Force Majeure

Album: Escapades (2021)
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Songfacts®:

  • Gaspard Augé is one half of the French electronic duo Justice. He recorded this cinematic-sounding instrumental for his debut solo album, Escapades.
  • "Force Maure" means irresistible compulsion or superior strength, making this an apt choice for BBC's official theme song throughout the Euro 2020 soccer tournament. Indeed, Augé told BBC News he made the track with a sporting event - such as a boxing fight or a football match - in mind.

    "Just this kind of survivor feel to it, something very epic, like when something is about to happen," he said. "[I wanted] to create some kind of feeling of invincibility, like when you're walking on the street and listening to a track and you feel really pumped up. And I guess it definitely works for the Euros."
  • Filip Nilsson directed the song's music video. Filmed in Turkey, it shows Augé playing "Force Majeure" on a huge drum kit as cymbals are manufactured around him. "We were really attracted by the epic visual appeal of cymbal making: bronze, fire, hammers - something almost mythological and elemental like Vulcan or the Nibelungen," Augeì said. "We chose Bosphorus Cymbals in Turkey because they had this very traditional process that barely changed in centuries. In this video I am just a link in the chain of production and quality control, after all these cymbals have been melted, hand hammered, and lathed into a musical object."

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