XO SKELETON is the supple, steady, uncanny sophomore album by La Force: a mixture of haunted pop and hot-blooded R&B that glistens at the meeting point between life, death, and love. The album was co-produced by La Force and Warren Spicer (Plants and Animals). “The theme of the album revealed itself in the making,” she explains, recalling how the title track is rooted in a telephone call with her life-insurance broker—one everyday banality on the periphery of death. “At one point she said, ‘God forbid you should die.’ I was gobsmacked. ‘Well, there’s one thing guaranteed: no god or goddess is going to keep me alive.’”
Born and based in Montreal, La Force made her electrifying studio debut on Broken Social Scene 2017’s Hug of Thunder. The following year, Engle released La Force, garnering a Polaris Music Prize long-list nomination and drawing attention from Stereogum, the Globe & Mail, and NPR’s “Morning Becomes Electric,” as well as The National’s Aaron Dessner, who recruited Engle to appear on the new Big Red Machine LP alongside Bon Iver, Taylor Swift, Fleet Foxes and Sharon Van Etten. Engle was also invited to contribute to the recent album by Patrick Watson, who used their collaboration as the lead single on 2022’s Better In The Shade. Engle recently released a critically acclaimed (★★★★ – MOJO) album part of ALL HANDS_MAKE LIGHT, Engle’s drone/modular synth/voice team-up with Godspeed You! Black Emperor founder Efrim Manuel Menuck. Engle has appeared on stage with the likes of Maggie Rogers, Martha Wainwright, Leif Vollebekk, The Barr Brothers and more.
Be sure to catch the “XO Skeleton Performance Series” only in Montreal, Toronto and Ottawa this Fall. These concerts are meant to be a full 360 experience, combining live music with performance art, sensory installation, immersive sound design, and video projection. The performance series will center experiences and topics often relegated to the background—of music, of popular culture, and of our own psychic landscape—whilst pushing the boundaries of traditional musical performance and creating an augmented, embodied experience for its audiences.
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XO SKELETON is out now: https://found.ee/XO-SKELETON
