L’Impératrice – Pulsar
L’Impératrice has given riveting performances at some of the biggest festivals in the U.S. including Coachella, Outside Lands and Austin City Limits, and has a quickly expanding fanbase that propelled their upcoming fall tour to sell over 30,000 tickets in less than 3 days. Today, the quickly rising six-piece Parisian group – who is set to return to the U.S. this month for two sold out NYC shows and return performances at Coachella – is thrilled to announce their third full length album, Pulsar, due June 7th via Microqlima.
Along with the album announcement, L’Impératrice have shared new single “Danza Marilù” featuring Italian vocalist Fabiana Martone. The collaboration is an electrifying homage to Italo-disco fused with the band’s signature sound, and was inspired by (and a rebuttal to) Serge Gainsbourg’s L’Homme à tête de chou. It is an anthem for women of all ages, for freely moving on the dancefloor in spite of looks that may ensue.
Pulsar is a record where L’Impératrice made every decision, a set of songs that truly captured the band’s spirit both onstage and off. The self-produced album radiates the energy and wisdom of a band that has helmed so many dance parties around the world on the way to finding itself and its sound. Throughout, vocalist Flore Benguigui boldly sings of self-empowerment, or of shirking beauty standards, ageism, and drab normalcy. These are apt messages for these incandescent anthems of experience, of being yourself instead of anyone else’s version of it.
While writing the album, L’Impératice also tried a novel approach – splitting into two teams of ever-interchanging members to explore new ideas, led by the band’s founder Charles de Boisseguin. It was a way of incorporating every voice into writing like never before, pulling from idiosyncratic upbringings and enthusiasms. They then passed the tracks to Benguigui, a longtime jazz singer who would sometimes write two-dozen vocal melodies for a song just to see which one fit best. It was an arduous and exciting process and saw the band go from writing through to recording the album in about nine months. This was the sort of self-determination they’d wanted and now found.
By confronting other languages, other perspectives and other territories, and with pleasure as their only compass, Pulsar is the jubilant testament of a band with plenty to say and the skills to say it themselves.
L’IMPÉRATRICE TOUR DATES
Apr 03 La Machine Du Moulin Rouge – Paris, France *SOLD OUT
Apr 04 La Machine Du Moulin Rouge – Paris, France *SOLD OUT
Apr 09 Racket – New York, NY *SOLD OUT
Apr 10 Music Hall Of Williamsburg – Brooklyn, NY *SOLD OUT
Apr 16 Indio, CA – Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival Tickets
Apr 23 – Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival Tickets
Sep 5 The Anthem – Washington, DC
Sep 6 Union Transfer – Philadelphia, PA *SOLD OUT
Sep 7 Terminal 5 – New York, NY *SOLD OUT
Sep 8 Terminal 5 – New York, NY *SECOND SHOW ADDED
Sep 10 MTELUS – Montreal, QC
Sep 13 Rebel – Toronto, ON
Sept 14 The Salt Shed – Chicago, IL
Sep 16 The Ogden Theatre – Denver, CO *SOLD OUT
Sep 17 The Depot – Salt Lake City, UT
Sep 20 Malkin Bowl – Vancouver, BC
Sep 21 Crystal Ballroom – Portland, OR
Sep 22 Showbox SoDo – Seattle, WA
Sep 24 Fox Theater – Oakland, CA *SOLD OUT
Sep 25 Fox Theater – Oakland, CA *SECOND SHOW ADDED
Oct 11 L’Aéronef – Lille, France
Oct 12 Stereolux – Nantes, France *SOLD OUT
Oct 17 Le Rocher De Palmer – Bordeaux, France
Oct 18 Le Bikini – Toulouse, France
Oct 19 La Sirène – La Rochelle, France
Oct 25 Ancienne Belgique – Brussels, Belgium
Oct 26 den Atelier – Luxembourg
Oct 27 Carlswerk Victoria – Cologne, Germany
Nov 6 Alcatraz – Milan, Italy
Nov 7 La Belle Électrique – Grenoble, France
Nov 8 L’Autre Canal – Nancy, France
Nov 22 L’Olympia – Paris, France *SOLD OUT
Nov 23 L’Olympia – Paris, France *SOLD OUT
Nov 26 Roundhouse – London, UK
Nov 28 Melkweg – Amsterdam, Netherlands *SECOND SHOW ADDED
Nov 29 Melkweg – Amsterdam, Netherlands *SOLD OUT
Dec 8 Columbiahalle – Berlin, Germany
Dec 9 Roxy – Prague, Czech Republic
Dec 11 Gasometer – Vienna, Austria
Dec 12 X-Tra – Zurich, Switzerland
Dec 13 Thônex Live – Geneva, Switzerland
#l.imperatrice