Music composer Eric Serra, known for “The Big Blue” and “GoldenEye”, met with about ten subscribers of La Dépêche du Midi at La Cité de l’Espace. He took part in a video shoot about the LuneXplorer attraction to celebrate the release of his new album “Space Projekt U.M.O.”
La Dépêche du Midi: You seem to fit in at La Cité de l’Espace like a fish in water or an astronaut in space.
Eric Serra: I’m passionate about it. I just made an album about it. I was recently fortunate enough to be invited by Sophie Adenot to its launch. It’s already very impressive when you see it on TV. Here, on another scale, it’s amazing. The sound, the image, the light: It feels like witnessing the birth of a sun.
La Dépêche du Midi: Your new album is called “Space Projekt U.M.O.” Is this acronym a signal?
Eric Serra: It’s a wink, obviously, to UFO (Unidentified Flying Object), but this time, it’s U.M.O (Unidentified Musical Object). It resembles “uomo,” which means human in Italian. I thought it was appropriate. It’s not a space-themed opus. It’s an album about the emotions astronauts feel.
La Dépêche du Midi: Your passion for space has been with you since childhood. Did creating this album also involve meeting astronauts?
Eric Serra: Yes, I had some contacts in this field. I wanted to put myself in the shoes of an astronaut. I watched all the interviews given by Thomas Pesquet, rewatched all the films on the subject like “The Right Stuff”: pure gold for astronauts. I met several astronauts like Thomas and Luca Parmitano. I was like a kid at Disneyland.
Boris Beaudoin (subscriber): I wandered around La Cité de l’Espace while listening to your album. It added another dimension to the visit. For “Space Projekt,” you wrote the concept album. Does that change the way you write music compared to film music?
Eric Serra: A bit. For film music, I am at the service of the director to fulfill their dream. Here, it’s my own. When a director is lucky enough to have found a composer with whom he understands each other, usually, they continue. This explains all the duos: Luc and me, Sergio Leone and Ennio Morricone.
La Dépêche du Midi: After “The Big Blue,” there were still beautiful scores: “Nikita,” “Atlantis,” “Léon.” You shifted to being a film music composer, even though you had other projects, right?
Eric Serra: The success of “The Big Blue” changed my life financially. I started traveling a lot. That was the most enriching thing in life. I would come back from time to time to work with Luc: only successes. And “GoldenEye” for James Bond as well. I went gold every time, but I missed the stage. I started considering forming my own band, then I released my first solo album, “RXRA,” in 1998. With my jazz fusion group, we reinterpret my music, play completely differently, and improvise on it.
La Dépêche du Midi: Tell us about your concert scheduled at the Zénith in Toulouse on November 25th.
Eric Serra: It’s not with the jazz fusion group. It’s a retrospective concert of my career with versions close to the original music.
La Dépêche du Midi: Performing with symphonic music to give a stronger dimension to your music, does that interest you?
Eric Serra: With “Atlantis,” I started working on symphonic writing with an orchestra. I mix it with African percussion, synths, electric guitars. I try to do it elegantly, so it’s not a patchwork. “Arthur and the Invisibles,” for example, is 95% symphonic. I love conducting an orchestra, it’s magical like “Harry Potter.” When you play an instrument, you become what you are playing.
La Dépêche du Midi: You are a self-taught musician, compose music. Being on stage is still great.
Eric Serra: I did it naturally, out of passion. My father, who was a singer, gave me my first guitar at the age of five. He would say, “If you’ve found music, you won’t need to ask me how to play.” He never insisted. He had that intelligence. Music remained for me a universe of total freedom. I do what I want. I am a natural self-taught, it’s my way of evolving.
[source: La Dépêche Du Midi]
Note: The article discusses Eric Serra’s career, passion for space, and upcoming concert at the Zénith in Toulouse on November 25th, 2026.
