Lætitia Sadier Source Ensemble — Find Me Finding You (March 24, 2017)

 ^{Lætitia Sadier Source Ensemble — Find Me Finding You} 

↔★••→   { An overarching theme of simplicity and innocence. }
About this product
↔★••→   New waves are breaking, upon which it is our choice, chance and challenge, to ride. The new collaboration Source Ensemble brings fresh percolations, energy and air to Laetitia’s humanized community~politic. Geometric composition made with a belief that permeates and intimately binds all things — requesting free love and markets NOW! Our future selves depend on it.
Born: 6 May 1968, Vincennes, France
Instruments: Vocals, synthesizers, guitar
Location: London, UK
Album release: March 24, 2017
Record Label: Drag City
Duration:     42:51
Tracks:
01. Undying Love For Humanity     3:52
02. Double Voice, Extra Voice     5:20
03. Love Captive     4:08
04. Psychology Active (Finding You)     6:12
05. Committed     3:58
06. Reflectors     4:04
07. Deep Background     4:00
08. Galactic Emergence     4:19
09. The Woman With The Invisible Necklace     3:29
10. Sacred Project     3:29
Review
Robert Ham, MARCH 21 2017 / Score: 6.8
↔★••→   Like her former band Stereolab, Laetitia Sadier’s new solo album draws on sounds ranging from French yé~yé to krautrock, though its tone is earthier. It features a duet with Hot Chip’s Alexis Taylor.
↔★••→   In an interview surrounding her 2014 album Something Shines, former Stereolab singer Laetitia Sadier laughingly said that, since the days of her old group, she’s been “cultivating the same piece of land, [but] maybe I grow different vegetables.” The pithy comment stands as a fairly perfect summation of the 48~year~old’s career. Since arriving on the European indie scene back in 1991 with the first Stereolab EP, Super 45, Sadier’s vocal and lyrical approach has remained consistent: She applies her crystalline alto to lyrics that explore philosophy and political inequality through a Marxist lens. In Stereolab and as a solo artist, Sadier’s musical tastes have tended to skew nostalgic, mixing influences of 1960s pop from the U.S. and Brazil, easy listening, and German kosmische.
↔★••→   Find Me Finding You, the first album she’s released as Laetitia Sadier Source Ensemble, also relies on these familiar musical elements. French drummer Emmanuel Mario and Brazilian bassist Xavi Munoz, both of whom played on Sadier’s previous solo albums, are present throughout, as is David Thayer, the filmmaker and musician who co~ran the group Little Tornados with Sadier. Opener “Undying Love for Humanity” burbles with intertwining guitar lines, stuttering keyboard signatures, and bouncing vocal harmonies — it recalls French yé~yé 45s and the knotty exotica of the Free Design. The rest of the album is dotted lightly with krautrock droning, Latin percussion, and chiming twee.
↔★••→   “Undying Love” is ultimately an outlier, though, playing with those elements that Sadier is most associated with before the album moves towards earthy tones and a temperate atmosphere. Find Me maintains a consistent mood better than any other album Sadier has released on her own or with the now~defunct side~project Monade. There are minor pulse~quickening moments, like the psych pop interludes within “Psychology Active (Finding You),” but everything else sticks to a calm mid~tempo like a resting heart~rate.
↔★••→   Still, there’s a wealth of variation to enjoy here. “The Woman with the Invisible Necklace” somehow connects flamenco rhythms with a post~punk swing akin to the Marine Girls. Closer “Sacred Project” shows off the keyboard collection of Ensemble member Phil F MU, with the rumble of Taurus 3 bass pedals warmly humming below a tinny modular melody and assorted synth squeaks. “Reflectors” builds confidently around a pulsing marimba and a rich bass tone before temporarily falling hushed, as guitar and flute waft around Sadier’s commentary. “Wars cannot overcome our troubles,” she sings, “Status, prestige, prominence, don’t mean a thing at this time.” Though Find Me was written before the Brexit vote and the U.S. political disaster, Sadier’s sharp eye for the slowly rolling tides of geopolitics gives these songs added resonance.
↔★••→   Sadier’s lyrical pattern continues on Find Me, as her lines revolve around tyrants, indoctrination, and states of conflict. This is what makes “Love Captive” stand out. A duet with Hot Chip’s Alexis Taylor, it’s a ballad for slow dances, but it finds both singers shunning the idea of romantic love, wondering why we “make promises of eternity/When really a heart needs to run open and free.” Instead, they advocate for a broader definition: “We are made to love/Not to fall in love.” The song comes early in the album, but it provides a small lyrical breather that feels necessary to the whole. In the past, Stereolab’s 2001 Sound~Dust tracks “Nothing to Do with Me” and “Les Bons Bons Des Raisons” functioned similarly. Amid Find Me’s otherwise downcast worldview, “Love Captive” lets in some light. — Pitchfork
↔★••→   http://pitchfork.com/
Also:
Siobhan Kane, Mon, Mar 20, 2017, 13:17 / Score: ****
↔★••→   Following two solo records in 2014, Laetitia Sadier formed the Source Ensemble ~ and, with it, a new musical space for herself. There is an almost Fela Kuti feel to the opening song, Undying Love for Humanity, with its driving, pleasing polyrhythms, and the notion of “poly” or “many” proves key to this record.
↔★••→   “Like so many things, love has to be reinvented,” we hear Hot Chip’s Alexis Taylor say on the sloping Love Captive, which is complemented by the hazy worldview of Psychology Active. The synths elevate the forward~looking Committed; peppered with spoken word, it’s like Laurie Anderson meets Kraftwerk.
↔★••→   Galactic Emerge sounds like an old, battered folk song, meeting The Woman With the Invisible Necklace halfway. In a similar vein, the song showcases Sadier’s absolute vocal clarity and intriguing vision.  ↔★••→   http://www.irishtimes.com/
Barry Didcock
↔★••→   EVERYONE’S favourite Marxist economic theory~spouting French chanteuse returns with her fourth post~Stereolab solo offering, this time in the company of the Source Ensemble ~ regular collaborators Emmanuel Mario and Xavi Munoz on drums and bass respectively, plus keyboard player David Thayer and oddly~named sonic experimenter Phil MFU. Two other helpmates are Hot Chip’s Alexis Taylor, who duets with Sadier on Love Captive, and guitarist Mason Le Long. No power chords or lavish strumming here, though: this is a Laetitia Sadier record, after all.
↔★••→   The six minute Psychology Active (Finding You) could be straight out of the Stereolab songbook ~ a winning mix of astral 1970s Krautrock and 1960s Yé~Yé pop ~ and opener Undying Love For Humanity works off the same familiar template. But through Mario and Munoz’s adoption of complex polyrhythms and gypsy~style flamenco breakdowns, Sadier’s Franco~Brazilian rhythm section brings other flavours and textures to songs like Reflectors and The Woman With The Invisible Necklace, while Phil MFU’s inner Jean~Jacques Perrey is allowed off the leash in spacey closing song Sacred Project. Over it all, Sadier’s double~tracked vocals ~ some in French, some in English ~ remain the unifying force, an icy presence that give this beguiling album a rich but resolutely melancholy feel.  ↔★••→   http://www.heraldscotland.com/
MATTHEW VORACEK | MARCH 22, 2017
↔★••→   http://www.imposemagazine.com/reviews/laetitia-sadier-source-ensemble-find-me-finding-you
Interview: http://aliceseverin.com/blog/2014/09/30/laetitia-sadier-interview/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/sadierlae
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LaetitiaSadierOfficial/
↔★••→   The Trip (Drag City, 2010)
↔★••→   Silencio (Drag City, 2012)
↔★••→   Something Shines (Drag City, 2014)
↔★••→   Find Me Finding You (Drag City, 2017)
↔★••→↔★••→↔★••→↔★••→↔★••→↔★••→↔★••→↔★••→↔★••→↔•

Lætitia Sadier Source Ensemble — Find Me Finding You (March 24, 2017)

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