CATALOGUE
UN RÉSEAU SOLIDAIRE DE TALENTS COMPLÉMENTAIRES
ALVIN CHRIS
URBAIN
Lorsqu’on demande à Alvin Chris d’où est-ce qu’il vient, c’est une question à laquelle il ne sait pas répondre. Né à Mons en Belgique, de parents congolais, c’est à Amiens au nord de la France qu’il grandit.
ANNA B SAVAGE
INDIE
London singer-songwriter Anna B Savage makes question-mark-music, captivating and powerful, navigating various recurring themes including female sexuality, self-doubt … and birds.
ANNA VON HAUSSWOLFF
ROCK
Magic, as old as humanity itself, is the primordial answer to the threat of losing our own presence in the world, the fear of oblivion. From magic the most fascinating, mysterious and enchanting stories are born, but also the most obscure and fatal ones. The death of magic represents the conjuncture of contradictions, the End of the End and the Beginning of the Beginning, the decay of myths and legends, the brutal overthrow of chaos, the end of the world, as we know it.
ATMA CLASSIQUE
CLASSIQUE
Fondée en 1994, ATMA Classique s’est forgé une solide réputation grâce à ses enregistrements d’une superbe qualité sonore, parmi lesquels se distinguent des programmes exécutés par certains des plus brillants musiciens au monde.
AU SUISSE
ELECTRO
At Ohio’s Oberlin College in the early '90s, Morgan Geist spent most of his time cloistered in a dorm room studio, crafting what would become his early techno discography. Across the street at the conservatory, Kelley Polar skipped computer science classes to play Philip Glass and Hindemith, practicing eight hours a day and competing in international viola competitions. A handful of chance meetings occurred over the latest 12” arrivals at the college bookstore: Aphex Twin, Underground Resistance, LFO. The two would cross paths doing late-night shows at the college radio station.
BAPTISTE LAGRAVE
COMPOSITEUR
Baptiste Lagrave est de ces artistes capables de se jeter à l'eau même lorsqu'elle est glacée. Lorsque la musique commence, Baptiste Lagrave nous emmène en immersion
dans une introspection réalisée avec résilience et minutie.
BAYONNE
ELECTRO-POP
Roger Sellers is a lot of things. He’s a minimalist composer with a knack for making hypnotic, enveloping songs from a few repeated musical phrases. He’s a gifted musician who is mostly self-taught, having abandoned formal study because it was draining the life from his work. He’s a self-described disciple of Phil Collins. What he is not, however — despite multiple press reports to the contrary — is a DJ.
BOY HARSHER
ELECTRO
Boy Harsher, the Northampton-based duo of vocalist/lyricist Jae Matthews and producer Augustus Muller, announce their new album The Runner (Original Soundtrack), out January 21st, 2022 on Nude Club/City Slang. Boy Harsher’s fifth release is not a traditional album — it’s the soundtrack to a short horror film written, produced, and directed by the duo titled The Runner which will be released January 2022. The album balances cinematic instrumentals with pop songs that push the boundaries of Boy Harsher’s sound. In conjunction with today’s announcement, they unveil the album’s lead single, “Tower,” and share new tour dates.
CALEXICO
FOLK
The ninth studio album from Calexico, The Thread That Keeps Us is a timely snapshot of the Arizona-bred band: a family portrait capturing their stylistic variety and unpredictability while still finding solace in limitless creativity. In bringing the album to life, vocalist/guitarist Joey Burns and drummer John Convertino found a spiritual home in unusual surroundings—not in Arizona, but on the Northern California coast in a home-turned-studio called the Panoramic House. Built from debris and shipyard-salvaged timber—and dubbed “The Phantom Ship” by the band—the grandiose house and its edge-of-the-world-like ambience soon made their way into the songs. The specter of California also had a powerful effect: as both dream state and nightmare, its infinite duality is mirrored in the music, giving Calexico a new direction and new edge. With less polish and more grit than ever before, The Thread That Keeps Us both honors enduring traditions and reveals Calexico’s confidence in songwriting, ultimately setting a whole new standard for the band.
CARIBOU
ELECTRO-POP
In 2014 Dan Snaith aka Caribou released Our Love to overwhelming critical acclaim and top 5 ‘Album of the Year’ positions for the likes of The Guardian, Mixmag, Loud & Quiet and NME. Now, five years later, Caribou returns with his seventh studio album Suddenly, a warm, untameable and constantly surprising album about family and the changes we go though as those relationships evolve. Our Love was an open-armed exploration of the concept of love in its grandest form, both as an expression of gratitude to his fans and as an examining of that one thing that matters most in life. Suddenly however takes that concept and winnows it down, directly applying it to real life and the people to whom that love means the most.
CLINTISS
PIANO
Clintiss crée une musique pour piano riche et rythmée, pleine de reliefs et de variations. Artiste franco-canadien, il a grandi et étudié en France, puis s'est installé au Canada en 2012. Il fait ses débuts avec Charlie Dahl et le Royal Big Band (2010) puis avec MoooN (2012), dans les deux groupes en tant qu'auteur-compositeur et chanteur principal.
COMA
ELECTRO-POP
Fusing a pop sensibility with dance music’s communal properties, the German duo of Georg Conrad and Marius Bubat create music rich in melody and often melancholy. COMA’s repertoire occupies an emotionally-driven corner of the electronic music spectrum, where dynamic soundscapes collide with honest lyrics.
CORDE
ELECTRO-CLASSIC
À la fois puissant et sauvage, Corde ne trahit pas sa poésie tragique. À travers 10 plages, le groupe donne à écouter tour à tour le parcours d’un scaphandrier, les échanges musclés entre Moby Dick et Achab, la bataille du Texel, les tragiques matinées pendant lesquelles l’on retrouve les migrants échoués sur les plages de la Côte d’Opale, les souvenirs d’enfance l’été…
CUARTO MUNDO
WORLD
Cuarto Mundo est un duo de musique exotique et électronique composé de Thomas Lavernhe et Cosmo Gonik. Il s'inspire des sons traditionnels et primitifs du monde et a pour objectif de faire voyager aux racines mystérieuses du son. Cuarto Mundo signifie Quatrième monde, appellation des peuples indigènes du monde entier. Leur premier single “Sabi Lulu” évoque une mélodie traditionnelle de Java Ouest en Indonésie.
DG SOLARIS
FOLK
DG Solaris est le projet du musicien Danny Green. Danny a grandi dans la région sauvage du West Yorkshire et a commencé à écrire des chansons à 13 ans.
DOMBRANCE
COMPOSITEUR
Auteur-compositeur, chanteur, producteur, remixeur, le virtuose bordelais a commencé sa carrière musicale en 2005, avec la sortie d'un album et de deux singles.
EFTERKLANG
ELECTRO-POP
Every year as spring arrives, a sea of tiny flowers blossom across the Danish forest floor. They’re an explosion of colour, a symbol of hope and change, disappearing as quickly as they arrived and exposing the constant cycle of nature. They are known colloquially as windflowers.
FAZER
JAZZ
Munich’s kraut-jazz band FAZER have shared the first single and video on City Slang. “Grenadier” is a perfect introduction to the FAZER universe. Moving freely between composition and improvisation, the band’s spacious, organic sound pitches lyrical melodies from guitar and trumpet over dual-drummer polyrhythmic grooves and dub-like basslines with a distinct EthioJazz vibe.
FOMO
URBAIN
Anciennement connu sous le nom de Pessoa, FOMO (pour « Fear of missing out », la peur de rater quelque chose) jongle entre chant et rap. Entre instrumentale trap et version acoustique, entre maturité et éternelle enfance.
GEORGETTE
CHANSON
Georgette est Québécoise. Elle propose une pop-choc accrocheuse au dessein féministe et engagé, surfant sur une trame musicale délicate et sucrée. L ’artiste a sorti son premier EP intitulé ‘Funny Girl’, coécrit et coproduit par le producteur Marc Béland a.k.a. Marky Beats.
GOLD PANDA
ELECTRO
Despite the dour track title, “I’ve Felt Better (Than I Do Now)” is a composition packed with soulful breaks and joyous warmth. This first taste of a forthcoming new album shimmies and skips along at a breathless pace, merging kaleidoscopic synths, chopped vocals and Balearic melody. The track is a sparkling reminder of all the qualities that has made Gold Panda one of the key artistic voices from the last decade of electronic music - the sort of effortless wonder that immediately takes you back into his inventive world of melodic electronica, just in time for summer.
GRANDBROTHERS
ELECTRO
Grandbrothers are the sum of unique parts: Progressive Swiss engineer/mechanic/sofware designer Vogel and German-Turkish pianist Sarp. Their second album ‘Open' twins Sarp’s piano skills with Vogel’s talent for both building the formidably intricate mechanics with which he exploits his partner’s instrument and also designing its software. Sarp works at his ivory keyboard while, from behind his own computer keys, Vogel live-samples his partner’s notes, triggering further effects with the aid of homemade apparatus that physically manipulate the piano’s strings and body. “There are hammers I control,” he explains, “which hit different parts to make beats and percussive patterns. In the beginning, I just used an open circuit board I’d constructed without a proper case. It was very fragile and often didn't work. We always had a soldering-iron when we played live.”
IAN CHANG
POP
Ian Chang has built an impressive roster of progressive pop collaborators such as Moses Sumney, Kazu Makino, Joan As Policewoman, Body Language, Matthew Dear and Rubblebucket, among others, all while performing internationally and recording as a member of Son Lux and Landlady. On his solo work, however, his unique, expressive approach to percussion takes centre stage, leading a cyborg - part purring mechanism, part animate bio-mass rising from primordial ooze.
IMANY
CHANSON
Depuis dix ans, la voix grave d’Imany séduit le public français au rythme de compositions nourries de ses inspirations Soul, Folk et Blues. Aujourd’hui elle sort un album de covers insolite avec uniquement des instruments à cordes. Premier single “Wonderful Life”de Black & le nouveau single “The a Team” de Ed Sheeran.
IRENE DRESEL
COMPOSITRICE
Dans un monde techno haut en couleur, sensuel et frontal, Irène Drésel se dépeint comme une artiste polymorphe qui soigne son univers dans les moindres détails
JAKUZI
TURKISH INDIE
Istanbul synth-wave vanguards Jakuzi turned heads in 2017 with the release of their debut album 'Fantezi Müzik’ which showcased their modern Turkish underground music to the world. This record saw the duo go against what you would stereotypically expect from a male-fronted band out of Istanbul – Turkish music is not necessarily known for being a genre where men are introspective - but Jakuzi’s gothic sensibility addressed the personal psychological issues they were facing.
JAMES THE PROPHET
URBAIN
En 2018, il était comme Ulysse devant le cyclope. Personne. Son identité civile traçait des lignes invisibles entre l’Angleterre, la terre maternelle, Brooklyn, la paternelle et la France. James voulait rapper. James (f)rappait déjà comme un monstre.
JOSÉ GONZÁLEZ
INDIE-FOLK
Today, on February 17, 2021 González returns with a new song called “El Invento”. It is the first time the Swedish singer/songwriter recorded a song in Spanish, the native tongue of his Argentinian parents, and coincidentally “El Invento” also marks his first solo release via City Slang, the label that he previously collaborated with for his band project Junip. He recently debuted the track during a live performance in December as part of the 2020 Nobel Prize Award Ceremonies.
KAINA
WORLD
KAINA creates generational music that surpasses borders, a unified expression of her native Chicago, and her Venezuelan and Guatemalan heritage. This cultural fusion is best illustrated on her 2019 debut full-length album Next To The Sun—a project that established her as a leader in a movement of artists whose work hinges on identity and representation.
KING HANNA
INDIE
Hannah Merrick’s recollection of how she and Craig Whittle first set about turning ambition into reality is typically down-to-earth. “I remember wanting a band,” she says, “and that was that. The first thing was to get a guitarist, and that was Craig. But it was never, ‘Let’s just jam’. Instead, as soon as we had our songs together, it was, ‘Let’s build on this. Let’s put a band around it.’” And ‘this’, as others might say, is how the magic began.
LAMBCHOP
HYBRID
Kurt Wagner steps forward, his voice newly unadorned. With the Auto-Tune gild of recent Lambchop records momentarily leached away, his voice is as open and honest as the acoustic guitar and lonesome harmonica that traipse beneath it. The feelings practically pour between the cracks of his stunning baritone, raw for the first time in years. “If I gave you a hundred dollars to record just three words/I could make the perfect song,” he sings, the vulnerability of both voice and verse becoming an emotional revelation as he curls aspirationally around that final phrase. The finale of This, “Flower” is a moment of hope wrought from a static state of quiet hell, a little request for a vow of love before we all cry or drink ourselves to death. This is what he wanted to tell you, plain and simple and pure.
LAURA GIBSON
INDIE
In late summer of 2014, following the release of her highly praised 2012 album La Grande, Laura Gibson packed her things and moved from Portland to New York to study Creative Writing and have some time away from music. For the first part of that journey she took the “Empire Builder”, a legendary train that connects the Pacific North West with Chicago.
LIIMA
INDIE ELECTRO
LIIMA was born as much of breaking old habits as building new habits, and their second album, 1982 (co-produced with Grizzly Bear’s Chris Taylor), provides a masterclass in the benefits of pushing beyond one’s established comfort zones
LOS BITCHOS
WORLD
Los Bitchos: Here To Slay
Panthers prowling through a desert. Cowgirls swaggering into a saloon and kicking up dust. Riding shotgun with a Tarantino heroine. Having the fiesta of your lives under a giant piñata with all your friends. Los Bitchos’ hallucinatory surf-exotica is as evocative as it is playful: the London-based pan-continental group could well be your new favourite party band with their instrumental voyages that are the soundtrack to setting alight to a row of flaming sambucas and losing yourself to the night. They’ve got a bun-tight knack for a groove – and they’ve got the best fringes in rock’n’roll too.
LUCKY LOVE
ELECTRO-POP
Avec la folie d’une rockstar et la modestie d’un poète, Luc Bruyère (aka Lucky Love) a déjà vécu des centaines de vies à seulement 29 ans. Avec une musique habitée par l’esprit de James Blake, David Bowie, Antony & Johnsons ou même Edith Piaf, il sait parfaitement alterner entre électronique, chanson française et sons futuristes.
MACKENZIE LEIGHTON
POP
Originaire de l'État du Maine aux États-Unis, elle commence sa pratique musicale dès l’âge de quatre ans. C’est en 2017 que l’artiste décide de s’envoler pour Paris et de faire de la musique son métier.
MAGON
ROCK
Après une parenthèse de 10 ans, le compositeur-producteur israélo-parisien relance sa carrière solo dans un genre rock psychédélique. Un nouveau départ pour l’ancien du duo remarqué Charlotte & Magon. Puissant et taillé pour la scène, il nous emmène sur des routes sonores délicieusement rétro qui frappent et imprègnent dès la première écoute.
METÒ
FOLK
De prime abord, les mélodies semblent beaucoup trop marquées par la vie au Québec pour être rapprochées d’autres pourvoyeurs de cette folk que l’on joue traditionnellement dans des chemises à carreaux, la barbe à peine taillée.
NADA SURF
ROCK
With their ninth studio album, Nada Surf—Matthew Caws, Daniel Lorca, Ira Elliot, and their longtime friend and collaborator Louie Lino—continue pursuing their humanistic vision of the world through hooky, catchy rock songs with sharply drawn, yet tenderly felt lyrics. Never Not Together, out on TK DATE, is a wide-ranging collection of songs that revel in the group's ability to evoke and reflect grand and intricately wrought emotions, whether through sweeping guitar solos or hushed-whisper vocals.
NEDELKO
URBAIN
Rappeur et chanteur découvert au sein du collectif lyonnais L’Animalerie, Nedelko fusionne influences venues de la musique progressive et expérimentale à un goût pour le rap technique, symétrique, sincère et spontané.
NEW BLEACH
POP
Montréal, le 14 mai 2021 – Formé de Dominic Pelletier et Raphaël Potvin, deux membres du groupe rock Caravane, New Bleach dévoile aujourd’hui son tout premier opus Impressions.
NICOLAS NEIDHARDT
COMPOSITEUR
Nicolas Neidhardt est un compositeur Franco-Américain installé à Los Angeles depuis 2012. Il compose des musiques de trailer avec un premier succès en 2015, « San Andreas ».
NOGA EREZ
ELECTRO
For NOGA EREZ, there was never any doubt that, whatever music she chose to make, and whatever she felt about her homeland, she could never ignore her surroundings. After all, even escapism acknowledges there’s something to escape from, and at times – like many who’ve grown up in Tel Aviv – Erez has wanted to shut herself off from a world rendered beyond comprehension by forces beyond her control. But if there’s one thing Erez isn’t – and sometimes it’s easier to say what artists as complex and fresh as her aren’t than are – it’s naïve. And what this means is simple: her work reflects the manner in which she’s learned to live. As she puts it, “I have this idea of giving people moments of thought and inspiration, and at the same time offering escapism and fun."
PANAVISCOPE
POP
Panaviscope (a.k.a Alex Duloz) est un multi-instrumentiste et artiste visuel de Genève, en Suisse, qui compose, chante et joue tous les instruments que vous pouvez entendre sur ses morceaux.
Leurs influences vont de Pink Floyd et Air à MGMT et Everything Everything. Panaviscope est autant un projet visuel qu'un projet musical.
PASTEL COAST
POP
Depuis les rivages de Boulogne-sur-mer, le groupe Pastel Coast a le regard tourné vers la mer. Quentin Isidore et sa bande surfent depuis 2018 la vague Indie Pop menée par les Français de Phoenix, Air ou encore les Etasuniens de Future Islands.
PLAISIR DE FRANCE
ELECTRO POP
Voilà vingt ans que Julien Barthe, alias Plaisir de France, remixe avec malice la chanson française d’hier et d’aujourd'hui. Vingt ans qu’il pioche dans ses « coups de cœur adolescents » pour les remettre au centre de la piste de danse. Un réflexe de DJ pour celui qui a pris très vite le train fou des musiques électroniques au début des années 1990, cultivant en parallèle sa passion pour la pop en français.
POM POM SQUAD
INDIE
It’s a razor-sharp bite of cathartic punk, that the Brooklyn four-piece’s powerhouse frontperson Mia Berrin initially wrote at seventeen while in the traumatic throes of her adolescent feminine awakening while realizing the everpresent gaze of the male patriarchy. With its namesake coming from the character in The Virgin Suicides (one of her favorite movies), the song is achingly vulnerable while delivering its message like a thrashing sonic sucker-punch. It also was the song that ultimately led to Berrin following the voice in her head telling her to pursue music.
ROMAIN ALLENDER
COMPOSITEUR
Artiste présent dans des univers musicaux et cinématographiques, Romain Allender n’a pas peur de se jeter dans l’aventure et d’explorer de nouveaux horizons pour enrichir son parcours
ROMANE SANTARELLI
COMPOSITRICE
Après avoir galvanisé les foules depuis l’été dernier aux coté de Woodkid, French 79 ou encore Worakls, l’étoile montante de l’électro Française, Romane Santarelli, dévoile son nouveau single « Like A Mantra». Un titre aux allures Techno élégante et nerveuse, annonciateur de son premier Album. Guidé par un lead Bass entrainant le titre offre aussi un côté très aérien avec une voix industrielle réverbérée. Grâce à ce cocktail énergétique, L’artiste nous invite dans une atmosphère hypnotique et profonde.
ROOSEVELT
ELECTRO
Roosevelt is always looking for that special moment. The producer – Marius Lauber – utilizes outstanding electronics, matching club tropes to pangs of melancholy, all wrapped up in gorgeous melodies. Inventive early singles such as “Montreal” led to the outstanding debut album ‘Roosevelt’ and the bold, addictive follow-up ‘Young Romance’, but increased success seemed to take him away from his core desires, from his musical roots.
SINKANE
INDIE
It’s easy to be angry in moments like now. And that’s OK. But it takes courage to turn that anger into productive energy. The previous Sinkane album, 2017's Life and Livin' It, was released at a very crazy time: things like the Muslim ban, police shooting unarmed people of color, massive corruption in my native Sudan, fake news, Donald Trump, Brexit and so many other calamities all really forced me to think about my place in the world as a musician. I began to think about how I could use my music in a constructive way — not only to help myself but to help others who feel frustrated and powerless.
SON LUX
ELECTRO
More pervasive than a virus, anxiety and urgency has spread across our physical and virtual landscapes. The growing inequities of centuries old and current day complexes of oppression has reached a critical and necessary breaking point, forcing us out of our severe isolation back together in a call for justice. All the while, the continued trajectory towards climate catastrophe still creeps across the horizon into our view, another result of the valuing of profit over people.
SOPHIA KENNEDY
INDIE
Sophia Kennedy’s music sometimes sounds like a soundtrack to world to disintegrating, hanging on by a thread of memories, it combines the glamour and the morbid charm of tin pan alley show tunes from the 1960s or 70s and yet it fully embraces the deconstructed modernism of club music. The songs can change the atmosphere in a split second, impressively illustrated by last year’s single “Orange Tic Tac” which switched between threatening gloomy trap beats and soothing crooner melodies. Her sophomore album Monsters, to be released May 7th on City Slang, is full of plot twists, moments of prettiness dashed with paranoia. The title itself, is a self-ironic, comic-like commentary of being an artist trying to tame own creations like “monsters” gone wild but also a nod to a generally threatening tension in the world. Monsters is pop music teetering on the verge of ruin but it’s not a eulogy, it’s a Tear Down Party!
THAÏS
INDIE ELECTRO
Montreal singer-songwriter, Thaïs explores the sounds of an airy and sparkling French pop. With her soft and controlled voice, she sings about the melancholy, the loneliness and the love disorders that often inspire her. The delicate arrangements of an electric guitar accompany her, while keeping her indie signature on a powerful electro sound.
TINDERSTICKS
INDIE ROCK
Before lockdown halted their tour in early 2020, singer Stuart Staples was already nurturing seeds for a different kind of Tindersticks album. If 2019’s No Treasure but Hope saw these mavens of intimate, expansive mood song rediscovering themselves as a unit, the follow-up reconfigures that unit so that everything familiar about Tindersticks sounds fresh again. Released through City Slang on February 19th, Distractions is an album of subtle realignments and connections from a restless, intuitive band: rich in texture and atmosphere, it lives between its open spaces and filigree details, always finding new ways to connect with a song.
ZOUJ
SYNTHETIC
ZOUJ is all about finding the soul in synthetic sounds: “I’m trying to make my machines sound human by emulating errors, randomness and tempo ups-and-downs while i’m trying my best as a human to sound like a machine.”