“Channels the magic, playfulness and wishful thinking of its titular exclamation in search of some miraculous answer to life’s questions.” So we wrote of Abracadabra, the new album from Quebec‘s Klô Pelgag on Secret City Records in a preview back in September. With a wonderfully idiosyncratic electro pop style, Pelgag has established herself as one of the premier Francophone artists working in contemporary Canada, though has also made waves beyond that scene to earn rave reviews across the US, UK, Europe and more. The new record pushes these styles further than ever, seeking to locate the kernel of authenticity with the accumulates layers of cynicism and self-protection. “Abracadabra is a quest for the absolute, a desire to still believe in something,” as Pelgag explains. “It’s about untying the knots we need to shed in order to appear as we truly are, without fear or shame.”
With the record now out, latest single ‘Le goût des mangues’ offers a further glimpse in the world of Klô Pelgag. With an atmosphere embracing a certain ambiguity, the sound straddles the divide between the eerie and the intimate with the record’s signature richness. Subtle pop tones are lifted upon something almost orchestral, and Pelgag’s vocals emerge with assured feeling.
The track comes complete with a video directed by longtime collaborator Laurence BAZ Morais. “I aimed to visually translate her poetry by creating a surreal tableau that blends the personal and universal,” as Morais explains. “Including [Pelgag’s] daughter allowed me to capture a sense of childlike innocence and a connection to nature that resonates deeply with Klô’s musical universe.”
Abracadabra is out now via Secret City Records and available from the Klô Pelgag Bandcamp page.
Photo by Benoit Paille