Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 - A Painted Symphony | My experience

To avoid post-concert depression, I need to talk about the concert

Note: I recommend having this playlist in the background while reading for a full experience

Warning: A lot of pictures.

I was hoping to publish this sooner, but a lot has happened in real life, so it sat in my drafts for a bit. Trying to strike a balance between being detailed but also not too long was not an easy task, so I changed things up a bit, but here it finally is!

Ever since it came out, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has been the talk of the town. It especially gathered a lot of attention after it swept all the awards at the award shows. And if you know me even just a little, you probably know that this game had a huge impact on me. And after sitting on it for a while, I’ve come to the conclusion that the soundtrack was probably the biggest factor as to why it had such a hold on me.

I’ll give it to you straight: The soundtrack of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is one of the best I’ve ever heard. If there is one thing that most people agree on about this game, it’s how beautiful its soundtrack is. I loved it to the point where it dominated my Spotify Wrapped last year¹, with Une vie à t’aimer comfortably placing right at the top.

So when they announced that they would be having a concert tour in Europe, I was over the moon. It also coincided with my move to Spain, which facilitated things a great deal because it meant that I didn’t have to deal with visa stuff (a nightmare for anyone living in ‘‘developing countries’’, as much as I hate the term).

Buying the concert tickets was very tough because I knew they would sell out very fast, but I wasn’t expecting it to be that chaotic. Both my husband and I were trying to get tickets at the same time, and he ended up getting tickets to Geneva. However, I had my eyes on the concert in Lille. I spent a whole year as an exchange student in Lille back in 2016-2017, and I had been waiting for a chance to go back there and see the city with a new perspective. This proved to be the perfect opportunity. After a lot of waiting and some frustration, I ended up getting the Lille tickets, and we put the Geneva tickets on sale.

I was so happy. Getting to visit one of my favorite places in the world while attending a concert of one of my favorite games? I couldn’t have asked for a better setting. Actually getting to Lille was the tricky part since there was no direct flight there, but we decided to take the opportunity to visit Paris first, then take the train to Lille.

So I decided to write about my experience to recount and remember what took place during this amazing weekend.

The Trip

We took the flight from Seville to Paris on May 1st. We had both been to Paris before, so it was a more relaxed sightseeing for us. Paris is actually way more beautiful than I remembered. I think they changed a lot of the car traffic in the city and made it way less chaotic. At night, the Eiffel Tower looked beautiful but it was INCREDIBLY crowded. Thankfully, we found a place near the river that had a direct view of the tower.

On the morning of May 2nd, we took the train to Lille, and my husband commented that it was one of the most comfortable trains he’d ever been on. I agreed. Lille was way more crowded than I expected, and I realized that I had forgotten a lot of things. Still, it was very nice to stroll around the city and bask in the nostalgia. It felt great.

Then the concert was in the evening, and it took around 2 hours. After the concert, I was hoping to take my husband for a beer (my favorite beer during my exchange was Kasteel Rouge, and I wanted to let him try it) but we were exhausted, so we returned to our hotel.

The next day, I got to see my old campus and dorm, which gave me such a kick in the gut. I immediately texted and sent photos to my old friends from those days, and I felt incredibly grateful for them. Despite a lot of hardships and distance, I’m so happy that I’m still in contact with them. I know that I sometimes take it for granted.

Anyway, then we returned to Paris by train, and from there back to Seville. We were incredibly tired, but every second of it was worth it.

Now, on to the main event: the concert.

The Concert

I’m not going to go over all the songs for the sake of brevity (the post is long enough already), but if you want to check out which songs were played, you can check out the setlist here. For now, I want to focus on the songs that stuck out to me, though every single song was incredibly impressive, so I find it hard not to just talk about all of them.

Links to the original songs will be included in the song titles below.

The concert arena, Zénith de Lille, was packed to the brim with people wearing berets, striped shirts, checkered scarves, and some people with full-on cosplays. It felt incredible to be a part of this crowd and see the passion emanating from the fans. I was ready to be a part of this crowd with my baguette costume which I had prepared long beforehand.

To my absolute horror, I realized right as I was getting ready that I didn’t have my red beret with me, which is arguably THE most important article of clothing for the baguette costume. I immediately went to the shopping mall to look for a new one, but I couldn’t find one. However, I did find an incredibly cute checkered bowtie hair clip that fit very well with the theme, so it worked out in the end.

Alicia

The incredible main menu theme of the game was also our intro to the concert. And what an intro that was! I could see the whole vibe of the arena changing as Alice Duport-Percier set the mood with her beautiful voice. She is an incredible storyteller, able to convey a narrative with just her voice and mannerisms. The emotion in her voice is unmatched, even in a made-up language.

Departure / Taking Down the Paintress

As the title suggests, this song signals the expedition going on its way to take down the Paintress, and it is as hype as you would expect. I felt ready to fight my way through Nevrons and reach the Paintress as this song played.

Alice Duport-Percier singing the solemn “Au Clair-Obscur” phrase that plays when we see the “Expedition Failed” screen, making the audience laugh

In Lumière’s Name

This is the song that plays whenever you fight a Mime. During the concert, one of the most memorable moments happened when the accordionist came in wearing a French beret and handed a baguette broken in two to the conductor. The conductor proceeded to conduct the orchestra with the baguettes in hand. It was such an adorable moment, and it was heartwarming to see them embracing this meme so much.

The most French thing I've ever witnessed

Goblu / Rain from the Ground

In the game, Goblu is the song that plays as you make your way through Flying Waters, which is arguably one of the most beautiful areas of the game. It is a very serene and atmospheric song. On the other hand, Rain from the Ground plays when you actually fight the boss Goblu, and it is an incredible techno banger. I’m always like this whenever this song plays.

They combined these two songs amazingly in the concert, and I could barely contain myself and not dance. A few other people were bopping their heads like I was, but most of the audience was much calmer than I had expected.

She was very cool

Monoco / Gestral Market / Golgra

One of the hypest moments of the show happened when we got to this trio of songs. Monoco’s theme is my husband’s favorite, mainly due to the funky saxophone, so we had been waiting for it. When the saxophonist came in, we all cheered. And as Gestral Market started playing, we heard even more cheers from the left side of the audience, and 3 seconds later, we saw the reason why: there was a giant Esquie, floating onto the stage! He made his way to the audience and started gliding above us! Golgra’s theme started playing, and Esquie continued flying above while Lorian and the saxophone guy were shredding it up on the stage. Esquie flew around until the songs finished and then went back inside, saying goodbye in his original voice.

Feeling WHEEEE

Lampmaster

The Lampmaster is a very memorable boss at the end of Act 1, where you have to shoot the lamps on the boss to be able to defeat it. What they did in the concert was very cool and fitting: there were lamps on the stage that looked like the lamps from the game, and after a moment of silence, they started lighting up one by one with a bell sound, just like the boss fight, and then they started to play the song.

I think this song has to be one of the hardest to perform, due to how quickly the notes change, how challenging the vocals are, and how difficult it must be to stay on beat, but it was nothing less than stellar during the concert.

Verso

Opening the “Act 2” of the concert with this song was an incredibly fitting choice, as the Act 2 of the game is also called Verso, and we get introduced to the mentioned character. As it is a piano-only piece, only the pianist, Orane Donnadieu, was on the stage, and she actually looked strikingly similar to Verso to the point where the conductor had joked about her being the inspiration for Verso’s design.

The piece itself is a very touching one, and it is very intricate, so much so that I had doubted that it was meant for just two hands. But the pianist was amazing and graceful, and set the mood for Act 2 of the concert.

Robe de Jour / Poème d'Amour / Portrait Imparfait

The Axons in the game are beautiful creatures, impactful bosses, and have some of the best music. Portrait Imparfait, in particular, has been a favorite of mine. The impeccable combination of heavy strings, accented drums, and crazy vocal harmonies really drives it home. It was even more goosebump-inducing during the concert, where they amped it up to eleven. Robe de Jour and Poème d’Amour have a more whimsical vibe, whereas Portrait Imparfait is a more dramatic song. The delayed harmonies in Portrait Imparfait, especially at the 2:17 mark, were incredible to witness live.

Portrait Imparfait was sung by Axelle Verner, Marie-Cécile Henry-Brossard and Eugénie Loiseau. The main singer Alice took a break during this, and the trio proved that they can bring in the amazing energy and talent that Alice always brings. Hearing this song live was an exceptional experience, and it really elevated one of my favorite songs in the soundtrack to another level. I cannot praise it enough, honestly. One of my favorite performances of the night for sure.

Our Drafts Collides & Lost Voice

These were different songs that played back to back, but I’m combining them here because the effect they had on me during the concert was similar. In the game, Our Drafts Collides² plays during the famously cruel choice at the end. Lost Voice plays during the end of the equally famous prologue, the one that imprinted itself into the minds of so many people. So both of these play at incredibly impactful moments of the game, and hearing them will probably take you back to those moments.

I was emotional during the whole concert, but it was at this point that tears finally ran down my face.

Both songs describe a tragedy, something irreversible and emotionally charged. Alice Duport-Percier and Axelle Verner were at the forefront of both of these songs, delivering a spectacular performance.

During Our Drafts Collides, they stood facing each other, mirroring almost exactly the moment of the grand choice at the end of the game, and they sang their hearts out. In the middle, Lorien himself stepped up and delivered the emotional speech that gave me goosebumps.

The two singers then sang Lost Voice, a song that contains no lyrics, just a haunting, emotional harmony of humming. It was impossible not to think of the scene with Sophie and Gustave as both Alice and Axelle hummed in harmony, with the strings softly accompanying in the background.

Nos vies en Lumière (Une vie à peindre / Une vie à t’aimer / Une vie à rêver)

Nos vies en Lumière (Our lives in Lumière) is a compilation of Une vie à t’aimer (A life to love you), Une vie à rêver (A life to dream) and Une vie à peindre (A life to paint). With each song being 11 minutes, the total is 33 minutes.

I don’t really remember if they actually played for 33 minutes. I think they did, but I was too mesmerised to actually look at the time. I had always dreamt of seeing Une vie à t’aimer live ever since I played the game, and now my dream was coming true — I wasn’t going to stop and look at the time.

The original male singer, Victor Borba, apparently does not do live shows. To make up for it, they found a nice solution and recruited Miki Martz, a fan who uploaded a short cover of Une vie à t’aimer back in May 2025.

Miki Martz, to his credit, is an amazing singer, very stable and strong. His positive energy was contagious. However, one thing that I’ll have to note here is that his voice does not have the same raspy quality to his voice as Victor Borba’s. Miki embraces a more operatic approach to singing, which changes the vibes of the song quite a bit. In the original, Alice’s voice has a sorrowful and haunting tone, whereas Victor’s voice has a gruff and coarse quality to it that conveys yearning and pleading, which fits the game’s narrative perfectly. As you listen to it, you can easily imagine Renoir begging for Aline to come back while Aline is lost in her own grief. I felt that this was unfortunately lost in the concert version.

Despite this, Alice and Miki had great synergy on stage. They were both very theatrical, conveying the meaning of the song perfectly. There was also a moment where they danced together cutely, which I adored.

This part of the concert, where they tirelessly played Nos vies en Lumière, was truly something to behold. The energy, the drama, the theatrics were all incredible — to the point where, after the concert, my husband commented that it seemed like a rock concert at this part.

It was incredible and worth every second.

Maelle

This is the proper French version of Alicia, and the song that plays during the credits if you’ve chosen a particular option at the end. This is when you actually understand what the intro song is about. During the second chorus in the concert, they showered the stage in red and white petals, and everyone wowed and cheered. The petals falling down on stage and on the audience looked so beautiful, and after the concert, I (and a few others) immediately went to collect a few as a memento.

Lumière

I think one of the advantages of attending the concert in France was that everyone knew the lyrics to this song by heart, and as the singers prompted the audience to clap their hands, everyone sang along. It was a magical experience to be a part of this atmosphere. The stage was showered in petals again, and Esquie entered the stage once again, gliding happily above us.

Aux Lendemains non Écrits

To our surprise (or to the people who didn’t look at the setlist beforehand), after everyone left the stage, Alice and Lorien took the stage again and sat down in the middle. So this was the second encore of the concert, and the last song they played.

Aux Lendemains non Écrits (To the Unwritten Tomorrows) plays if you choose the other option at the end of the game, and it’s an incredibly poignant piece. It is melancholic, but also hopeful. It felt incredibly fitting that the people who brought this soundtrack to life were the ones to stay until the end and finish the concert.

This was the song that brought it all together, and a great closing act for this grand concert.

Overall thoughts

You can probably tell that I can get quite passionate about music. I think that it’s a great way to express yourself, or an incredible tool for storytelling. This concert only made my thoughts about video game music stronger. You could feel the passion in the air, both from the fans and the artists themselves. You could tell that they loved being on stage, that they were proud to be a part of this tour, and being able to do something that they loved. This passion definitely bled into the crowd as well, and the cheers were monumental — people were stomping their feet at times because they felt simply clapping was not enough.

Also, apologies for the quality of some of the pictures — the low-quality ones are screenshots from the videos and didn’t come out the best, but I still felt like including them would be nice.

And of course, I got some merch from the concert

Would attend again, 10/10 experience.

To the unwritten tomorrows <3

1. Which I talked about a bit here:

My top 10 games of 2025 | Part 2

2. Yes, the song title contains an error, though it doesn’t make it any less of an emotionally charged song.