Nouvelle Vague

Nouvelle Vague are a French musical collective put together by arrangers Marc Collin and Olivier Libaux. Their name is a play on words referring simultaneously to their "Frenchness" and "artiness" (the '60s new wave

Nouvelle Vague are a French musical collective put together by arrangers Marc Collin and Olivier Libaux. Their name is a play on words referring simultaneously to their "Frenchness" and "artiness" (the '60s new wave of cult French cinema), the source of their songs (all covers of '80s new wave and punk music), and their use of '60s Bossa nova-style arrangements (bossa nova meaning "new wave" or "new beat" in Portuguese).

On their first album, Nouvelle Vague, the group resurrected classics from the '80s New Wave music era, and reinterpreted them in a saucy bossa nova style. The songs were stripped back to acoustic arrangements with lithe shaker rhythms achieved by gathering a parade of chanteuses from all over the world (six French, one Brazilian and one New Yorker) to sex up everyone from XTC and Modern English to The Clash and The Undertones. The covers include songs by Joy Division, Dead Kennedys, The Clash and Depeche Mode. The various female singers on Nouvelle Vague only performed songs they were not previously familiar with, to ensure that each cover would have a unique quality.