‘I’ve experienced too much of you / I’ve lost too many times / In endless battles / Where we fight without anything [J’ai vécu trop de toi / J’ai perdu trop de fois / Dans ces combats sans fin / Où l’on se bat sans rien]’. These are the lyrics to Capable de toi, one of the beautiful tracks on the new album from Vendredi sur Mer. When what we are experiencing emotionally or professionally no longer works for us or causes us pain, there is only one solution: to put and end to that situation and transform ourselves from the inside. We must experience an emptiness inside to discover a new way of being. If Vendredi sur Mer’s second album Métamorphose [Metamorphosis] were a movement, it would be a journey, a rebirth, and an extraordinary affirmation of self in many forms.Vendredi surMer has changed everything-or almost everything-since the release of her disco-synth pop album Premiers Emois. That album, released in 2019, revealed her poetic, sensual side embracing a diva persona. Now for the first time, the young Swiss artist, accustomed to composing her songs ensconced in her Normandy home, has taken the plunge into the immediacy and energy of studio writing. October 2020. After that first difficult lockdownperiod which she spentalone, Vendredi sur Mer settled in for a recording session with techno producer Sam Tiba (Club Cheval, Bromance, Zola, & 13 Block). ‘He played a ballad and at the end of the day, we recorded ‘Comment tu vas finir [How you will end up]’. A sultry, sensual track of languid house music in the purest tradition of Chicago jack’in house music. Calibrated for the stage and for jubilation, it provides one of the main guiding forces of this danceable album driven by the desire to open up to others. ‘I liked starting with a track that’s a little raw, a little crude. That really liberated me’, she continued. Vendredi sur Mer let herself become intoxicated by the pleasure of the melody and voiced her desire through her song. The experience continued for six months, from October 2020 to May 2021. Every day, Vendredi sur Mer came to the studio to write and record the next part of the album. Joined by Myd, Canblaster, Saint DX, Owlle, Joseph Schiano Di Lombo, Dune, Nit, Apollo Noir, and of course Sam Tiba in turn, she composed the twelve tracks that now make up Métamorphose. The result is an album that is coarser, more raw, and more adult as well. The emotions are strong and complicated, sometimes sexual, sometimes provocative, with traces of darkness, obscurity, and disillusionment. In twelve tracks mostly written in the first person, Vendredi sur Mer speaks about the bonds of friendship, society, and personal relationships that connect her to others. ‘What interested me in this album was multiplying the perspectives. I wanted to talk about myself as a woman through stories, situations, and songs in which I look for something very raw, carnal, and visceral.’ Mâle à l’aise, a play on words between ‘mal à l’aise [uncomfortable]’ and ‘mâle à l’aise [a comfortable male]’ is like a post- #MeToo chronicle of everyday sexism in the music industry. ‘I wanted to tackle the blind spots and describe the rejections women face in this environment’, explains Charline. Dormir [Sleep] examines the experience of rejection, while Le Lac [The Lake], inspired by a poem by Guillaume Apollinaire, depicts romantic games in the form of written letters. Playing with more ‘80s references, Monochromeis more provocative pop. The very danceable album mainly focused on the stage also ventures musically into more intimate lands. This is the case in S’il est [If he is], a superb, lamenting piano and vocal ballad, and in the beautiful Lettre à moi-même [Letter to myself]conceived in one go with no refrain couplet and which acts as the final farewell of the album. With all of these contrasts, the album forms a passionate, appealing kaleidoscope: it is the portrait of a young woman today who speaks sincerely about her desires, her faults, and her vulnerabilities, too. Above all, it paints the picture of a woman who has agency.

US TOUR DATES :

– THE ECHO – LOS ANGELES – NOV 9

– ELSEWHERE – NEW YORK – NOV 11 SOLD OUT