B-Side Guys

French folk band Hélianthème closes their debut EP “Épique la Baleine !” by flipping centuries of nautical tradition on its head. Where sea shanties have long catalogued drownings and disasters, “Le Pêcheur & Le Dôme De Verre” insists on rescue, on the mythological fisherman who reverses the ocean’s hunger. Alexis, the song’s architect, grew up understanding the sea’s violence firsthand—which makes his choice to celebrate salvation over tragedy feel earned rather than naive.

The Fisherman himself emerges as absurdist hero: “Silhouette frêle au milieu de la brume / Se tenant bien droit au-dessus de l’écume” (Frail silhouette in the middle of the mist / Standing upright above the foam). He’s ridiculous and essential simultaneously, a “chevalier au service de la mer” (knight in service of the sea) whose vessel has no sails but possesses vision that penetrates twenty feet of water. The imagery borders on comic book mythology—a figure who can make the ocean itself retreat, armed with an oversized harpoon and absurd courage.

What keeps this from collapsing into children’s tale territory is the specificity of the threat. Those “Crocs du Serpent de Fer” (Fangs of the Iron Serpent) carry weight of genuine danger, and the repeated refrain “Ouvre les yeux, tu le distingueras / Depuis les rivages d’Inertia” (Open your eyes, you will distinguish him / From the shores of Inertia) suggests that rescue requires active participation, that salvation isn’t passive deliverance but mutual effort. Inertia as geographic location—that’s the real monster here, the paralysis that prevents us from seeing help when it arrives.

Hélianthème earned their sound through over a hundred street performances across France, and that busker energy infuses the track with populist warmth. Their folk carries sunlight rather than shadows, fitting for a band named after a bright flower. The production maintains that street-level immediacy while building the Fisherman into full mythological scale. By the closing lines, when the narrator claims to have witnessed this figure push back the ocean itself, the hyperbole feels justified. Sometimes hope requires exaggeration to survive—especially when you’re countering centuries of drowning songs with one stubborn story about hands reaching into the water to pull life back out.