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L’Étrangleuse

Dances et stridencies

Line up

Mélanie Virot
harp, vocal
Maël Salètes
guitare, jeli n’goni, vocal
Léo Dumont
percussions, vocal
Anne Godefert
guitar bass, vocal
Sébastien Guichard
(La Fraise) 
sound

photos © Bertrand Gaudillère – collectif ITEM

Contact

BOOKING
Thibault Gléréan

tib@la-curieuse.com
+33 (0)6 60 68 26 08

CO-LABEL
Compagnie 4000
admin@compagnie4000.com

ARTISTIC
letrangleuse@gmail.com

Supports

• “Périscope – Musiques Innovantes”

Follow them !

• NEW ALBUM > JUNE 7, 2024 • PRODUCTION LA CURIEUSE & LA COMPAGNIE 4000

L’étrangleuse is two girls and two boys who play a form of undefined minimalist rock and four-part free song, amplifying the dialogue between a pedal harp in bird’s-eye maple and a djéli n’goni in goatskin, underpinned by the archaic grooves of a rhythm section adorned with trinkets.

L’étrangleuse’s shelter is a Touareg tent lost in the immensity of the frozen tundra, where the spirits of The Ex and Brigitte Fontaine stir up secret hymns of a new structure for the world, finally governed by poetry.

Elusive and irresistible, the music plunges us into a darkness which owes as much to the twilight of the old world as to the dawn of the wide-open spaces where furious dances of joy are crackling and popping. Squeaking bows and materials stuck between the strings, saturation and percussion of incongruous objects, feverish spinning and psychedelic choruses are the charms of this nuanced trance.

Poems, manifestos, dreams or nightmares, it could ultimately be that the songs only speak of reality. As Philip K. Dick said, “Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn’t go away”.

Tirelessly tracking the magic of almost nothing, for 15 years L’étrangeuse has been composing the modal and unconventional soundtrack of a long waking dream, drawing its inspiration from the traditional tunes of a country that does not exist.

Formed by Mélanie Virot, a classical harpist used to taking her imposing instrument far from its usual and unamplified contexts, combining contemporary dance and improvised music, and Maël Salètes, veteran of Orchestre Tout Puissant Marcel Duchamp and long-time accomplice of the Somaliland singer Sahra Halgan, the original duo has released 3 albums and played more than 300 concerts, from tiny European squats, barns and attics, to prestigious stages and festivals such as Les Suds in Arles, No Border, the Peristyle-Opéra Underground festival or the Nuits de Fourvière and the Nuits Sonores.

With a fourth album in June 2024, their first as a quartet, L’Étrangleuse dynamites its original post-rock chamber music with Anne Godefert, bassist and singer from the electronic music scene, and Léo Dumont drummer + objects, who is no stranger to sonic audacity (Chromb , Pixvae, An’ Pagay, Polymorphie…)

On stage, the pieces stretch out, the sound of the group captivates hearts in a contemplative reverie, inexorably leading bodies into a frenetic dance.

Studio session :

Videos

At the Opera of Lyon - 2021 (interviews in French)
Ville en flamme - video clip 2019
Coïncidences - 2020
Ville en flamme - 2020

Albums

Dans le Lieu du non-où

2019

Mélanie Virot harp, vocal
Maël Salètes vocal, guitar, jeli n’goni, percussions, textes (except 3 Claude Lévi-Strauss in “Tristes Tropiques”)

Seven years after their first album and three years after “Memories To Come” (produced by John Parish), the duo has conceived a third disc, “Dans Le Lieu Du Non-Où” (“In The Place Of No-Where”), completely sung in French and recorded at home. From dances of enchantment to end-of-the-world ballads, their new repertoire gives pride of place to the rotations of the jeli n’goni (Malian lute), while the harp borrows saturation and breaks from the electric guitar.

Dans le Lieu du non-où

1. Coincidences
2. Ville en Flamme
3. Par sa Genèse
4. Charcenne
5. Vertige et Vérité
6. Herbes Folles
7. Bois l’Eau
8. Silence
9. Messine
10. Dans le Lieu du Non-Où
11. L’Arrivée
12. Loisieux

Listen & order the album

Credits

Production la Curieuse
Distribution l’Autre Distribution
Recording & mix La Fraise à La Baume-Cornillane
Mastering Mathieu Monnot
Draw Pauline Souchaud
Artwork Pierre Chanel & Pauline Souchaud

Promenade / Parasol

2017

New songs by L’Etrangleuse with two invited singers Rachael Dadd and Gabi Kenderessi. Include download of the digital bonus track innocent.

Mélanie Virot harp
Maël Saletes guitare
Rachael Dadd vocal
Gabi Kenderesi vocal
John Parish drums, shaker

Promenade / Parasol

Limited Edition 7″ Vinyl
Face A : Promenade
Face B : Parasol

listen & order the album

Credits

Promenade :

Production John Parish
Label Les Disques de Plomb
Recorded and mixed by  John Paris & Ali Chant
Toy Box Studios in Bristol, 2015

Parasol :
Recorded and mixed by
Fred “Brain” Monestier
La Bobine, Grenoble (FR), 2011

Memories to come

2015

In testing their singular edifice in the crucible of the stage, the duo has forged an expertise whose limits are stretched by this new album ‘Memories To Come’. Advancing along the same tightrope, succeeding, mastering and venturing further. All of which was guided by the ear of the English producer John Parish (PJ Harvey, Eels, Dominique A, among others).

Mélanie Virot harp, vocal
Maël Saletes guitare, vocal, jeli n’goni
G.W. Sok vocal on « Caged Bird »
John Parish drums, bongos, bass, piano, tambourin, synth on 1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

Memories to come

1. Do I
2. The I try
3. Doesn’t Matter
4. Coincidence
5. L’un languit
6. Noise
7. Drifting around
8. Ed
9. Who we are
10. Caged bird

Listen & order the album

Credits

Production la Curieuse
John Parish
Labels Les Disques de Plomb
Red Wig
Distribution l’Autre Distribution
Recorded by Ali Chant
Mixed by John Parish & Ali Chant
Toy box Studios in Bristol
Mastered by John Parish & Shawn Joseph (Optimum Mastering Bristol)

 

Self titled

2012

Mélanie Virot harp, vocal
Maël Saletes guitare, vocal
Aymeric Krol calebasse on 2, 3, 4, 10, 12
G.W. Sok vocal on « Dead bodies under christmas trees » and « Writer’s Blog »

Self titled

1. (…)
2. All the things
3. Dear
4. Meeting withe the Kankouran
5. Janvier
6. Kasyak Lubvie
7. Television
8. Writer’s blog
9. Dead bodies under christmas trees
10. Corner of the eyes
11. Collision time
12. If I crawl

Listen & order the album

Credits

Production & label Undergrouille, Les Disques de Plomb
Recorded and mixed by Brain
Mastered by Matthieu Monnot
(Eyemat Mastering Studio Lyon)