Hip bossa nova? Catch a new wave

Fusing post-punk’s brooding atmospherics with the lilting sway of bossa nova doesn’t sound like it should work, conceptually. The sounds of Joy Division, the Cure and other bands of the era seem too dark and inorganic to complement the gentle rhythms of Brazil. But listen to French group Nouvelle Vague, and you’ll hear the best sort of cover band -- one that takes the raw materials of familiar songs and radically reframes them without sacrificing any of their original appeal.

“Bossa nova has the same melancholy that I find in new wave,” said Marc Collins, 37, the producer who formed Nouvelle Vague with fellow Frenchman Olivier Libaux, 41. “The two musical genres, there’s something common.”

While it took the trained ears of seasoned producers to make the connection between new wave tracks like Depeche Mode’s “Just Can’t Get Enough” and Brazilian classics like Astrud Gilberto’s “Girl From Ipanema,” it’s the work of eight female singers that brought them to life on the group’s self-titled debut, released in May.

Live at the Hollywood Bowl this Sunday, the rotating cast of female vocalists will be pared to two: Melanie Pain, a French vocalist a la Francoise Hardy who sang on the first album, and Phebe Tolmer, an Australian who appears extensively on the group’s follow-up, which will feature ‘80s classics with a Caribbean makeover.

“It’s not only a Brazilian thing. The idea is to cover ‘80s songs and turn them into different moods and colors,” Collins said. “This is the concept of Nouvelle Vague.”

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-- Susan Carpenter