‘L’Homme De L’Ombre’ has a back story that reflects Marc’s dedication to his art and was only completed after lifesaving cancer surgery midway through its recording. Following a long road to recovery, plus a re-awakening of confidence to finish a record that had now acquired a new depth of meaning, he returned to the studio in 2021 to complete a record that he had started in 2016. “It was a long time in the making and it still feels that this record has already had many lives,” he ponders. In combining the attitude and bravado of Iggy Pop, the sensuality and sophistication of Serge Gainsbourg and the penchant of artists such as Lou Reed and Jarvis Cocker for avant-garde and culturally challenging work within the rock/pop realm, Marc O overcame adversity to create a body of work that incorporates an underlying sense of surrealist beauty into its dramatic, visceral fusion of rock and French music. Blurring between the real and virtual worlds, the subconscious, gender dynamics, inequality and the abuse of power, the nature of paradox, the ambivalence of human nature, nationalism and multiculturalism, ‘L'Homme De L’Ombre' is packed with memorable songs peopled with figures such as Hermann Rorschach, Erwin Schrödinger, Raymond Aron and Julian Assange. It begins with ‘L’Homme Du Monde’ (Man Of The World), which comments on globalised economic systems, while the closing title song is a dark and epic tale of narcissism and the notion of the death of the author. In between, listeners may learn something new about the world, human nature and perhaps even themselves, but are guaranteed to be delighted by the musician and writer who created this most personal of journeys.