Laura Cahen – Side By side
Critically acclaimed French singer-songwriter Laura Cahen today shares here new EP Side by side via [PIAS] Recordings.
Recorded and produced with a core team – the composer and arranger Josephine Stephenson (Ex:Re, Damon Albarn, Arctic Monkeys) and the producer Mike Lindsay (LUMP, Tunng) – in Margate (UK), these tracks come to complete the concept album de l’autre côt”, while also giving us more fragments of the story: two women try to escape this mad world to live out their love.
These five songs added to the ten original songs from the album together form de l’autre côté – side by side. If this were a film, then we now have the director’s cut.
Each song features an international collaborator. Laura Cahen teams up with Shura and her slow-burning synth-pop; Hand Habits, the magical Californian singer-songwriter; This is the Kit, best known for her alternative folk albums, here singing in French with her full and warm voice; the magnetic producer and songwriter Saint Saviour, originally from Teeside; and the pure voice of Josephine Stephenson.
In side by side, Laura Cahen and her guests tackle the question of leaving, either by choice or by force – with concern, but also a great deal of hope -, and helplessness in the face of war and the ills of our time. Underneath a series of poetic images, she talks of ecology, feminism and homosexuality.
Navigating on repetitive loops, guitar pickings of her own and subtle string arrangements, the soaring melodies contrast with synthesized sounds that at times become apocalyptic, making way for a sense of renewal embodied by the innocent sweetness of an a cappella round.
It is an intimate journey through the various stages and emotions entailed by a love story – from the difficulty of commitment to passion, via heartbreak and betrayal – guided by water, storms, tears and the sea.
Laura Cahen is a French singer-songwriter. Inspired by the likes of Laurie Anderson, Laura Marling or Adrianne Lenker, her music fuses acoustic and electronic to create emotionally rich, self-reflective sonic landscapes. In the form of poetic love songs, she tackles subjects such as womanhood, ecology, homosexuality and equal rights. Her crystalline voice has gathered the praises of outlets as diverse as Télérama, Les Inrocks and L’Humanité, and she has gained the support of national radios France Inter and FIP, who regularly broadcast her music.
Ten years into her career, Cahen has toured extensively in France and parts of Europe and America, with over three hundred concerts. Her release Des Filles featured guest artists including Juliette Armanet, Jeanne Added and Yael Naim. Three songs from her second album Une Fille (“Poussière”, “Nuit Forêt” and “La complainte du soleil”) featured in major TV shows and films, including You (Netflix), Tales of the Walking Dead (AMC) and Oscar-nominated I Lost My Body. Cahen’s third studio album, co-produced together with Mike Lindsay (Tunng, LUMP) and Josephine Stephenson (Ex:Re, Damon Alban, Arctic Monkeys) came out on [PIAS] Recordings in January 2025, with four singles “Quitter la ville”,”Les astres”, “Partout” and “Fusées”.
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