Exclusive video premiere of ‘A Whole New Day’ by Ace Hansel Jr., taken from ‘Croix-Noire’ – a new multimedia project by Mike Batt, David Quantick, artist Mike Collins, and songwriter Jean-Charles Capelli.

Croix-Noire sees these 4 minds creating a narrative spanning an album, comic book series, and video game.

For 2 years, Jean-Charles and Mike have been developing a prog-rock concept album surrounding a depraved neighbourhood in France, whose protector is on a mission of discovery. Originally inspired by Jean-Charles own life, the neo-steam-punk mythos was taken further by writer David Quantick and comics artist Mike Collins in a 7-issue series (first issue available via Shift mag). A meta-level set in the Roblox game is also set to be released in April.

Mike Batt: “I used a lot of the people from my favourite “wrecking crew” of rhythm musicians. Guitars by Chris Spedding- who is a heavy player, very strong on guitar riffs and electric rhythm. I’ve known him since way back in the Womble days, when he was also working with the Pistols. Funnily enough, as we get older we don’t sound older! John Paracelli, one of the finest guitarists in the world did a lot of the guitar work, and also Jim Cregan, famous for his work with Cat Stevens, Rod Stewart and that amazing acoustic solo on Cockney Rebel’s “Make Me Smile”. The drums were played by the great Ralph Salmins. They all had to play remotely onto the track because of Covid restrictions. My daughter, Hayley is a top “gun-for-hire” bass player in LA (currently on tour with Conan Gray) – and she happened to be stuck at my UK house during Covid so she was able to put all the bass guitar on- which was a stroke of luck, her being here. There’s a shot in the video of her overdubbing on this track, which started out as a programmed track on Logic and then the parts were gradually replaced by real human beings. The orchestra sessions at RAK studios were fun.

Jean-Charles: “The vocal sessions were joyful, because we had had to be apart so long during the writing process, working on Zoom. But for the lead vocals I came over to London and we worked at RAK. Mike and I have become really good friends almost from the moment we first met in early 2020, and we are able to collaborate very naturally. He’s a stickler in the studio though! He is so used to working on vocals with artists, so a mutual trust was instantaneous. This was such a brilliant album to make because of all the dramatic and emotional content from my own life. A WHOLE NEW DAY is an introduction to the district and community of Croix-Noire. My favourite song on the album is THE RUNAWAY, – about a girl I really knew, called Lucie, who is also represented in the comic story”

Official Website / Facebook / Instagram / Twitter / YouTube