Written by Alain Souchon with a music composed by Voulzy, it was the lead single from his third studio album Caché derrière, on which it appears as the eighth track, and was released in June 1992.

Almost a year and a half later, when he was driving on the Paris ring road, Porte de Bagnolet, Voulzy had "a flash" when reviewing the model of "Paradoxal Système", particularly when re-reading the sentence: "At night, trains travel to cities and faces".

He explained: "These phrases about the unspoken, the loneliness, the sadness, the regrets when you leave someone on a station platform, that was exactly what I wanted to express"; he then understood that the song is "urban, terrestrial, in motion" and about "rails, fog, travel".

"Paradoxal Système" is the only song in his discography, along with "Jeanne", which gives him "a very strong feeling" as it seems to him that "it comes from somewhere else", and he thinks he is traveling to Belgium every time he performs it.

[1][2] When reviewing the new singles releases, Pan-European magazine Music & Media stated: "Is this the male equivalent of Mylène Farmer?