Celtic Connections: Laetitia Sadier Source Ensemble

WITH Stereolab, the cult electronic avant-pop band with whom Laetitia Sadier first made her name, set to be brought out of cold storage later this year for festival dates and a reissue campaign, it felt extra special to be granted an intimate audience with this French fount of off-the-wall melodicism, as part of Celtic Connections.

Laetitia Sadier PIC: Dosfotos/REX/Shutterstock

Laetitia Sadier, Hug and Pint, Glasgow ***

Or should that be Gallic Connections? “Does this make us a bit Celtic?” Sadier 
pondered playfully. “I’ve always wanted to be a bit Celtic.”

Prolifically active as a solo artist since Stereolab’s hiatus began in 2009, Sadier has quietly amassed a substantial and consistent body of work never lacking her USPs of softly snaking Franco-Latin rhythms, freaky retro-synth colouring and intriguingly unconventional sung/spoken vocals.

It wouldn’t be much of an exaggeration to say that she has one of the most distinctive and instantly identifiable melodic sensibilities in all of music.

The latest evolution of her solo career has seen her surround herself with a new gang of similarly-minded players including regular collaborators Emmanuel Mario and Xavi Munoz as the Source Ensemble, for a firmly on-brand skittish mingle of Krautrock, Yé-Yé pop, complex polyrhythms and flamenco interludes.

You would have been hard-pressed to whistle themeandering top-lines of the likes of Love Captive and Find Me the Pulse of the Universe down the street on the way home after the show, but in the moment they were each gently, hypnotically charming in their own wistful, wonky way.

Double Voice, Extra Voice was a particular standout – a song about the gilets jaunes protestors in Sadier’s native country, ending in a knotty tumble of vocal harmonies over a supple bass groove.

Roll on that Stereolab 
reunion.

MALCOLM JACK