In the course of his fifteen-year career, Swiss star Stephan Eicher has developed a reputation for standing out from the crowd. Eicher has always followed his own musical instincts, defying the dictates of music fashion and the unspoken rules of the record industry, and quietly travelling down his own freewheeling road. In other words, Eicher is a man from whom we can now confidently expect the unexpected! Last week the Swiss star completed two months of his European tour then released his eagerly awaited new album "Louanges" (on the Virgin label) on June 1st. Both events have thrown up their fair share of surprises.

First there were the concerts. Sensitive, poetic affairs which opened with a smattering of soft (fake) snow falling on stage while, on the giant canvas backdrop behind, a forlorn-looking mermaid draped herself over a group of moon-lit rocks. Down below, Eicher and his five musicians arrived on stage one after the other, gathering together beneath the mermaid's tail as if they were about to celebrate some strange Pagan ritual. In the second half of the concerts Eicher and his musicians adopted dramatic stage positions (worked out during their rehearsals in a theatre on the Ile de Ré), facing each other across a sea of carpets and scatter-rugs, artistically strewn across the stage.

The main idea, which Eicher appears to be trying to get across in these informal-style concerts and his openly confessional new album is this: he is a star who no longer gives a damn about fame! Eicher has assumed the smiling, serene face of maturity, waving goodbye to the days when he was adored by thousands of screaming female fans. Eicher, now in his late thirties, has accepted the 'force of age' and moved on to recounting more serious stories in his new 'grown-up' songs.

True to Eicher style, the songs on his new album "Louanges" (Praise) are performed and recorded in several languages, including French. The French songs in question are written by the well-known French author Philippe Djian, who has penned some of his most brilliantly acidic and disenchanted lyrics to date (e.g. "On ne peut pas toujours mourir à trente ans et en rester là" "You can't always die at thirty and leave things there.").

Following on in the same experimental vein as his last album "Mille Vies", Eicher takes obvious delight in exploring new musical forms, borrowing strange nasal intonations from the Celtic music world and experimenting with the concept of 'heroic rock' and epic-style ballads. Eicher's new album, which was recorded in a studio in Engelberg, manages to concoct its own musical alchemy, mixing a dash of blues, rock and French chanson with a healthy dose of electronic keyboards. French music fans have already been given a taste of Eicher's new musical universe on the single "Venez danser" (a single which, needless to say, has received extensive airplay to date).

Meanwhile, Eicher continues to regard his pop star status with an ironic smile, gently sending up rock conventions on stage - c.f. the sound-and-light extravaganza which accompanies "Combien de temps" for one short burst and the jockey, ironic twist where the singer mixes the chorus from "Twist and Shout" with his own 8-year-old smash hit "Déjeuner en paix". In this one small, self-mocking gesture Eicher distances himself from the status of pop god, affirming his allegiance to the - rather less grand - European notion of 'artist'.