from the slave trade to recent riots…
Then the book evolves until Massive Attack’s homecoming show in September 2016 and their coming projects.
Massive Attack and Portishead in Bristol in Feb. 2005
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En dehors de la zone de confort (Out Of The Comfort Zone)
I'm now based in London, even if I was here very regularly, and I'll be back soon at the BBC World Service, where I worked from 2009 to 2012.
Here people are facing an important moment for the future of their democracy, because of all the challenges linked to the referendum on the European Union in June 2016.
Let's hope it will help reassess and improve both the democratic values, the political system and society.
Here is an important event. Message from the organisers:
Dear Melissa,
When I helped launch the People’s Vote campaign in April this year, I never dreamed we’d come so far in such a short space of time. In just six months, we have shifted the entire national conversation around Brexit. A People’s Vote is becoming more and more likely and leaving the EU is no longer an inevitably. That’s all thanks to your efforts.
But we cannot get complacent. It’s time to press home our case that a People’s Vote is the only way to resolve the Brexit mess.
That’s why, on Saturday 20th October (midday), we will be gathering at Park Lane in London for the biggest Brexit march this country has ever seen. In June, over 100,000 people from across the UK marched through the streets of London to demand our politicians listen to us. We need this march to be even bigger.
This is about the future – the future of our country for ourselves, for our families and for the next generation. They will be the ones who are forced to pick up the pieces and deal with the consequences of the Brexit mess if we continue down this path. We must act now. The eyes of history are watching us.
Back in April, few thought any of this would be possible. But we have started to turn the tide, together. Now it’s time for one last push, to make sure the dream of a People’s Vote becomes a reality.
Together, we can make it so.
Sir Patrick Stewart Actor and leading supporter of the People's Vote campaign
Top UK musicians tell PM in open letter why Europe is so important to their industry
Bob Geldof penned the open letter. Photograph: Lorne Thomson/Redferns
Last year, the British music industry posted record-breaking sales not seen since the commercially bloated days of Britpop. Revenues rose by 10.6%, the £92bn creative sector grew at twice the rate of the national economy, and the former rough-sleeping, street busker Ed Sheeran became the world’s biggest-selling pop star.
And yet the industry is gripped by the fear that Brexit will shatter that success and cause irreparable damage to the UK’s cultural influence and output. In an open letter to the prime minister on Sunday, organised by Bob Geldof and backed by dozens of pop, rock and classical heavyweights including Sheeran, Rita Ora, Damon Albarn, Jarvis Cocker, Simon Rattle, and Brian Eno, the sector makes an urgent call for a rethink on Brexit.
“We are about to make a very serious mistake regarding our giant industry and the vast pool of yet undiscovered genius that lives on this little island,” the letter warns. It predicts that the “vast voice” and reach of British music will be silenced in a “self-built cultural jail”.
One of the signatories, the broadcaster and award-winning composer of choral music Howard Goodall, said he believed the time had come to put diplomatic reserve to one side.
“Bob’s letter is passionate and very emotional and that is one of the things missing from the wider debate,” he told the Observer this weekend. “A lot of musicians will have believed that there would be some sort of musicians’ passport arrangement. That’s what makes this letter so timely. People are going to lose their jobs if there’s no deal, and even if there is a Chequers-style deal, there will be no provision for this kind of professional travel. Everything is going to change.”
On Wednesday, the prime minister pledged to abolish article 45 of the EU charter of fundamental rights, which grants freedom of movement to EU citizens, and “bring in a new immigration system that ends freedom of movement once and for all”. The letter describes this as “a serious madness”.
Geldof said that everyone he had asked to add their support to the campaign said yes. “I am completely committed to having a democratic public vote to prevent the whole Brexit thing screwing us for the future,” he said.
The fallout for the industry and its stars, from its major touring pop behemoths to culture-innovating club promoters, is stark – and expensive.
Last month, Lily Allen joked that had she won the Mercury music prize, the £25,000 prize money would have been spent on “visa applications after Brexit”.
Alex Sushon, a producer and DJ better known as Bok Bok, told the Observer: “I am definitely living in fear of having to secure weekly visas to European destinations in order to keep working. It is a daunting prospect.” Sushon, who runs Night Slugs – one of the UK’s most influential music labels and clubnights – said that curbs to freedom of movement within Europe would be “pretty devastating” for him, and for many more DJs and producers: “Probably 50% of my income depends on it.”
For Massive Attack, who have sold more than 11m albums worldwide, Brexit poses more than a financial problem. “I will never complain about paying taxes or extra costs,” said band member Robert del Naja this weekend. “But I find it morally repugnant that Britain expects the rules should be different for us.” Del Naja predicts that many more festivals will close and promoters and new artists “will suffer greatly”.
While Massive Attack remain local to Bristol, Del Naja is clear that “without Europe, we would not be the band we are now. When we played in France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, the audience there defined what we became. We would never have succeeded or carried on without the privilege of playing those places – that feedback creates your future.”
Speaking to the Observer, Al Doyle, a member of Hot Chip and LCD Soundsystem, felt that there was little chance of his bands having the same success if they were starting out now. “With Hot Chip, we didn’t wait to get big in the UK and then match that in Europe – we were always going out there and the margins of touring are so slim that even if you added a tiny element of bureaucratic cost – in visas, touring carnets for gear etc – it wouldn’t be feasible. It is completely plain and unarguable that British music will suffer – it just depends on how much you care about that.”
For small venue owners and record labels, the problems are manifold. Stephen Bass, co-owner of Moshi Moshi Records, the independent that first signed Bloc Party, Kate Nash and Florence + the Machine, predicted that “any change to travel rules” would have “a dramatic effect on the fortunes of the [bands] I look after and the crew of people involved in live shows”.
“Countries like America make it increasingly difficult to tour, and effectively cut themselves off from being a territory in which Moshi Moshi acts can perform and generate income. To have our near neighbours isolating us in a similar way would be a disaster for us and even worse for bands starting out in their careers,” he said.
Auro Foxtrot, who owns London gig and club venues Village Underground and Evolutionary Arts Hackney, said difficulties had been building since the referendum. “The exchange rate is a massive issue and when the pound crashed, artist fees went through the roof and lots of shows got cancelled [across the UK].” To him, the bottom line can’t be Brexit-proofed, but the impact on thriving club culture is immense. “Those things develop through exposure of new ideas, different ways of viewing the world, other takes on society. If you close it and slim it down, you cut off collaboration, understanding and tolerance.”
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The open letter
To Theresa May:
Imagine Britain without its music. If it’s hard for us, then it’s impossible for the rest of the world. In this one area, if nowhere else, Britain does still rule the waves. The airwaves. The cyberwaves. The soundwaves. It is of us. It is our culture.
We dominate the market and our bands, singers, musicians, writers, producers and engineers work all over Europe and the world. In turn, Europe and the world come to us. Why? Because we are brilliant at it. No one quite knows why this should be but everyone understands it to be so. The sound and the words seem universal. It reaches out, all inclusive, and embraces anyone and everyone. And that truly is what Britain IS! That is proper Global Britain.
But Brexit threatens, as it does so much else, this vast voice. This huge global cultural influencer. We are about to make a very serious mistake regarding our giant industry and the vast pool of yet undiscovered genius that lives on this little island.
Why are we closing down these possibilities for ourselves and for those as yet unknown to us? Brexit will impact every aspect of the music industry. From touring, sales, copyright legislation, to royalty collation. Indeed it already has. As a result of the referendum vote, the fall in the pound has meant hugely increased equipment costs, studio hire, and touring costs all now materially higher than before – and not forgetting that squeezed household incomes means less money to go to clubs and buy tracks, T-shirts, gigs and generate the vast income necessary to keep the up and comers on the road and musically viable.
A massive 60% of all royalty revenue paid to the UK comes from within the EU. And at home, ANY increase in import duty will mean that ANYTHING that comes to us from outside will cost significantly more. We have decided to put ourselves inside a self-built cultural jail! The very opposite of wall-destroying, prejudice-denying, ideas-generating that is the very essence of contemporary music. And yet it is the much-mocked freedom of movement that so effortlessly allows our troubadours, our cultural warriors, to wander Europe and speak of us to a world that cannot get enough of [them], and which generates countless billions for our threatened institutions.
This is all a serious madness. We must take back our future.We must reform and restructure the EU. When Europe is in a mess, the Brits get stuck in. They don’t withdraw, they double down. They get in close and messy. Make Europe the continent that we and the people of Europe want. Not the one dreamt up in another time by the ideologues, or by the undemocratic fiat of mediocre politicians or the dull exhortations of a pallid bureaucracy. A new one. A different one. An exciting one. A rock’n’roll one.
Let’s rock Europe and let’s save our music, our musicians, our music jobs and our songs. Let’s save our voice.
I've been to some of the biggest refugee camps in the world, in Northern Kenya, in Iraqi Kurdistan, in Central African Republic, and... in the mess of Calais, in the Roya Valley, Ventimiglia, Palermo & Trapani where the Aquarius used to station, and in informal camps in here in Paris. As a reporter mostly, then as a communication specialist for NGOs / international organisations. Or as a simple citizen volunteering. I've been to protests, to group's discussions, I've signed petitions...
I've reported on it, interviewed people who know what to do, how to help... And we can still not find a proper policy to face this crisis though it has decreased.
I'm beyond anger, beyond disappointment.
Cannot one of the wealthiest government come with a start of a gesture?
As women, it's sometimes a little though to work in this professional world of harsh, unemotional men, treating us like PAs or simple wardrobes.
Sisterhood helps on every level. Huge gratitude to my women on this journey. But also to men, friends, bosses and colleagues who only have respect for our equal interest and investment in our common work.
Surely, it does help to have inspiring women artists in the neighbourhood, yet...
As I've really loved and been deeply moved by M.I.A's documentary film, seen on its release date last Friday, she is the core soundtrack of the week.
M.I.A. - 'Bad Girls'
Thanks to all the "bad girls", being unapologetically who they are!
Themes of the week: Freedom, magic, autonomy, breaking free and women's power. Thanks to all the friends who make my time England so much more valuable than anywhere else... Musical theme: Tori Amos - 'Pandora's Aquarium' "I'm not asking you to believe me"...
Tori Amos - 'Pandora's Aquarium'
Lyrics
Pandora Pandora's aquarium She dives for shells With her nautical nuns And thoughts you thought You'd never tell I am not asking you to believe in me Boy I think you're confused I'm not Persephone Foam can be dangerous with tape across my mouth these Things you do I never asked you how Line me up in single file with all your Grievances Stare but I can taste you're still alive below the waste ripples come and Ripples go And ripple back to me Pandora Pandora's aquarium She dives for shells With her nautical nuns And thoughts you thought You'd never tell Line me up in single file With all you grievances Stare but I can tast You're still alive below the waste Ripples come and ripples Go and ripple back to me I am not asking you to believe in me Boy I think you're confused I'm not Persephone She's in New Yourk somewhere Checking her accounts The Lord of The Files was diagnosed... As Sound
AICA Ireland is hosting a discussion on Brexit and its implications for visual artists, curators, critics and publics. While media coverage has focussed on the economic and political uncertainty that the referendum has caused, the wider cultural and philosophical contexts have scarcely been addressed. Jean Monnet, one of the founding fathers of what is now the EU, is supposed to have said, ‘If I had to do it again, I would begin with culture’.
The practical implications for the post-Brexit cultural sector in Ireland, Britain and the rest of Europe is potentially enormous. Artists and academics will be severely affected. While taking account of this, this discussion seeks to look beyond the pecuniary. What does being part of the EU mean to its citizens in cultural terms and in terms of their identity in the contemporary world? What does leaving the EU and becoming a citizen of a ‘great global trading nation’ mean? What role can pan Ireland organisations like AICA Ireland play in this new scenario?
For some the EU is a deeply flawed organisation but it remains the most significant and imaginative template for a common European identity, for freedom of movement and peaceful co-existence of its citizens into the future. Brexit throws up significant questions about the resurgence of nationalism, about cultural integration, about missed opportunities for Ireland, North and South, but also potential for change and for new directions including alternative models of exchange.
This discussion seeks to probe these questions from a range of historical and philosophical perspectives from writers and artists living in Ireland, the UK and the rest of the EU.
Confirmed speakers:
Pat Cooke, School of Art History and Cultural Policy UCD.
Riann Coulter, FE McWilliam Gallery, Banbridge.
Colin Darke, artist and writer, based in Belfast.
Gavin Murphy, Centre for Creative Arts and Media, GMIT
The discussion is chaired by RóisÃn Kennedy, School of Art History and Cultural Policy UCD.
Hello people, back in England this autumn, I'm finishing with the band the last edits on my book on Massive Attack and the Bristol scene. With updates on the story and probably a few photographs this time.
We'll be able to announce the definite release date soon, it should be early 2019.
Thanks to you all for your patience...
Out Of The Comfort Zone: From Bristol Came Massive Attack... And a group of revolutionary artists
As little introduction, here is my column for Classic Album Sunday:
Over the past four years, as a freelance journalist, I have been travelling between Bangui (Central African Republic), Paris, Istanbul, Calais, Erbil (Iraqi Kurdistan), the South of France and Ventimiglia in Italy, London and… Bristol. I have mostly been covering post-conflict issues and the refugee crisis for different European radio stations and magazines. So I went to Bristol to write about a brighter, engaging and inspirational story. To explore the culture of England’s West Country, retrace the history of my favourite music, a fascinating journey through an artistic and social explosion.
I decided to write about the band Massive Attack when I read they were travelling to Lebanon, in July 2014. They were about to perform at the Byblos International Festival and to visit Palestinian youth they help, in a refugee camp in Burj El Barajneh, in the southern suburbs of Beirut. I contacted a friend who is a writer and music journalist to convince him I could write a book about them…
I had always loved their music and I know all of their albums by heart. Their engagement suddenly seemed very authentic to me; it completely stands out in the current music business. I started to think of a way to reach out to them, especially to 3D, also known as Robert Del Naja, the heart and soul behind Massive Attack’s writing process and social involvement. After months of preparation and once he agreed to meet me, I packed my bag for Bristol in February 2015.
After meeting with 3D, I contacted a snowballing list of Bristolians: some of 3D’s co-workers including sound-engineer and co-writer Neil Davidge, talented instrumentalists, rappers and vocalists like Mike Crawford, Sean Cook, Andy ‘Spaceland’ Jenks, Krissy Kriss, Mark Stewart and, six months later, Adrian Utley, Portishead’s guitarist.
I also spent a lot of time in venues and art galleries, in Bristol – spending a day with Inkie or listening to Roni Size at the Hamilton House. In London too, in Paris – where I interviewed Tricky and met Nick Walker, then in Dublin and further, to see Massive Attack on stage. All these meetings and events helped me recreating the key moments that made possible The Wild Bunch then Massive Attack and the scene that followed.
My book therefore retells the story of a rare group of unconventional and politically aware musicians and artists. The story starts with Massive Attack’s first album, the remarkable and inimitable Blue Lines, then goes back to their first influences. The Beatles, reggae, punk, soul music, hip-hop, Jean-Michel Basquiat and the graffiti stars of the film Wild Style. These include their very own hometown’s history, from the slave trade to recent riots… Then the book evolves until Massive Attack’s homecoming show in September 2016 and their coming projects.
Massive Attack and Portishead in Bristol in Feb. 2005
It digs into the making of their groundbreaking albums, especially Mezzanine, which turns 20 year-old this year, described by many critics as the best thing that ever came from Bristol… It follows Massive Attack’s evolution as extraordinary performers, whose shows rival with the best acts in the world, and 3D’s artistic transformations, collaborating with Banksy, United Visual Artists and Adam Curtis. This very rich and fascinating path took them around the world, from Japan to America, Mexico and Turkey, Lebanon and the Congo…
Writing about them and about Bristol’s music and art scene, led me to write this parallel history of British culture, with underground origin, always pushing boundary and keeping an aware and open gaze on our fast-changing world.
