Autour de Lucie
Country of origin:
France
Type of music generally:
Alternative pop
Status:
Most recent album, Ta Lumière Particulière (2015)
See also:
Autour de Lucie's site
Comparisons:
Sarah McLachlan and Mazzy Star. (Yves.Denneulin@imag.fr)ivy, the smiths, the ocean blue. (iflin@speakeasy.net)
Cranes meshed with Stereolab. (paul2k@aol.com)
Covers/own material:
Own
General comments:
Autour de Lucie is a French band. The lead singer, Valerie Leulliot, is female, the rest of the musicians are male. Their music sounds to me like a cross between Sarah McLachlan and Mazzy Star. The ambiences are soft, her voice sounds distant, the music is delicate but enthralling and stays in your head a long time after the CD is over. The lyrics of their first album, L'echappee belle were weak at times, but those from the last one, Immobile, are brilliant, in my opinion. (Yves.Denneulin@imag.fr)autour de lucie is bright, shiny upbeat pop stuff, not at all dissimilar to the cardigans. very yummy stuff for the popkids amongst us. (woj@smoe.org)
they are a french band that are pretty darn good. i picked their album up on a whim, because it looked interesting. they sing mostly in french, though a few songs on the album are in english. i had a friend translate some of the lyrics and they were actually pretty poetic (slightly depressing) songs about life, love and such. the music, a bit like the indie band ivy, but that might just be the french accent that the ivy singer has. the actually sound is more sort of britpop sounding, a little guitar jangly similar to say the smiths, or another non-british britpop sounding band, the ocean blue. i would recommend the album to anyone who likes that whole jangly guitar indie pop brit pop female french singer sound. you know who you are. (iflin@speakeasy.net)
I haven't heard much that's like Autour de Lucie, but still, they aren't that foreign sounding (that is not a pun)...it runs through my mind that they sound kinda like the Cranes, but without the Gothic trappings of that group. Which pops the question, what are you left with? I've always envisioned the Cranes as a being kind of like a gothy rave party in a huge, dank Eastern-European Cathedral...well, Autour de Lucie is more like...well...if you mesh that with Stereolab, i guess. you still have the moodiness and occasional poppiness of the Cranes and the ringing semi-etherealness of them, but take it away from the party in the church. Yeah. Anyways, I like it. (paul2k@aol.com)
Comments about live performance:
Despite having not heard them before, they were fairly memorable and enjoyable at Lilith Fair. All in all they came off pretty well. (colford@chlotrudis.org)
Recommended first album:
Either
Recordings:
- L'echappee belle (France, 1994; released as Autour de Lucie in North America, 1996)
- Immobile (1997)
- Faux Movement (2001)
- Vu Par (remixes, 2004)
- Autour de Lucie (2004)
- Ta Lumière Particulière (2015)
L'echappee belle
(known as Autour de Lucie in North America)Release info:
1994—village vert records; 1996—re-released by Nettwerk (Canada, U.S.)
Availability:
Wide
Ecto priority:
Highly recommended for pop fans
Group members:
Valerie Leulliot—vocals, acoustic guitar
Olivier Durand—electric guitar, backing vocals
Fabrice Dumont—bass, backing vocals
Guest artists:
Bruno Saunier—drums, percussion
Produced by:
Paco Rodriguez
Comments:
i love their first U.S. album. (paul2k@aol.com)
Immobile
Release info:
1997—village vert records; 1998—re-released by Nettwerk (Canada, U.S.)
Availability:
Wide
Ecto priority:
Highly recommended for pop fans
Group members:
Valerie Leulliot—vocals, acoustic guitar
Fabrice Dumont—bass, vocals
Jean-Pierre Ensuque—electric guitar
Guest artists:
Bruno Saunier—drums
Gilles Martin—programming, samples
Paul Jothy—percussion, drums
Henry Graetz—violin
Pierre Bondu—backing vocals
Luc Van Lieshout—trumpet
Gregori Czerkinski—congas, triangle
Produced by:
Gilles Martin and Autour de Lucie
Comments:
If you liked the first you will love this one I think. It rocks more and the new guitarist is better. Valerie's voice didn't improve much but her lyrics are incredible, she can fit so much into a couple of words it is almost scary. The first song, only 2 minutes long, is the best song I have heard this year, harsh with obsessive guitars and her fragile voice upon this noisy background (her voice is mixed higher than on the previous one) is a perfect combination. (Yves.Denneulin@imag.fr)i'll have to give it more listens to figure out what the critics are talking about when they say that it's a different, more mature sound for them...i like it though. (paul2k@aol.com)
Further info:
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