“QUE CE SOIT CLAIR,” the second single from Paul Kalkbrenner’s highly anticipated new album THE ESSENCE, has quickly become a standout fan favorite at festivals and in clubs around the world. The track marks a powerful reunion with Belgian superstar Stromae—a collaboration rooted in history. Back in 2009, Kalkbrenner delivered a remix of Stromae’s breakout single “Te Quiero.” Now, more than a decade later, the two reconnect as equals, bringing their shared creative energy into a bold new chapter.
Built on pounding four-to-the-floor kicks, pulsing synths, and Stromae’s commanding spoken-word delivery, “QUE CE SOIT CLAIR” translates to “Just to be clear…” Its message is as direct as its sound: love without boundaries—beyond nations, origins, and categories. What matters is connection, raw and unfiltered.
The single arrives with a striking video directed by Kelzang Ravach of Temple Caché, celebrated for his surreal and hybrid visual language. Set in a dreamlike parallel Berlin, the film places viewers inside Stromae’s perspective as he stumbles into a Kalkbrenner-led party where bodies, light, and space dissolve into one another. Through shifting canvases and morphing imagery, Ravach channels nightlife at its most fluid and cosmic.
“It reminded me of nights in Berlin — pushing open a door, not knowing where it would lead, and suddenly finding yourself immersed in something bigger than yourself,” Ravach explains. “That’s the feeling I wanted to recreate. You’re inside the party and outside it at the same time, until Stromae appears, and you realize you’ve been seeing it through his eyes all along.”
On screen, Kalkbrenner emerges as a sonic architect, shaping the atmosphere with his gestures, while Stromae drifts through the chaos, glimpsed only in fragments until the final reveal. The result is less about traditional storytelling and more about sensory immersion—a cinematic reflection of the rave as a borderless, transformative space.
THE ESSENCE itself took shape over several years in Kalkbrenner’s apartment, a setting that blended mid-century modern with 1970s luxury—tungsten bulbs, vintage TVs, palm trees, stone, wood, and fur. The environment gave rise to a collection of tracks that he describes as his most authentic work to date.
“It’s about the essential,” Kalkbrenner says. “This is an album I can truly stand behind. My other records may have bigger hits, but they always had filler. This one doesn’t. Not even a filler moment.”
Born in 1977 and raised amid the first wave of ’90s rave culture, Paul Kalkbrenner has always carved his own path—favoring live performance over DJ sets. By the time Berlin Calling and his global anthem “Sky & Sand” cemented his reputation, he had already become a cultural icon bridging club culture, cinema, and the main stage. With eight albums, sold-out arena tours, headline slots at Tomorrowland, and even an invitation from the German government to perform for 400,000 people at the Berlin Wall anniversary, Kalkbrenner hasn’t just shaped electronic music—he has redefined its boundaries.
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