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Psych-folk duo La Nouvelle Musique offer a sense of peace and perspective with cinematic new single ‘Spirit Level’

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“There is a purity and beauty to this music that shines a light” – UNCUT

“A potent new pairing” – MOJO

London based duo, La Nouvelle Musique, mix psyche folk elements with an ethereal vocal style that falls somewhere between Vashti Bunyan, Hope Sandoval (Mazzy Star) and Nico.

Made up of husband-and-wife Joanna Beck and Ian de Silva, the baroque orchestration on some of La Nouvelle Musique’s songs also reflects a big screen aesthetic. Singer/Bass Player – Joanna is also a composer and performance artist who creates electro acoustic music, sonic art, and has scored for theatre and film. 

Production wise La Nouvelle Musique work as a self-contained unit, writing, recording and producing their music at Berwick Street Studios in Soho London, where Ultravox recorded ‘Vienna’ and The Sex Pistols made their version of ‘My Way’.  

Their self-titled debut album, which follows their recent acclaimed ‘Premonitions’ EP, is a sumptuous and haunting collection of deeply effecting tracks that drips with nostalgic mysticism. The album was released on vinyl on 30th June via Fruits de Mer to much acclaim, including a rave 5-star review from Shindig Magazine and is now released digitally, alongside new single ‘Spirit Level’.

‘Spirit Level’ is a hypnotic song about the passing of time and the difficulty many people face day to day just to keep their emotional equilibrium. It’s also about the beauty of nature and how if we sometimes take a moment to focus on it, it can give us a sense of perspective and peace. The track operates in a Velvet Underground style psych-rock territory, with an epic wall of effervescent electric guitars kicking in as it wildly escalates.

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Michele Ducci teases new album with uplifting indie single ‘Woman Like You’

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Michele Ducci has unveiled the second single, ‘Woman Like You’, from his forthcoming album and animated film ‘Snail in the Clouds’.

‘Woman Like You’ pairs bright distorted electric guitar with an electronic drumbeat, adding in Ducci’s soulful vocals and a catchy uplifting chorus with Letizia Mandoleisi’s sweet vocal harmonies. A vintage organ pedalboard operated by Ducci simultaneously generates chords, bass and rhythm, like a one-man band. Shane Kennedy (Girl in the Year Above) joins in on guitar. Simon Milner (Is Tropical, Ysing) recorded and produced the track at his 4am Studios in London.

The album and film tell the story of a planet called ‘Snail’, inhabited by hybrids – primarily a mixture between scorpions, snails and humans – who lead a life according to the style of Pythagoras, devoted to music. There is also a cloud man named Agostos, a writer of musical operettas, who together with a talking smoke machine called Doctor Subtilis, begins to kill all hybrids, targeting in particular the hybrid musician Diodoros and his band, in an effort to steal the ark of melodies, an ancient ship that allows the whole planet to survive with music and joy.

The video for the single, created and animated by Ducci and Mandoleisi, delves further into the realm of planet ‘Snail’:

Says Ducci, “The ark of melodies, after various attempts, finally starts to work and fly in the planet Snail, while the shady Doc. Sub. and Agostos, with their platoon of soldiers made of foggy smoke, spy the miracle, planning to steal the ark for their evil and tyrannical purposes.


About the track, Michele says, I wrote this song for my love Letizia. Love seen from the mind is the sound we make. Sound is the love of matter.

We used a Technics synthesizer organ from a flea market. I tried to find a mood that was right for the song and I started using the bass of the pedal board together with the synth and the drums, and it was magical to hear the song reveal itself all coming from a single instrument. Leti was singing with me and we recorded everything live in one shot. Then we made Shane do the guitar flight, as if he came out of the window. The idea was to maintain disproportions, guitar thrust and synth drum thinness a la Haroumi Hosono, so as to create an estrangement, but naturally: it’s about how I listen, with close up something that captures me in its nuance as element of a larger orchestra somewhere. I’m glad we decided in the studio with Simon to use the layers of arrangement as the close-ups in the cinema; they look like strange enlargements that perch on parts of a mutated orchestra. I’m happy to come back with this love song at a time when everything seems to opt, even my labor in managing the flows of selfishness that have poured out on me while doing this album, for the sound of war. I’m here happy to be able to say that the sound of love always wins as did for me. Snail in the clouds is one of the most important works in my life and I am glad to start from pure love for this album that is my son.

The album and full-length film will be released on the 5th of June on Monotreme Records.

Michele and Letizia’s previous musical short film, ‘The Great Book of Nature’, is an official selection for the 2026 Venice Shorts Film Festival.

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