In spring 2020, French songstress Sophia Djebel Rose released “La Louve” on Reverb Worship | Future Grave Records, which saw her music compared to that of Linda Perhacs, although the feel of her music puts me more in mind of a more brooding version of Mellow Candle.
On 21st March 2022, Sophia will release her new album Métempsycose via Red Wig Records & Oracle Records. From that album, we have the pleasure of sharing the accompanying video for Vénus below.
Whoever she may put you in mind of, she has a remarkable voice that is quite mesmerising. There is a reference to mourning in the accompanying press, which may sound strange, but when you hear her, you’ll understand. Far from being a sad sound, her voice is quite mesmerising and ethereal.
Sophia Djebel Rose composes and records somewhere lost in the depths of the Massif Central songs, which invoke the power of black forests and clear waters, of seasons, of death, of revolt and of love. If you ask her, Sophia will tell you first that she is a mourner. Yes, a mourner: as was done in Ancient Greece, Egypt or the Maghreb. She carries with her the sorrows and joys of all and her singing is a prayer that she offers. But beyond this raw esoteric approach, the folk of Sophia Djebel Rose will also take you back to the origins of the genre. And as the Anglo-Saxon world had Léonard Cohen, Pentangle, Buffy Sainte Marie or even Daniel Higgs, France has now found its muse of acid folk.
Sophia tells us:
This song was written in a matter of minutes, about two days before I started recording the album. I wrote it without thinking about it. For pleasure and to relax myself after long hours of rehearsals to be ready for the studio. But the song stuck in my head, and it became clear to me that if Botticelli’s Venus could sing, this is what she would sing. It’s as if Venus herself dictated the text to me. His song is conquering, gentle, protective and free at the same time. This icon frozen in a silent image that seemed more made to satisfy male desire needed a sassy and proud voice. My song is that voice.
Bandcamp: https://sophiadjebelrose.bandcamp.com/