The Blaze (band)
The Blaze is a French music duo made up of two cousins, Guillaume and Jonathan Alric. They often combine the pieces of music they have created with videos to create an audiovisual complete work.
history
The fathers of the two musicians are brothers. Jonathan Alric was born in Ivory Coast and grew up in Normandy when he was three . He later attended a film school in Brussels .
His cousin Guillaume, who grew up in Dijon , initially developed a preference for reggae and produced his own dub pieces under the pseudonym Mayd Hubb . When Jonathan Alric asked him to help with the soundtrack for a music video that he was supposed to produce as a student project, the two began working together as The Blaze .
Both mix influences from dub, house and pop music in their music . Both Guillaume and Jonathan Alric sing on some of their tracks. The directors Ken Loach as well as Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne and the photographer Sebastião Salgado are named as influences for their music videos .
In 2016 their first single Virile was released on Bromance Records . The accompanying music video was made for around 100 euros in an apartment in Brussels with two friends of the duo as the leading actor. It shows the intimate relationship between two men "without putting the stamp of bromance or homosexual love on their relationship ". The EP Territory followed a year later . In the music video for the title track, the actor Dali Benssalah took on the lead role of a migrant on his way back to his home country Algeria . Both music videos received positive reviews. Territory was awarded the Grand Prix in the Film Craft category at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity 2017 .
In September 2018 the project's debut album entitled Dancehall was released on the music label Animal63 . Several singles were released from the album.
Guillaume and Jonathan Alric live and work in Paris .
Discography
Albums
| year | title |
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes) |
Remarks | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 FR
|
 BE W
|
 CH
|
|||
| 2018 | Dancehall |
FR19 (36 weeks) FR |
BE W19 (16 weeks) BE W |
CH33 (1 week) CH |
|
EPs
| year | title |
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes) |
Remarks | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
FR
|
BE W
|
CH
|
|||
| 2017 | Territory |
FR87 (3 weeks) FR |
- | - | |
Singles
| year | title |
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes) |
Remarks | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
FR
|
BE W
|
CH
|
|||
| 2018 | She dancehall |
FR200 (1 week) FR |
- | - |
Animal63
|
More singles
- 2016: Virile (Bromance Records)
- 2017: Territory (Animal63, FR:
gold) - 2018: Heaven (Animal63)
- 2018: Faces (Animal63)
- 2018: Queens (Animal63)
Web links
- Official website
- The blaze at Discogs (English)
- The Blaze on YouTube
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Jon Caramanica: How the Blaze's Emotional Dance Music Brings Listeners to Tears . In: nytimes.com from August 16, 2018.
- ↑ a b c d Aimee Cliff: Get To Know The Blaze, The French Duo Making Music Videos As Good As Movies . In: thefader.com of April 7, 2017.
- ↑ Jan Limpert: Why you won't be able to get past this producer duo . In: br.de from October 31, 2018.
- ↑ Brittaney Kiefer: View all the Grand Prix winners from Cannes Lions 2017 . In: campaignlive.com from June 26, 2017.
- ↑ a b c Chart sources: FR BEW CH
- ↑ Awards for music sales: FR