Each chapter of The Outlaw Ocean is distinctly rich with strong emotions. In order to recreate and translate that to music, we had to break from our typical music-making habits. We often settled on a general atmosphere before creating a melody, and chose to rely more on instrumental tracks than usual in order to make room for Ian’s samples and our own imaginations. Starting with our first song, “Hatching,” we wanted to illustrate a before and after prior to transitioning into a terrifying reality that takes us away from the fictionalized and fantastical vision of the ocean, as somewhere nature has all the rights. We explore its limits and weaknesses, and grow to understand how the sea serves as a backdrop of violence between humans. 

As artists, we each enjoyed different aspects of the project. For Laure, it was the very outset of the project — when all that was in front of us was a wealth of opportunity and avenues for us to paint a musical picture. For Etienne, it was getting to sift through the sound archive to add texture, extracts and voices, each of which gives weight to the ideas we had in mind when creating. Bringing these two mediums of journalism and music together on the same subject is, in a way, telling the same story in two impactful ways to two distinct audiences. Even if journalism is not seen as an art of creation but rather transmission, both music and journalism seeks to resonate with people.

Toukan Toukän