“Turf in USA”: how Mondial Toboggan wrote a French racehorse into a track
Garden State Park. New Jersey, 1988.
Ourasi, France’s most beloved trotter, crosses the Atlantic to race the best American horses.
In the stands, nobody doubts it. He won’t lose.
Sugarcane Hanover hadn’t read the French papers. Ourasi lost.
That defeat became a song.
“Turf in USA” by Mondial Toboggan
The clash of two worlds facing each other. The France of betting pubs and Suze ashtrays versus the America of vast parking lots and neon lights. "Turf in USA" was born from that suspended instant.
How was it composed?
“It all started with a setting: the pub “PMU” on a Sunday afternoon, Formica tables, cigarette smoke, and a race on TV that no one is really watching.The arpeggiator and the synths arrived first, relentless. The vocals followed, somewhere between a Jarre album and a TV movie that no one remembers but everyone has seen. And in the home stretch, two melodic lines set off in pursuit of one another. Neither gives way.” _Mondial Toboggan
About Mondial Toboggan
Illegitimate child of Jean-Michel Jarre, Jean-Jacques Perrey and François de Roubaix, Mondial Toboggan emerged out of a passion for vintage synthesizers and cassette recorders.
Led by Quentin-Gary Tashdjian and Corentin Kerdraon (aka nit signed to Record Makers), they developed a unique aesthetic: the music of tomorrow composed yesterday; a nostalgic synth-pop infused with disco, with hints of TV movie soundtracks.
