Gallic wheeze:
Camille is well known in her native France for making music with a distinctly avant-garde flavour, but has enough pop-leanings that make her work also suitable for perfume adverts and collaborations with lounge-pop outfit Nouvelle Vague. OUi, her fifth solo album, sees her pitched somewhere between a French Bjork and a French Kate Bush.
Minimalist soundscapes dominate, centred on thunderous drums (a Camille staple) and a faintly menacing analogue Moog synthesiser. Front and centre throughout is her voice, which goes from a sultry whisper to demented shriek (sometimes within the space of a single song).
Camille herself has described the tracks on the album as ‘politically charged’, but playful and inspired by her experiences of motherhood. This may well be the case, but inevitably most of this subtext is lost on the non-French speaking listener.
Nevertheless, this ethereal mix of drums, synths, choirs, coughs, gasps and whispers is enchanting.
James JW Robinson 