French For Cartridge
Month
FINLAND!
Golden Hour Listening Party XXVII tomorrow Sunday 10th at 21.30!
61°47'40.0"N 23°48'17.7"E - bring your own headphones. Message us for more details.
Can’t make it? Watch this beautiful video made by Dorna Aslanzadeh for “End of the World” instead.
What’s this all about? Read more here.
Having previously only been available as a physical pre-order or by attending our Golden Hour Listening Parties, we’re releasing our latest album “The Golden Hour” to all streaming platforms later this month.
To celebrate, here’s the opening track “Roses” featuring the amazing CHROMA. It’s a song about a devious gardener who obsesses about her crops and poisons whilst high on pills - worth a listen!
Need something to watch? Have a look at Dorna Aslanzadeh’s amazing video for “End of the World” instead.
LUXEMBOURG!
Golden Hour Listening Party XXVI today Sunday 6th!
Gather behind Mudam by the Drei Echelen at 20.30 and bring your own headphones.
Can’t make it? Watch this beautiful video made by Dorna Aslanzadeh for “End of the World” instead.
What’s this all about? Read more here.
Golden Hour Listening Party XXV tomorrow in Tokyo!
Gather at 17.30 by the Hideyo Noguchi statue in Ueno Park. More info in Japanese HERE.
Bring your headphones!
If you caught our previous post, you will know that we are releasing “The Golden Hour” to all usual digital platforms on May 25th.
Up until now, you could only hear the album if you pre-ordered a physical copy or by attending one of our Golden Hour Listening Parties. These have been great fun and it would be a shame to stop these, so as the weather gets nicer, we will organise one listening party a month in various places around the globe, starting with Tokyo on April 8th.
MORE about the parties
WATCH Dorna Aslanzadeh’s new video for “End of the World”
DATES Check websites/social media for exact locations and confirmation depending on weather
April 8th - Tokyo
May 6th - Luxembourg
June 10th - Tampere
July 8th - London
August 5th - Duinbergen
September 9th - London
About a year ago we released an album called “The Golden Hour”. Physical copies were limited to pre-order and streaming was only possible by attending our Golden Hour Listening Parties.
Now’s the time to also release it everywhere else, so on May 25th the album will be available to stream/buy in full on all the usual digital platforms!
To celebrate this our friend Dorna Aslanzadeh has made a spectacular and haunting video for “End of the World”. You might remember her stellar work from some of our previous videos and she doesn’t disappoint this time either. Using facetracking animations and the concept of death masks she has created a fitting film to a rather dark song, perfectly complementing S. Husky Hoskulds’ beautifully creative mix treatment.
Have a look, have a listen and enjoy!
Dorna says:
“I have, through facetracking animation, allowed different death masks to come to life and perform the song. Historically death masks were used to capture a persons face after they passed. The ancient Egyptians would bury their dead with the mask to help the spirit find their body in the afterlife, whereas in the Middle Ages the death mask became a way of remembering the deceased. To me, this strange and beautiful song evokes a feeling of something speaking from elsewhere, so the idea of a kind of infinite transcendental being mourning all things lost became the starting point for making this film.”
We say:
“The song is inspired by the tragic events of a mother of three, who crashed herself and her children into an oncoming bus whilst talking on the phone to her husband, who was sitting on that same bus. It also takes in a Werner Herzog movie and the importance of always having your bags packed in case of the worst happening.”
There will be stuff happening in 2018!
Keep your ear to the ground and your eyes peeled…
We’ve reached our 24th listening party already!
The next one will be in London, somewhere around Tate Modern, tomorrow Saturday evening. Contact us for more details.
No idea what we’re talking about? Read more about it HERE.
“Un album intelligent, expérimental et engagé, qui mérite une écoute attentive.”
For those of you that speak French, here is a very nice review of “The Golden Hour”.
More radio!
Another play for ‘Counting Games’ on DeXter Bentley’s The Hello Goodbye Show ahead of our live session there on March 11th.
Tune in to Resonance FM on 104.4 and DAB in London or online across the globe midday GMT this Saturday.
We also had another spin on the radio last week, this time in Luxembourg.
A scroll through the playlists of Lazy Sunday Show on Radio Ara reveals that “The Golden Hour” has been on the decks the past few programs in a row. Soon the whole album has been aired for the enjoyment of all Luxemborugers - that’s the sort of radio we like!
London. Hamburg. Luxembourg. Taipei. Helsinki. Brussels. Megeve. Cambridge. Innsbruck.
It’s been great to see our Golden Hour Listening Parties spread across various countries with more and more people starting to tune into this idea of ours.
Starting with this afternoon, here is the next batch of parties in London and beyond.
04.03.17/LONDON/ ROOFTOP/51°51’97” N 0°07’57”W/17.15 GMT
06.04.17/LONDON/ ROOFTOP/51°51’97” N 0°07’57”W/19.15 BST
31.03.17/HELSINKI/WATERSIDE/60°09'15.0"N 24°57'23.9"E/19.30 EEST
09.04.17/DUINBERGEN/BEACH/51°20'46.8"N 3°16'08.0"E/20.00 CEST
29.04.17/LONDON/ROOFTOP/51°30'26.5"N 0°05'57.6"W/19.45 BST
Come along and let yourself be drawn into the magical little world of our new album whilst enjoying the scenery and taking in its altogether more serious message.
Find out what it’s all about here - and if you organise your own party get in touch with us and let us know!
We’ve got a Resonance FM radio session coming up in a few weeks as well as a new video, more listening parties and another tune revealed off The Golden Hour for those who can’t make it to one plus we’re looking at heading into the studio to start something new or maybe some sort of addition to the album. So lots to look forward to!
In the meantime, why not buy yourself a copy on iTunes or from our own shop?
If you pre-ordered and are wondering where your download is, please check your Pledge account which will have it or get in touch with us for a link.
Released at the tail end of 2016 “The Golden Hour” made it just in time for the end of year best of-lists. Here’s one in form of the Joyzine Radio Show on Croydon Radio.
“Fantastic album” he says. Listen to the show here.
Stay tuned for an announcement on more Golden Hour Listening Parties and other excitment.
It looks like clouds and fog has again put a stop to Golden Hour Listening Party XII…look out for a replacement date when the sun is back out!
HAPPY NEW YEAR!! Wishing you all a lovely start into 2017!
So today’s Golden Hour Listening Party has also rained off as it shows 100% chance of rain until about midnight tonight! HOWEVER the sun will be out over the next couple of days, promising great views and skies across London and beyond!
So rendez-vous tomorrow Monday 2nd January here: 51°30'32.0"N 0°02'50.3"W at 15.30! and maybe a nice coffee/tea afterwards in one of the local coffee shops! Come along, bring your headphones and plug in!
Meanwhile TAIWAN got a first taste of The Golden Hour with a listening party by the tallest building in Taipei 101.
London fog has put a stop to today’s Golden Hour Listening Party XI…join us instead tomorrow at 15.30!
We were on the radio again!
Looking forward to a live session for DeXter Bentley’s Hello GoodBye Show on Resonance FM in Spring.
Have a listen to last week’s show featuring ‘End of the World’ here or the week before featuring ‘Toll the Bell’ here.
Golden Hour Listening Parties VII, VIII & IX starting at 16.00 local time.
London 51°30'34.1"N 0°05'54.8"W
Bruxelles 50°50'31.0"N 4°21'31.2"E
Innsbruck 47°17'44.7"N 11°23'17.0"E
Golden Hour Listening Party V today in Luxembourg!
15.45 CET
Don’t miss it if you’re around!
LONDON 02.12.16
51°51’97” N 0°07’57”W
We’ve had a number of Golden Hour Listening Parties now, the latest one by the river in Greenwich, where this video was taken.
They’ve all been quite special occasions. It’s quite a beautiful and sometimes intense experience to listen to something together with other people in such a concentrated way while the surroundings get darker or lighter, depending on the time of day.
We’ve got quite a few listening parties planned over the next coming months and some of you have already been in touch to organise your own. If you’d like to do that, please get in touch on info (at) frenchforcartridge (dot) com
You can read more about our new album ‘The Golden Hour’ and the thinking behind the Golden Hour Listening Parties HERE.
We’re hosting Golden Hour Listening Parties to launch our new album ‘ The Golden Hour’, which is out now!
02.12.16 London/City of London EC4M
02.12.16 London/Greenwich SE10
11.12.16 Luxembourg City
15.12.16 London/City of London EC3M
16.12.16 London/City of London
22.12.16 Helsinki
31.12.16 London/Wapping E1W
01.01.17 London/Canary Wharf E14
08.01.17 London SE1
golden hour noun
- In medicine, the golden hour is the first hour after a traumatic injury, when emergency treatment is most likely to be successful.
- In photography, the golden hour is a period shortly after sunrise or before sunset during which daylight is redder and softer, which makes for dramatic skies and surreal cityscapes.
As we were finishing this album, we realised we had made a much darker and more political album than we had initially set out to do taking in subjects like war, loss and the state of the environment.
The songs very much reflect our current state of mind and we are happy to be more vocal about the issues we feel strongly about as we find that you can’t stay quiet any longer with the way things seem to progress. The title of the album refers to the first hour after a traumatic injury, when treatment is most likely to be successful as well as to the short time after sunrise or before sunset when daylight is redder and softer, creating dramatic skies and surreal cityscapes. As such we find it a suitable title for a call to action on environmental and political issues at this hour when the problem has been identified and there still is a chance to fix it.
This album will benefit from quiet listening and we want to bring people together for some real-life social sharing. So, to launch the album we will hold Golden Hour Listening Parties in outside spaces, where the light hits the surrounding environment in particularly spectacular ways during the said golden hours. In this way, we hope to encourage friend and fans to take a break from their busy lives and come together for a moment of contemplation and come up with a plan of action; discuss what needs attending around us - in our neighbourhoods, our countries or further afield - and do something about it.
If you like the sound of it, come along to one of the parties scheduled above or host your own party. Details on how to do this can be found HERE or by sending us an email on info (at) frenchforcartridge (dot) com
Our new album featuring CHROMA is out today!
golden hour noun
- In medicine, the golden hour is the first hour after a traumatic injury, when emergency treatment is most likely to be successful.
- In photography, the golden hour is a period shortly after sunrise or before sunset during which daylight is redder and softer, which makes for dramatic skies and surreal cityscapes.
Physical copies of ‘The Golden Hour’ have sold out on pre-order, but you can get a digital copy either on iTunes or in our own shop.
This album won’t be available to stream anywhere in the first instance.
Instead, we’re inviting you to a more social form of listening by hosting a number of Golden Hour Listening Parties in various outside spaces across the globe, where the light hits the surrounding environment in particularly spectacular ways during the golden hours of the title.
We hope this will be an opportunity for a moment of contemplation around the themes of an album, which turned out altogether darker and more political than we had planned. The playful melodies are still there, of course, but this is perhaps a more intricate collection of songs that reflects our turbulent times by weaving in topics of war, loss and the state of the environment.
Find out more about the thinking behind the title HERE and look out for an announcement about the first batch of parties very soon.
iTunes - http://apple.co/2fZqJMk
Our shop - http://bit.ly/2gt8LCP
Artwork by Damien Beaton
Tomorrow is release day!
The first Golden Hour Listening Party will be at 8am.
51°30'46.8"N 0°05'48.9"W
On Friday we release our new album The Golden Hour!
Physical copies are already sold out on pre-order and we’re doing an ‘Adele’ i.e. not streaming it in the first instance. Instead, we’re inviting you to a more social form of listening by organising Golden Hour Listening Parties around the UK and elsewhere.
We’ve had a few try-outs already and it’s been quite special, so keep your ears to the ground and eyes peeled for more information about this in the next few days!
Our new album “The Golden Hour” is out next week!
Physical copies have already sold out, unfortunately, but you can still pre-order a digital copy in our shop.
It feels poignant that our new single called ‘End of the World’ comes out this week, coinciding with Armistice Day as well as the election of the new American president.
A year ago we started recording a new album. As things progressed, we realized we had written quite a dark and politically charged set of songs taking in subjects like war, loss, the destruction of our environment and depression. This is not something we set out to do - we’re quite a happy bunch - but in the prevailing climate, it felt like we had to say something.
Little did we know that a year, a referendum and an election later, things would look so much worse.
So, here it is, a song called ’ End of the World, written about a mother who crashed herself and her three children into an oncoming bus. This, whilst talking on the phone to her husband, who was sitting on that very same bus trying to talk her out of it.
The song also took inspiration from one of the persons interviewed in Werner Herzog’s movie ‘Encounters at the End of the World’. Set in the Antarctic, this man, a refugee from former Yugoslavia, tells us how he always has a bag packed, ready to leave even when he has reached as far away from civilisation as possible. Just in case the worst will happen.
At the moment it feels like we all need to have our bags packed.
H & C xx
French For Cartridge feat. CHROMA
‘End of the World’
Taken from the forthcoming album ‘The Golden Hour’
PAY FOR IT - http://apple.co/2eYqEpr
LISTEN FOR FREE - http://bit.ly/2eP3WCA
“An exceptional first single from the third LP”, says Electric Sounds of Joy.
The first single, “End of the World”, off our new album will be out Nov 11th. You can already hear it streamed over on their site.
Our new album that we’ve worked on for the last year was delivered this morning to everyone who pre-ordered!
Next month will see the official release - stay tuned for more details about that soon.
Look!
We made it into The Guardian thanks to this playlist made by The Wedding Present’s David Gedge.
And the new album, you ask? We’ve just listened to the last mix of the remaining song. More about it all in a jiffy!
Hello!
A small update seems to be in order.
After a short break from all things French For Cartridge to take care of a few very important and necessary things, we are back at it and about to finish our new recording! It’s been wonderful to come back to the sessions we did with CHROMA Ensemble last September and add vocals to them - so much good stuff in these 6 songs that we hope you will enjoy to hear.
5 songs are now finished and have been sent to S. Husky Höskulds in LA for him to add his bit of magic to them and mix into place - what we’ve heard so far is in equal measures fantastic and slightly crazy. In other words, exactly what we ordered. The remaining sixth song of the cycle is the one where pledgers had the opportunity to influence the theme and some of the lyrics. Some great ideas came from this and we’re about to put the finishing touches to it this month. All in all, it looks like we’ll have the finished thing in our hand (or on our desktop as it is these days) sometime in April or May.
The September release date still holds, at least for the physical release and various extras, but who knows, maybe we’ll let those who have pre-ordered the album hear some of it already before then - so now is a great time to do so! The CD copies and other physical extras are all gone, but you can still pre-order the digital release and get access to all the updates and behind the scenes things, old and new.
Now back to recording these vocals - have a great spring!
Happy New Year!!
We had the pleasure of recording a session for The Dexter Bentley Hello Goodbye Show on Resonance FM last year and now a particularly noisy version of “A Hundred And One” is on this Best of 2015-show!
We reached the target for our Pledge campaign in the nick of time! Thank you everyone who has pledged, we very much appreciate it!
We’re excited to now move on to the next stage of making the album and will keep you posted on how we are progressing!
You will still be able to pre-order the digital album until the release date in autumn and also get access to the updates on PledgeMusic, but all the other exclusives and extras have now expired.
Thank you again for your support!
Catherine, Henri, Aki, Anssi and CHROMA
LESS THAN A WEEK LEFT!?
That’s right, folks, it’s only a few days left now until the end of our Pledge Campaign and your chance to pre-order our new album with the excellent CHROMA Ensemble!
This is the only way to get your hands on a physical copy of the album, but there are also a lot of other extras and goodies to be had. £8 buys you a digital copy and access to updates from its making, whereas £5000 buys you a song based on your chosen topic - and lots of other nice things in-between, of course, so do have a look around.
We think we have created something quite special together with CHROMA, moving into a slightly more orchestral direction, and we would love to make sure you all get to hear it. As things go, recording an album and everything involved around it, comes at a price and we’d really appreciate it if you gave us a helping hand by pre-ordering the album this time.
Our Pledge Music-campaign is well under way - go on and have a look at our project video and explore all the goodies that can be yours!
There’s plenty on offer, from exclusive demos to cooking classes and customised songs. And a pretty darn good album, of course. You’ll also receive updates on how the recording is coming along.
We really do appreciate your help!
If you can’t wait for new French For Cartridge related music, there are a couple of other things going on too. Catherine’s been gigging with Quinta (Philip Selway, Collectress, Paper Cinema) and Henri has produced the new album by Matt McKee, which has been picked up by both Radio 1 and Radio X. Both artists are well worth exploring!
We’re back in the studio with contemporary music ensemble CHROMA to record our most adventurous album yet!
Pre-order this orchestrated song cycle full of wondrous sounds and surprises now and nose around our campaign on PledgeMusic for lots of fun extras and other ways to support its making!
This album got its start with the last song we recorded for our previous album, its title track “We Humans”. It was recorded with a string orchestra and put us onto a direction that we want to explore a bit more in depth now. Read more about it on PledgeMusic and have a look at the video for “We Humans” below to give you an idea of where we’re heading!
We need your help!
Finally!
An extended version of French For Cartridge is heading into the studio next month - very excited to be working with the excellent CHROMA ensemble on this one!
Happy New Year!
We had so much fun playing the new songs at The Garage before Christmas that we will take another break from planning the new album next month when we play The Windmill in Brixton, London on February 12th.
It’s a night called Pop Composition that looks at what’s happening at the fringes of pop music and it seems like a lot of fun. We’re promised lots of bands/experiments and are playing a short 10-15 minute burst of old hits and new tunes.
Don’t miss!
We spoke too soon!
The gig in Brighton at David Gedge’s At The Edge Of The Sea last month was so much fun that we’ll be out for one more gig this year. On Saturday November 29th you can catch us at Upstairs at The Garage in London. This will be our first gig since starting work on our next album, so expect a few familiar tunes as well as a chance to hear some bright and shiny new ones.
We have a limited amount of cheap tickets for sale at face value in our shop.
Hope you can make it - it will be fun!
If you want to see us live this year, one of your only chances will be in Brighton on the August Bank Holiday weekend, when we’ll play David Gedge’s At The Edge Of The Sea!
Also playing on Sunday August 24th are Wedding Present, Art Brut, Emma Pollock and others. You can buy tickets here. Should be fun!
New album “We Humans" out now - available from our shop, Rough Trade, Amazon, iTunes or your local record store!
Inspired by our “Hot Air Balloon” song, one of our FFC chorus girls decided to spend a few months training at the British School of Ballooning. We fully support her decision to leave the dolls chorus for a career in ballooning and wish her all the best in her future endeavours.
We blushed a little bit when we heard this.
“A new French For Cartridge album is always a real cause for celebration. They are one of the most creative and adventurous acts that this country has produced in the last few years and yet they still have that pop sensibility and lightness of touch, which means that their experimentation is fun, quirky and engaging. ‘We Humans’ is quintessentially French For Cartridge.”
More Best-of-2013 love for our latest album from Epileptic Gibbon, one of our longtime supporters and host of an excellent show - check it out here.
New album “We Humans" out now - available from our shop, Rough Trade, Amazon, iTunes or your local record store!
Thank you to the listeners of Art School Dancing in Edinburgh, who voted us and our “We Humans” to no. 12 in their 2013 Top 100!!
You can also find us on the Best of The Joyzine Radio Show, which is a free download album that features a version of “Spiders” recorded for this excellent show last Autumn.
This is what they say about the album:
“French For Cartridge’s second album ‘We Humans’ surfed the dividing line between experimental and enjoyable as expertly as any that we heard in 2013.”
Well, thank you!
New album “We Humans" out now - available from our shop, Rough Trade, Amazon, iTunes or your local record store!
We’re in the top half of Rocksucker’s 100 best albums of 2013!
“Ridiculously eccentric, and jolly lovely with it. It’s rare for something to be quaint and berserk at the same time, but this succeeds valiantly. This is completely off its rocker and we bloody loves it for it.”
Read the interview we did with them in October here.
New album “We Humans" out now - available from our shop, Rough Trade, Amazon, iTunes or your local record store!
2013 was a great French For Cartridge year!
We finished and released a new album called “We Humans”, which both sounds and looks beautiful. There was a wonderful fun fayre in a medieval church tower to celebrate its release, there were library tours and beach performances, a Rough Trade instore and a cooking show as well as fantastic videos for each song made by some very talented friends.
A few weeks ago we also released a digital EP to round things off featuring a few remixes and one new song called “Frequency 349”, the first thing we’ve recorded since the album.
Listen to the new song and watch all the videos below here.
None of this would have been possible without some truly wonderful people.
THANK YOU: Akinori Fujimoto, Anssi Växby, S. Husky Höskulds, Damien Beaton, John Rogers, Mikko Gordon, James Bull, Benji Kontz, Dorna Aslanzadeh, Daniel & Team Cleopatra II, Julie Marthe Hoffmann, Riccardo Arena, Ebba Erikzon, Keiko Sumida, Triona Ryan, Bratislava Symphony Orchestra, Pizzazz Handbell Trio, Sam Taylor, Joanne Gibson, Jon Roskilly, Barney Samson, Laetitia Stott, Nina Pottell and everyone else who supported us in making and promoting this little piece of art. Let’s make another one soon!
Have a lovely Christmas and a Happy New Year!
New album “We Humans" out now - available from our shop, Rough Trade, Amazon, iTunes or your local record store!
“Perennially creative”, says Subba-cultcha about us, the new EP, remixes and videos!
Follow the links to hear the EP or listen to the Collectress remix of “Old Books” on the latest svelte selection, where we made it on to the svelte favourites of 2013-show.
New album “We Humans" out now - available from our shop, Rough Trade, Amazon, iTunes or your local record store!
This is the video for “Hot Air Ballon”, that GoldFlakePaint premiered last week.
Directed by Triona Ryan, it completes the 12 videos off “We Humans” and is also available on the new digital EP that’s out now. Buy it on iTunes or watch all the other videos on YouTube.
New album “We Humans" out now - available from our shop, Rough Trade, Amazon, iTunes or your local record store!
“The ever delicate French For Cartridge.”
The new Hot Air Balloon EP and video is up on The Organ today! Sean and Marina were one of the first to champion us way back when and it’s always great to see it up there on their site.
New album “We Humans" out now - available from our shop, Rough Trade, Amazon, iTunes or your local record store!
GoldFlakePaint premieres the new video for Hot Air Balloon!
“It feels mystical and oddly haunting at the same time, like it’s telling a story in a language we can’t understand.”
This video, directed by Triona Ryan, is the last one of the twelve We Humans-videos to be revealed - check it out here.
New album “We Humans" out now - available from our shop, Rough Trade, Amazon, iTunes or your local record store!