Towards the end of last year, we shared the video for Vénus by the French songstress Sophia Djebel Rose and taken from her forthcoming new album Métempsycose, to be released on 21 March via Red Wig Records & Oracle Records.
While the album has been described as unclassifiable folk music, it’s also been compared to Buffy Sainte Marie’s Illuminations, Nico’s Desertshore and Catherine Ribeiro + Alpes’ work.
Today we have the pleasure of sharing the video for the opening song Le Palais – a palace, a shelter for people who have chosen to walk on arduous paths. Sophia filmed it around her house in the heart of winter with the promise of summer. She offered the following translation: “There was no door or windows, but we entered. There was no table or chairs, but we ate there. There was no bed or sheets but we loved each other there.”
The dream-like bleakness that permeated Nico’s Desertshore was heightened by simple harmonium and beautifully framed through John Cale’s arrangements, who co-produced the album with Joe Boyd. A similar depth resonates throughout Le Palais, on which Sophia’s vocals shine. Sung over a simple guitar motif, they are rich, smooth, vibrant and alluring. Even the homemade blurred images she uses are reminiscent of the desolate desert landscape used by Philippe Garrel for La cicatrice intérieure, the stills of which were used on Desertshore.
Despite the desolation, there’s an inviting gracefulness and warmth to Sophia Djebel Rose’s music which is both simple and complex; impossible to resist.
Order Métempsycose via Bandcamp: https://sophiadjebelrose.bandcamp.com/