Laetitia Sadier

This is the third time I've found myself in the presence of Laetitia Sadier live, except this time the French artist is the sole protagonist of the event, no longer a guest of the talented but little-known Giorgio Tuma (check out the excellent review of one of his albums here on the pages of OndaRock, penned by the master Giampiero Vigorito), nor a core member of Stereolab. The evocative Cripta del Duomo in Avellino is the setting chosen for a concert that finally offers a fuller picture of the French artist; it's no coincidence that for this recent tour Laetitia Sadier has put together a setlist drawing from across her entire body of work outside Stereolab, starting with the elegant and sensual voice-and-guitar piece "Dry Fruit" (a single released in 2015).

After a brief exchange (the first of many warm, empathetic chats with a particularly attentive audience) Laetitia playfully introduces her band, or rather "la machine", a backbone over which the artist will provide not only her voice throughout the evening but also guitar loops and trombone sound. With "Une Autre Attente" and "Protéìformunité" she immediately demonstrates the authority she's earned as a songwriter on her latest album "Rooting For Love", before introducing one of the most elegant and profound songs of the evening, "Don't Forget You're Mine", a track that also gives her a chance to speak about gender-based violence with an emotional rawness that isn't lost on the crowd, earning one of the most sincere and heartfelt rounds of applause of the night.

Skilled at handling a wide variety of musical approaches, Laetitia Sadier takes advantage of the splendid setting to perform a track from the Monade project, "Ode To A Keyring", where the guitar takes center stage first, followed by the trombone (not featured in the original version); with "The Reflectors" (taken from the 2017 album "Find Me Finding You"), current events return to the center of her reflections, as the intricate minimalist textures in the style of Steve Reich provide the backdrop for a bitter meditation on the election of Donald Trump—the instrumental tension is dark, intense, and without doubt one of the highlights of a beautiful evening.

After two more songs from the latest album “Rooting For Love” – the modular-synth variations of “Cloud 6” and yet another exquisite pop moment, “Panser L'inacceptable” – along with a few performances by Sadier herself as dancer and trombonist, it's time for the anticipated encore “La Nageuse Nue” and a closing tribute to Scott Walker with a personal rendition of “On Your Own Again”, the perfect close to an evening that delivered an incredible range of emotions, helped in no small part by the venue chosen by organizers FITZ for a concert that showed the public an artist in full form. A nod also goes to the warmth and charm of Laetitia Sadier, whose quirky refusal to autograph Stereolab records we can forgive, though of course a small souvenir of the evening is not lacking, and we leave the crypt of Avellino Cathedral hoping to once again find ourselves in the presence of a performer, singer and songwriter with few equals on the international scene.

Photo courtesy of Pierpaolo Farsetti

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