This is Astrïd’s second album on the False Walls label, following Always Digging The Same Hole in 2023.

Astrïd and Sylvain Chauveau previously released the collaborative album Butterfly in the Snowfall in 2014, and have played shows together and with Rachel Grimes. Sylvain often covers songs, changing the original music using electronic or a minimalistic harmonium. For their new collaboration, Astrïd and Sylvain decided to work together for the first time on an album of cover songs, starting with Nina Simone’s version of Dambala, then Nancy Sinatra’s Bang Bang (a song Sylvain regularly performs live). These two songs pointed towards the concept of the album: all iconic songs originally written and/or performed by woman singers.

As the musicians all live in different places, the album took some time to be recorded, across different sessions in Nantes, France. The album is also the last recording on which Guillaume Wickel appears, after he sadly passed in 2022. His disease and death put the album on hiatus for some time, before Cyril Secq started to work on it again and did the final mixes. The record is dedicated to Guillaume.

Songs and original credits:
Video Games: written by Elizabeth Grant and Justin Parker, performed by Lana Del Rey
Machine Gun: written by Geoff Barrow and Beth Gibbons, performed by Portishead
Dambala: written by Exuma, performed by Nina Simone
Everything Is Free: written and performed by Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings
Bang Bang: written by Sonny Bono, performed by Nancy Sinatra
Running Up That Hill: written and performed by Kate Bush
Words by the artists above; music arranged and performed by Astrïd & Sylvain Chauveau
Vanina Andréani: violin
Sylvain Chauveau: vocals, harmonium, piano
Yvan Ros: drums, metallophone
Cyril Secq: guitars, piano, juno, harmonium, metallophone
Guillaume Wickel: clarinets, rhodes
Recorded and mixed by Cyril Secq
Mastered by Ian Hawgood
Artwork: Salle des fêtes by Alix Petit & Julien Nédélec

Graphic design by David Caines

This record is dedicated to the memory of Guillaume Wickel