La Porte

Description

An exploration of misplaced desire and all-consuming romantic obsession, told through a series of beautifully crafted leftfield pop songs. "La Porte," the second studio album by Charlotte Kouklia, aka Charlène Darling, sees the artist and her band construct a self-contained musical world via vocals in French and English, and minimalist accompaniment on guitar, organ, bass, and drums. At times recalling the feminist post-punk of The Raincoats, the avant-garde songcraft of Brigitte Fontaine, or the psychedelic vignettes of Cate Le Bon, Charlène Darling in fact sounds like herself. The arrangements are playfully experimental, with doubled percussion bubbling over stripped-down instrumentation, or rough tape edits disrupting lush harmonies, but never losing sight of the hooks that make these songs so addictively listenable. Step through the door and come on in.