Acclaimed Paris-based electro pop sextet and JOVM mainstays L’Impératrice will be releasing their highly-anticipated, self-produced third full-length album Pulsar through microqlima records in just about 90 minutes. Pulsar is an album, where the band — founder Charles de Boisseguin (keys), Hagni Gown (keys), David Gaugué (bass), Achille Trocellier (guitar), Tom Daveau (drums) and Flore Benguigui (vocals) — made every decision while capturing the band’s spirit both onstage and off.
Fittingly, the album reportedly radiates with the energy and wisdom of an outfit that has helmed countless dance parties around the world on the way to find itself and its sound. Throughout the album’s material, the Parisian JOVM mainstays move freely and authoritatively among the sounds they love, bridging hip-hop, kosmiche and modern pop with their most unabashed embraces of French Touch and international house of their growing catalog. Pulsar is also the first album of their catalog to feature guest vocalists, including acclaimed folk/pop artist Maggie Rogers and rapper/producer Erick the Architect among a list of others.
The album sees the acclaimed pop outfit trying a new creative approach: They split 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 the songwriting process like never before, pulling from idiosyncratic upbringings and enthusiasm. They then passed tracks to lead vocalist Flore 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 that saw the band go from writing through recording in about nine months. For L’Impératrice, this was the sort of self-determination they’d longed for and now found.
Throughout the album’s material, the band’s Benguigui boldly sings of self-empowerment, shirking beauty standards, ageism and drag normalcy throughout the album’s material. These are apt messages for incandescent anthems of experience, of fully being yourself, instead of anyone else’s version of it.
Pulsar’s fourth single, and the album’s second English language single “Any Way” is a gorgeous cinematic, Quiet Storm soul-meets-French touch bop featuring shimmering strings, a supple and sinuous bass line, some Nile Rodgers-like guitar, some glistening sapce age synths and twinkling Rhodes serving as a lush and dreamy bed for Maggie Rogers soulful and yearning delivery.
Rogers was a fan of L’Imperatrice before they contacted her, having seen the band’s incredible show Stateside several times. She arrived to the studio, listened to the track, took notes and nailed her version in a few hours and as many takes. At its core, the song is a luxurious and earnest love song about savoring the moment rather than fretting the future at least too much — again, and maybe for better and worse, the American way.
“The French way is that we are pretty slow people,” the band’s Charles de Boisseguin says smiling. “We really take time to make things good. But Maggie Rogers showed up and showed us her skills and the American way. it was a magical moment.” Rogers adds, “L’Impératrice has been one of my favorite bands for a few years now, so when we started talking about working together on some music, I jumped at the opportunity to travel to Paris and create with them. The song came together really naturally and effortlessly in one afternoon and I really think it represents this perfect hybrid of what we both do. I’m so happy it’s out in the world.”
Directed by Zite and Léo, the accompanying video is an intergalactic-meets-terrestrial adventure seemingly inspired by Superman, E.T., Starman and the like, with the band playing aliens stranded after their spaceship crash lands on Earth. The aliens, who try to understand human life, get a local mechanic to assist them with repairing their spaceship. And while their spaceship is being repaired, the band calls home and watches a broadcast of Maggie Rogers singing, which fills them with longing for home — and fittingly inspires them to play alongside the broadcast.
The JOVM mainstays will be returning to North America for a month-long tour to support Pulsar. The tour includes a sold-out September 7, 2024 stop at Terminal 5 and a September 8, 2024 stop at Terminal 5 that’s been added due to popular demand. Several other stops on the North American and European legs of their tour are already sold out, and I expect that many more will set out soon. So grab those tickets before it’s too late.
L’IMPÉRATRICE TOUR DATES
June 7 Elbjazz – Hamburg, DE
June 8 Minuit avant la nuit – Amiens, FR
June 9 Francofolies – Esch/Alzette, LU
June 14 Heartland – Egeskov, DK
June 15 Pipfest – Oslo, NO
June 22 Les Nuits de Fourvière – Fourvière, FR
June 29 Europavox – Clermont-Ferrand, FR
June 30 Garorock – Marmande, FR
July 4 Open’er – Gdynia, PL
July 6 Down The Rabbit Hole – Ewijk, NL
July 7 Beauregard – Hérouville Saint-Clair, FR
July 10 Les Déferlantes – Barcarès, FR
July 11 Les Vieilles Charrues – Carhaix, FR
July 12 Les Nuits Secrètes – Aulnoye Aymeries, FR
July 13 Décibulles – Neuve Eglise, FR
July 27 Paléo – Nyon, CH
August 2 – Ronquières Festival – Ronquières, BE
August 7 Sziget – Budapest, HU
August 9 Way Out Fest – Goteborg, SE
August 11 Flow Fest – Helsinki, FI
August 15 Paredes De Coura – Paredes De Coura, PT
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 *SOLD OUT
Sep 11 MTELUS – Montreal, QC SECOND SHOW ADDED
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
Sep 27 Los Angeles, CA – Shrine Expo Hall
Oct 11 L’Aéronef – Lille, France
Oct 12 Stereolux – Nantes, France *SOLD OUT
Oct 17 Le Rocher De Palmer – Bordeaux, France *SOLD OUT
Oct 18 Le Bikini – Toulouse, France
Oct 19 La Sirène – La Rochelle, France *SOLD OUT
Oct 25 Ancienne Belgique – Brussels, Belgium
Oct 26 Den Atelier – Luxembourg
Oct 27 Carlswerk Victoria – Cologne, Germany
Oct 31 Razzmatazz – Barcelona, Spain
Nov 1 La Riviera – Madrid, Spain
Nov 6 Alcatraz – Milan, Italy
Nov 7 La Belle Électrique – Grenoble, France *SOLD OUT
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 *SOLD OUT
Nov 28 Melkweg – Amsterdam, Netherlands *SOLD OUT
Nov 29 Melkweg – Amsterdam, Netherlands *SOLD OUT
Dec 1 – Grosse Freiheit 36 – Hamburg, Germany
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
**North American Dates in bold
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