Anoraak is the musical project of French musician Frédéric Rivière, multi instrumentalist, singer, producer and DJ, former drummer of Pony Pony Run Run. and member of the Valerie Collective along with artists such as College, Maethelvin, The Outrunners, Minitel Rose and Russ Chimes. Coming from the rock scene at first, he later came to electronic music, starting Anoraak beside his drummer position. His music is related to the retro-synth and 80's inspired scenes recently highlighted by the movie Drive's soundtrack. His sound is described as "dreamy synth-filled tracks that fall somewhere on the spectrum between disco and new wave", "contemporary but retro-tinged" or "easy, breezy chugging along on airy synthesizers like a weekend train to the beachside town of Nantes". Anoraak has collaborated with artists such as the former Swedish Italo Disco outfit Sally Shapiro, American singer Slow Shiver, French producer College, Danish singer Lydmor, and has also remixed numerous artists such as Neon Indian, Mika, Junkie XL, Wild Belle, Julian Perretta, among others.
Career
Rivière started Anoraak circa 2008, when he released his debut album Nightdrive With You, first limited to 1000 copies, then reissued in Japan and Australia. The title track "Nightdrive with You" touched the entire blogosphere, and got highlighted on the Myspace US homepage. He first started to perform in France, and eventually made it to the USA early 2009 with a first show at Webster Hall in New York. Anoraak's second albumWherever The Sun Sets launched in 2011. UK's Clash Magazine review lauded Anoraak's mix of italo-disco, indie rock, and 80s pop, writing "he does it so well it’s as if these sounds were born to be together despite being totally disparate". Anoraak then grew up to a 3 piece band, playing renowned France's Festival des Inrocks, SXSW festival in Austin, Texas, Noise Music Festival in Monterrey, Mexico before embarking on The Drive Tour in 2012 with College and Electric Youth in USA and Canada. In 2013, his third album Chronotropic came out, "lead the way in sunset-inspired dance pop" according to Nest HQ and described as "new wave vocals on disco" by French magazine Tsugi, quickly followed by the EP Reworks, alternative versions of tracks from the album, whose track Guest Star was premiered on Rolling Stone. Back as a solo act, he keeps performing mostly stateside. After releasing in 2015 the single Odds Are Good on the Belgian label Eskimo Recordings, he came back in 2016 with the EP Figure, out on his own imprint Endless Summer Music. The title track's video was premiered on British trendsetting site Nowness, and Brooklyn based online publication Vehllingo stated that this EP "embod the different personality traits of Anoraak’s various experiments over the years". The same year he teamed up with Anglo French duo Loframes for the track "Since You've Gone" released on Los Angeles based label Midnight in Paris In June 2017, Anoraak released Black Gold Sun, described by Australian webzine Acid Stag as "Italo-disco, retro-synth, electro-pop goodness". The video for the track Last Call was premiered on major online French media Konbini. He's on the bill for the 2018 edition of Electric Daisy Carnival in Mexico. In November 2019, Anoraak premiered a more nu-disco sound with "Panarea" on the Vehlinggo Presents: 5 Years compilation.
