M83 - A Necessary Escape (Dakar Chronicles Original Soundtrack)

M83 heads into the desert on A Necessary Escape, Anthony Gonzalez's 2025 score for a documentary about the Dakar Rally, pressed here on 180-gram vinyl.

The film, directed by French actor and filmmaker Jalil Lespert, follows the world's most punishing off-road race across two gruelling weeks of desert terrain, with access to drivers including Sébastien Loeb, Nasser Al-Attiyah, Carlos Sainz and Stéphane Peterhansel. Known as Dakar Chronicles in France, it gave Gonzalez a canvas as wide as the dunes. He recorded the music in France and the US with longtime M83 collaborators Joe Berry and Clément Libes, making this his fourth soundtrack album.

Fans of M83's grand, cinematic synth work will feel right at home. A three-part title suite frames the record, with "A Necessary Escape (Part 2)" unfolding over more than eight minutes of slow-building wonder. "Strike Machine" surges with driving momentum, while "Atlas Imperial" and "Echoes" let shimmering textures drift and swell like heat haze over sand.

It is music of motion and endurance, made for headphones and long drives, and a striking addition to a discography that has always sounded like a film waiting to happen. Even without the images, the heat, dust and sheer stubbornness of the race come through.