M83 is electronic artist Anthony Gonzalez. Gonzalez founded the group with Nicolas Fromageau in Antibes, France, in 2001. M83’s musical style owes something to shoegaze, with emphasis on tone, extensive use of effects and, most notably, softly-spoken lyrics almost submerged in instrumentation. Guitar or synthesizer based, many of M83’s parts conform to the fetishism of tone that dominates contemporary electro.

All three of M83’s albums were well received, in particular Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts, their second album, which allowed them to break through to a larger audience. For the third album released by M83, Before the Dawn Heals Us, Gonzales decided to part from Fromageau (after an emotionally distressing tour for Dead Cities) and record on his own.

M83’s song “Unrecorded” from Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts was used in the trailer for the American release of the Russian movie Night Watch, and the track “Teen Angst”, taken from “Before the Dawn Heals Us”, appears on the trailer for the film adaptation of Philip K. Dick’s novel “A Scanner, Darkly” set for a 2006 release.

M83 produced the remix of the track ‘Pioneers’ on the British group Bloc Party’s 2005 album Silent Alarm Remixed.

The Deftones also use the song “Be wild” (taken from Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts) on their 2007 world tour as a live-intro!

Snow Patrol also used “Teen Angst”, taken from “Before the Dawn Heals Us” as their 2006 tour opener.

M83 also collaborated with other Gooom Disques artists in a collaborative lp, under the name Purple Confusion.

In 2005, M83 also released a re-issue of their 2001 self-titled album. The 2001 release was never available in the United States, so this introduced this album in the US.

Just after the Before the Dawn Heals Us US tour, Anthony Gonzalez decided to develop a musical direction already heard on some earlier M83 tracks, and started to write and record a collection of ambient works. Recorded primarily at his home studio with the assistance of Antoine Gaillet, who had previously worked on Before the Dawn Heals Us, Anthony was able to work without pressure, knowing he could work on the record at his own time and pace. The relevance of digital music (from creation to sharing), gave him the idea to call the project Digital Shades Volume 1, and to make the album part of an ongoing series. Originally recorded in 2006, Digital Shades Volume 1 marks the beginning of a new period of activity for M83, since Anthony is already back in the studio working on a brand new album which will be released in January 2008. In keeping with the creative thinking behind the album, Digital Shades Volume 1 will naturally be released on all digital download formats as well as on more traditional formats such as vinyl and CD on September 3rd, 2007.

M83´s 2008 album Saturdays=Youth (Mute) was recorded with the help of Ken Thomas and Ewan Pearson and the first single Graveyard Girl was launched on 14 Apr 2008 together with the track Couleurs.
The album leaked onto peer-to-peer networks on March 19, 2008.

www.ilovem83.com