Music
Bernard Lavilliers
Bande-son pour écran noir (“Soundtrack for a Black Screen”)
An exclusive visual & auditory event will be held for the new album by Lavilliers, Rite cruel (“Cruel Ritual”), featuring the artist himself, ahead of its October 23rd release.
Bernard Lavilliers, a loyal friend of the Lumière film festival, has chosen to unveil his 23rd album to the public in Lyon.
The Lumière film festival, the Big Brother Company and Universal Music bring you this exclusive event in a new and original format, offering an opportunity to discover the album Rite Cruel with the artist through a visual listening experience. A unique moment especially created for Lumière 2026!
“In this album, I sense the Empire. The revival of a willingness to share the world—a desire that had vanished with the end of the Cold War. King Ubu…”
From the very first track on the album, Bernard Lavilliers gets straight to the point: “You have to be tough to hold on / You have to be solid to act / Music carries us through and inspires us.”
Hold on yet inspire? His songs evoke opposing ideas without missing a beat, crafting an arsenal to navigate the night.
Taking action, according to Lavilliers, means giving a voice to words, to impulses and to hope to enable us to resist in these times; there’s no need to spell out against whom or what. Lavilliers has never betrayed his trajectory. The artist’s twenty-third album continues to draw inspiration from the world: the world as it is, the world as it changes, the world as it falters, the world as it hopes. In short, the album Rite cruel bursts onto the stage of our time, bringing with it vertigo, wonder, revulsion, questions and consolation, with the beating heart of the world, everywhere. Lavilliers wrote, composed and recorded the new album in Paris, as well as in Rio de Janeiro and Kinshasa.
Our thanks to Bernard Lavilliers and Frédéric Vinet