‘Tyger, Tyger, burning bright/In the forests of the night.’ William Blake’s famous poem The Tyger is cited in the first track of Emily Loizeau’s third album, Mothers & Tygers. A very delicate, folky affair with English and French songs. She has a French mamam and an English dad, on her earlier albums she sang both in French and English. At first, she wanted to make an English album. But later on she decided not to go against her bilingual upbringing. Family, the relationship between mothers and daughters and the poetry of William Blake (read to her as a little girl by her grandmother) are recurring themes on this album. Em’s a mom herself, which made her think back of her own childhood and the tiger-like wildness she felt back then. At least, that’s what she says in this interview.
Emily sings two duets, one with Camille, and another (Blake’s The Angel set to music) with Herman Düne’s singer David-Ivar Herman Düne – both work very, very well. Because of Loizeau’s roots, you never cringe when she sings in English, her beautiful, slightly hoarse vocals are set to banjo’s, strings, acoustic guitars and percussion. Lesser leftfield sounds then on her sophpmore album, more restrained. Not the all-out party folk of, say, Mumford and Sons. But more like in earlier single Vol le chagrin des oiseaux.
