Saint Privat - Riviera (2022)

Ducatis and Jean-Luc Godard, brandy and Brigitte Bardot. Like the most cunning of jewel thieves, decked in berets and horizontally striped shirts, Valerie Sajdik and the mysteriously named Waldeck effortlessly steal gems from across the decades. Lifting from Françoise Hardy, Bach, and Stereolab, they then jet across the ocean to crib a song title off Astrud Gilberto ("The Girl from Ventimiglia") before heading to Hollywood to purloin the MGM vaults for "Gone With the Wind." Singing in both English and French to avoid detection, Sajdik will also spend entire songs chirping in code, her boop-boops distracting listeners' attention from the grand theft of bossa nova and rococo jazz conducted by Waldeck and his band of merry men from the Dope Noir jazz division. Alert Inspector Clouseau; only he can solve this musical caper. © Joshua Glazer