Vitalic

French producer Pascal Arbez operates under the Vitalic alias, fusing techno, electro, and house with classical, rock, and 1970s electronic strains into unexpected yet ceaselessly propulsive shapes. The 2001 Poney EP and the club staple “La Rock 01” evoked countrymen Daft Punk and Air while asserting a distinctly rugged playfulness that Arbez honed further on the 2005 album OK Cowboy. Subsequent releases spotlighted shifting emphases: 2009’s Flashmob foregrounded disco, 2012’s Rave Age centered punk and rave energy, and 2017’s Voyager injected funk and rock vitality. In the 2020s Vitalic’s range broadened still more, as the two-part Dissidænce: Episodes 1-2 traversed pop to industrial territory and the 2023 Disco Boy soundtrack demonstrated atmospheric command that earned awards.

Arbez studied trombone in childhood and early adulthood, yet Daft Punk’s mid-1990s music sparked his turn toward dance sounds. Guided also by Giorgio Moroder, he adopted analog synthesizers and began composing and tracking material as Dima, issuing a debut 12-inch in 1996 on the Citizen Records label he co-founded with peers. While maintaining the Dima name and the Hustler Pornstar alias, Arbez launched the Vitalic project in 2000. At the Hacker’s suggestion he submitted a demo to International Deejay Gigolo, which issued the Poney EP in 2001; its expansive yet forceful tracks—above all “La Rock 01”—became fixtures for DJs ranging from Aphex Twin and Princess Superstar to 2 Many DJ’s. Arbez then paused new Vitalic output to focus on remixes, some created with the Hacker, before the 2003 DJ Tonio collaboration “To L’An-fer From Chicago” and the late-2004 Fanfares EP, which signaled a denser, less atmospheric direction. Early 2005 brought the single “My Friend Dario,” Vitalic’s most overtly pop-oriented track to date.

April 2005’s OK Cowboy gathered the project’s essential singles and cuts; its title referenced Arbez’s independent outlook and rural French residence. Created with minimal equipment and partly inspired by Jean-Michel Jarre, the album appeared with a bonus disc of remixes and live recordings in 2006 and received European gold certification in 2012. The 2007 mix album The Sound of Citizen, featuring both Arbez’s influences and Citizen roster artists, preceded that year’s V Live. Vitalic performed at the Reading and Leeds festivals in 2009 ahead of September’s Flashmob, which extended the disco threads already present in OK Cowboy and supplied the soundtrack to La leggenda di Kaspar Hauser after the Disco Terminateur EP.

November 2012’s third album Rave Age incorporated contributions from Shitdisco members, Sexy Sushi’s Rebeka Warrior, and mixing by Stephane “Alf” Briat while pursuing a more streamlined approach. The 2016 Film Noir EP on Correspondant Records offered two tracks modeled on 1990s German techno, and a subsequent European tour preceded January 2017’s Voyager, which drew on Cerrone and Giorgio Moroder while featuring Mark Kerr and Miss Kittin. Two years later Arbez and Warrior formed Kompromat, releasing the Berlin-techno-rooted album Traum und Existenz.

During the COVID-19 pandemic Arbez channeled restrictions on live performance and broader societal tensions into the two-part Dissidænce project. Issued November 2021 on his Clivage label, Dissidænce: Episode 1 revived the rock undercurrents of OK Cowboy alongside Italo disco; Dissidænce: Episode 2, arriving the following March, explored colder industrial and techno terrain. The halves were later compiled as Dissidænce: Episodes 1-2. Early 2023 saw the release of Vitalic’s soundtrack for Giacomo Abbruzzese’s politically charged film Disco Boy, blending fresh pieces with selections from Dissidænce; that October Arbez collaborated with Silly Boy Blue on the Confess EP. In January 2024 Disco Boy received the Lumières Award for Best Music.