Monthly Archives: May 2025

Vanille

Vanille (Canadian chanteuse Rachel Leblanc) released a new and VERY brilliant single this week. Of course, it’s full of retro vibes, and of course it’s a tearjerker about lost love: ‘Mais à quoi bon mourir seule dans cette vie aux mille pleurs?’ (But what’s the point of dying alone in this life of a thousand tears?). Ths is golden Filles Sourires material. Wrote about Rachel earlier, see.

Also this week, a new single by another Vanille was released, a French version of the bossa nova classic Aguas de Março, written by Antonio Carlos Jobim, French lyrics by Pierre Barouh. This Vanille, actually called Vanille for real, is the daughter of famous French singer Julien Clerc.

But wait, there’s ANOTHER artist with the Vanille-moniker, also French, from Paris, I give you dj/producer Vanille Ferragu.

If you really dive into it, you’ll find even more Vanille’s. It’s a vanilla world people, we just live in it.

Pearl & the Oysters

Quoting from the Stones Throw website, on the new single by bossa nova & bleeps loving duo Pearl & the Oysters: ‘Sous La Lune Mandarine is “an abstract attempt at describing the horrifying night when the Eaton fire broke out in Los Angeles,” P&tO-members Juju and Jojo say. The fires affected many of Pearl’s friends and collaborators from nearby Altadena.

“Sous la lune mandarine” translates to “under the mandarin moon”, and pays homage to Brazilian-influenced French artists like Cortex and Pierre Barouh – and early 1970s Brazilian music (like Banda Black Rio).

Oddly enough the first French song by Pearl & the Oysters, a duo who met & were born in Paris and then moved to the US. Fun interview HERE

Extra MPA

Marie-Pierre Arthur released an updated version of her Album Bleue, with four mostly acoustic versions of her songs. One is new (Brille Autant), the others have electric counterparts. The new versions are delicate like freshly combed mohair sweaters. I really dig the 70s referencing Respirer l’air, a solid track on the album earlier, now the focus is even more on the choirs.

Le Pain

Wrote about Le Pain earlier, this L.A. based quartet released their first lp recently. It features jangly, 60s sundrenched pop in English, and a few breezy French songs, the are in the vein of Les Breastfeeders and Clothilde. The sweet Etendue is upbeat and sunny.

Giorgio Lopez & Stella

If you see an album cover like this, you kinda know what you’re going to get, no? Eighties vibes, electronics, sunny splashes and computerbass. And that’s exactly what Napolitean producer Giorgio Lopez serves on his upcoming Sud des îles. ‘A musical travelogue, following fictional skipper Georges Taty and his crew of musicians aboard the sailboat “Sud des Îles”, caught between racing waves, late-night jams, and dockside dreams.’

Electronic dreams, that is. References to Italo disco, Jan Hammer, Kassav’ and other 80s zouk music, French boogie house and the like, and the cool voice of label mate Stella. Whose music has that same retro vibe, listen to her 2022 album HERE.

Bibi Club extra

Canadian duo Bibi Club released a revised version of their 2024 album Feu de garde, with extra tracks. Including a Stereolab cover.

This acoustic version of Le Feu is very cool:

Lou-Adriane again

A new album by Lou-Adriane Cassidy, the Canadian songstress who delighted us earlier this year with an album called ‘Journal d’un loup garou’. ‘If that album was my psychotherapie, ‘Triste Animal’ is maybe my psychoanalysis’, she explains on her instagram. The result is 8 songs, recorded mostly live, with a soulful undertone. Very tender, very good.

Art Longo

Dub, wah-wah, echo, early synths and French femme fatale vocals. Art Longo is your new favorite band if these key words are close to your heart. It’s a duo, Gustav Jennefors makes all the sounds, Claudia Jonas (pictured) pouts, sighs and sings. Claudia made a few pop singles earlier, that aren’t that interesting. This is way more up the Filles Sourires alley: