Live in Concert: L’Etrangleuse
Here they are in the summer of 2008, each at a loose end, looking for the unusual. A sound. Harp and guitar together, both electrified. They had to try, fumble, develop. The combination wasn’t a sure thing. L’Etrangleuse (a name found at the last minute before the first gig) invented its material. With new ideas about the distribution of roles. Known to be soft and crystalline, Melanie Virot’s harp can be incisive, abrasive or dissonant. And Mäel Salètes’ guitar inversely takes a position that is less punk, more towards the African trance of Malian & Mandingo music.
Neither rock, world or folk, the sound of L’Etrangleuse has built bridges. The first album laid down the manifesto, with the addition of their voices accompanying the instruments, singing rather than songs, spinning words in the weft of the strings, holding the tension, suggesting atmospheres.
In testing their singular edifice in the crucible of the stage, the duo has forged an expertise whose limits are stretched by the new album ‘Memories To Come’. Advancing along the same tightrope, succeeding, mastering and venturing further. All of which was guided by the ear of the English producer John Parish (PJ Harvey, Eels, Dominique A, among others). It’s a question of noise and silence, of wandering and confinement, of identity (Who we are). Harp and guitar: A makeshift alliance, creative constraints and a constant challenge. L’Etrangleuse would now like to share its taste in playing in public and everywhere else. Mixed strings, responding, inciting the other to sound loud and better, together.