In April of 2021, I saw L’Impératrice live at the Fonda Theatre in Los Angeles. Three years later, the thing that stands out about that show is how hard everyone danced.. There was one point when singer Flore Benguigui got low and the audience did the same.
I was in the balcony that night and, from my vantage point, I saw a broken heart totem and a crown totem bouncing above bobbing heads. When L’impératrice turned songs from Tako Tsubo, like “Submarine” and “Peur des filles” into full-blown disco jams — the latter sounding like “Love to Love You, Baby”— it felt like the crowd was moving as a single body. Before that night, I had spent more than a month listening to Tako Tsubo on repeat, partially because I interviewed L’Impératrice for Audiofemme, but also because the album quickly became a favorite of mine for that year. But, L’Impératrice live is a whole other level of wild energy that I hadn’t heard in their recordings, at least until now.
Pulsar is the latest album from L’Impératrice and it is the closest thing I’ve heard to their live show. It opens with “Cosmogonie,” a two minute and fifty second slow burn intro, then jumps without pause into “Amour Ex Machina,” where the driving groove immediately brings to mind that moment of getting low at the Fonda.
L’Impératrice sustains the energy while mixing French and Spanish on “Me Da Igual” and then moves into the English-language song, “Love From the Other Side.” They turn up the disco vibes on “Danza Marilú,” which features vocals from Fabiana Martone of Nu Genea and, if you’re keeping track of languages here, is sung in French and Italian. The band then dials back the intensity on “Any Way” (with vocals from Maggie Rogers) and “Déjà Vu,” before letting the heat gradually rise on “Girl!” and “Sweet & Sublime” (featuring Erick the Architect) before gently bringing the album to a funky close with the title track.
Pulsar moves in a way that’s very similar to the flow of a concert, which isn’t as common as one might think. And, like a concert, the time flies by almost too quickly. The difference between the two, though, is that an album can be replayed over and over again, which is what I’ve been doing since Pulsar landed in my email.
L’Impératrice will be playing Los Angeles soon and, if you haven’t seen them live yet, I highly recommend catching the French band on this tour. They’ll be at The Shrine on September 27 and tickets are on sale now. Head over to the band’s website to get yourself a copy of Pulsar, which is available on vinyl and CD as well as digital and streaming.
Liz O. is an L.A.-based writer and DJ. Read her recently published work and check out her upcoming gigs.
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