M83

M83, the endeavor spearheaded by multi-instrumentalist Anthony Gonzalez, fuses shoegaze, synth pop, and ambient textures into opulent, enveloping compositions that conjure self-contained realms. Gonzalez’s preoccupation with recollections, wistfulness, and nocturnal visions helped shape prevailing sounds of the early 2000s, whether through the sweeping sonic cascades of Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts in 2003 or the nostalgic odes to 1980s pop on Saturdays = Youth in 2008. His readiness to scale his work to vast dimensions, as heard on the Grammy-nominated Hurry Up, We're Dreaming from 2011, and to mine unfashionable pockets of retro pop culture, as on Junk in 2016, differentiated him from fellow artists. At the same time, his command of atmosphere rendered M83 an ideal choice for film scores that extended from large-scale productions such as Oblivion in 2013 to intimate cinematic works like Knife+Heart in 2019. M83 inaugurated a new cycle of intense musical reveries with the precisely titled Fantasy in 2023.

Gonzalez and his brother Yann, a filmmaker who occasionally performs with M83, spent their childhood in Antibes, France. Though he initially followed the family’s devotion to football—his maternal grandfather Laurent Robuschi having played as a striker for France’s national team at the 1966 FIFA World Cup—an injury at age 14 prompted him to turn toward music. After receiving a guitar from his parents, he formed the band My Violent Wish alongside Nicolas Fromageau during secondary school. In his late teens Gonzalez incorporated synthesizers and mailed a demo to several regional labels, among them the Parisian electronic imprint Gooom Records. Once signed, he brought Fromageau into the project to enrich the arrangements. Gonzalez named the endeavor after the M83 galaxy, and the pair tracked their debut album on an eight-track recorder in 2000. Issued in April 2001, the largely instrumental M83, produced by the duo and Morgan Daguenet, revealed their conceptual approach to music-making. Released across Europe in 2003 and North America the following year, the second album Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts brought wider attention and praise for its expansive blend of electronic rhythms and shoegaze haze; it reached number 116 on the French Albums chart.

After the Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts tour, Fromageau departed to launch a solo career, eventually forming Team Ghost in 2009. Gonzalez returned to the studio alone for the third album. Adding vocals and steadier grooves, Before the Dawn Heals Us appeared in January 2005 on Gooom in Europe and Mute Records in the United States; it climbed to number 103 on the French Albums chart and marked M83’s first appearance on the U.K. Albums chart at number 166. Once touring concluded, Gonzalez further explored the project’s ambient inclinations—and his admiration for Krautrock—on Digital Shades, Vol. 1 in September 2007, which included contributions from engineer and producer Antoine Gaillet.

For the fifth album Gonzalez enlarged his sonic palette, enlisting producers Ken Thomas and Ewan Pearson plus vocalist Morgan Kibby to evoke the romantic, anthemic pop of his adolescence. The resulting Saturdays = Youth, released in April 2008, reached number 107 on the Billboard 200 Albums chart and topped the Billboard Heatseekers chart. Following an extensive tour, Gonzalez relocated to Los Angeles in 2010 to mark his 30th birthday; that same year he supplied two new M83 pieces and several earlier tracks for the soundtrack to Gilles Marchand’s Black Heaven.

Work on the sixth album began in 2011 with Gonzalez pursuing a darker, more expansive vision inspired by Smashing Pumpkins’ Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness as well as his experiences opening for the Killers and Kings of Leon. Joined by Kibby, producer Justin Meldal-Johnsen, Medicine’s Brad Laner, and Zola Jesus, the double album Hurry Up, We're Dreaming arrived in October 2011. It entered the Billboard 200 Albums chart at number 15 and placed in the Top Ten of the Billboard Rock, Alternative, Independent, and Dance/Electronic Albums charts; it also reached number seven on the U.K. Independent Albums chart. The album earned gold certification in the United Kingdom, France, Italy, and Denmark, and diamond certification across Europe in 2014. Its lead single “Midnight City” charted in France, the United Kingdom, and the United States, while Hurry Up, We're Dreaming received a nomination for Best Alternative Music Album at the 2013 Grammy Awards.

M83’s soundtrack work reached broader audiences in 2013 when Gonzalez scored the science-fiction blockbuster Oblivion alongside composer Joseph Trapanese and vocalist Susanne Sundfør. That year the same team created the score for the modest French sex comedy You and the Night, directed by Yann Gonzalez; the music offered a subdued, romantic orchestral tribute to 1970s French cinema. Gonzalez later placed M83 tracks on the soundtracks for Divergent in 2014 and The Divergent Series: Insurgent in 2015.

When Gonzalez and Meldal-Johnson reconvened for the next proper M83 album, they drew from 1970s and 1980s television themes and reflected on the ephemeral quality of contemporary music. They collaborated with Sundfør, Beck, French singer-songwriter Mai Lan, and vocalist-keyboardist Kaela Sinclair. Junk, released in April 2016, reached the Top 30 of the Billboard 200 Albums chart and entered the Top Five of the Billboard Independent and Alternative album charts; it also charted in the Top 30 in both France and the United Kingdom. In 2017 Gonzalez served as musical director for Cirque du Soleil’s touring production Volta and composed its score. The following year the Go! Remixes EP appeared, featuring reworkings by KC Lights, Animal Collective, and others.

M83 next issued Knife+Heart, the soundtrack to Yann Gonzalez’s erotic thriller set amid Paris’s late-1970s gay pornography scene. Drawing on the era’s adult-film scores and giallo traditions, the album appeared in March 2019. That September Gonzalez released DSVII, the second installment of the Digital Shades series; its atmospheric instrumentals reflected the influence of synth pioneers Mort Garson and Suzanne Ciani, the fantasy realm of Dungeons & Dragons, and music from vintage science-fiction films and video games. The all-analog set peaked at number 14 on the Top Dance/Electronic Albums chart in the United States. Recording for Fantasy commenced in 2021, with Gonzalez, Sinclair, multi-instrumentalist Joe Berry, and Meldal-Johnson aiming for an organic, band-oriented sound reminiscent of Before the Dawn Heals Us and foregrounding the interplay between synthesizers and guitars. The album arrived in March 2023, after which M83 toured extensively worldwide in support.