Thu 3 Apr 2008
I was listening to a mix last night and was immediately smitten by the french singer Camille Dalmais
Her second album, Le fil was released in 2006. It was named France’s Best New Album of the Year winning two “Victoire” prizes, at the leading French music awards. Le Fil “the thread” refers to the one note - B - that weaves its way throughout the album and is sustained for 35 minutes in the final track.

Camille is the winner of the French equivalent of the Mercury Music Prize for her last album, Le Fil, which also found devoted champions in this country, not least in these pages: Charlie Gilllett, reviewing here in April 2005, called it ‘extra special’, and it made number nine in OMM’s list of the 100 best CDs of that year. Pretty good going for such an adventurous record - witness the continuous line (or thread: ‘le fil’) of a single note that held the whole thing together - and one also largely sung in French; that its successor is largely sung in English shouldn’t be read as a suggestion that the 30-year-old Parisian is seeking crossover success of any kind.
And what timing - turns out she has a new release - Music Hole - coming out in a few days.
And i’d find you some mp3 links but - they are mostly in french. But she has a website . When i just tried the website i clicked and then got a black screen and nothing happened - it must be some avant garde gitane smoking brandy sniffing french joke. but i’m still crushin’ on ya Camille!
update - ok the site loaded in firefox after discussing politics and hemlines with every single stranger between california and the paris metro. its fun. the video documentary about Music Hole is funny and strange and endearing and tres enchanté .
Music Hole Website with videos









