smudie

Eliote & the Ritournelles
l'Eclipse Café
13, avenue de Saint Ouen
75017 Paris

Friday, May 2nd from 8.30pm

We had a party at our place on Saturday - one of those up-until-three-in-the-morning, twenty-or-so-people-squeezed-in-a-room parties we like to have from time to time - and among the many highlights of the evening were the wonderful mojitos prepared by none other than OrangeColumbo... which is a good excuse to mention a new song we've written together, A Slap In The Face.

• A Slap In The Face
  

Nadj and her band are in the studio putting the finishing touches to their second album, which - as she announces (in French) on her blog - will feature "two tracks in English, Jesus Freak and Cactus, with superb lyrics written by the latest ally of our sound: Scottish lyricist Stuart Mudie".

So there you go. It's official!

• Cactus
  

As I write, eliotE is hard at work on the music to accompany my latest text Crayon.

Last week, while back in Scotland for my brother's wedding (where I and several others managed look resplendent in our kilts despite the dreich October day), I was sent a rough demo of the first of several tracks I've been working on with Nadj, a singer I met for the first time a couple of months ago whose MySpace page claims her repertoire is "marked with her rough temper and gnarly guitars" and who is by far the rockingest French musician I have ever heard.

The track in question sounds absolutely fantastic, and I can't wait for her to make it available for public comsumption. It's called Jesus Freak. I guess you could say it's a love song of sorts.

• Jesus Freak

Tuesday, 9th October, eliotE & the Ritournelles are supporting Rivkah at Le Pop In (105 rue Amelot, 75011 Paris).

I'll be there - and it will be the first time I've ever heard any of my lyrics sung live.

Electric Factory have found a new guest singer to perform on their upcoming album - Jen H. Ka.

This is exciting news for me, as I saw Jen in concert a few years ago at what I believe was one of the first gigs I attended here in Paris, and I'm a real fan of her voice.

At the moment, it's looking like Jen will be performing on at least Outer Space Boy, and potentially some other tracks as well.

I can't wait to hear the result.

• Outer Space Boy
  

I had a quick drink down by Canal St Martin last night with someone with whom, if all goes well, I may soon be writing some lyrics for her upcoming album.

What I appreciate most about her proposed working method is that, although a talented lyricist herself - her recent album featured a great line about turning down the guitar and drums because, after all, "this is France, for fuck's sake" - she didn't seem to want to tell me what to write.

Sure, she gave me some vague ideas about the style of lyrics she appreciates, and she mentioned the kind of topics she's interested in singing about, but I've worked with people in the past who've been much more specific in their demands. More than once I've been given a verse-by-verse breakdown of exactly what I should say, turning me in effect from an artist performing a genuinely creative act into a simple artisan, polishing the singer's rough ideas into verse. Now, I understand that whoever sings my words needs to feel some kind of emotional attachment to the ideas they express, but you can imagine which of the two methods is more satisfying for me as a writer - and, most importantly, which one gives the best results!

I'm certain anything I write for this person will be tossed back and forth between us both so many times that she'll end up feeling just as much ownership over it as I do, but it's still heartening to feel that she is at least willing to let me take the first steps on my own.

I can trace the outline, and we can colour it in together.

In any case, I'm really excited about seeing what we can come up with, not least because I saw her perform at the Flèche d'Or earlier this year and, as I wrote on her MySpace page just afterwards, I've never been so blown away by the sheer force of music. This could be something really special.

The Blogothèque is, at least in France, the first port of call on the web for anyone who cares about discovering new music. They are also the people behind the Takeaway Shows project, which has seen groups such as Arcade Fire and Herman Düne play live in some (extremely) unusual locations.

How exciting, then, to discover an article there on eliotE and the Ritournelles! Great things are surely just around the corner.

• La Blogothèque : Ritournelles

Arcade Fire, Bjork, CSS, The Jesus and Mary Chain... see you there!