story by Garin Pirnia
photo by Sebastian Mlynarski

Paris, France has always been associated with avant-garde artists and cutting edge experimentation, from the Cahiers du Cinema to the whimsical fantasies of the film Amelie. Perhaps there's something enchanting about the City of Lights that certain France-hating, "freedom fries" eating right-wingers in the U.S. just can't see. But regardless of what part of the political spectrum you find yourself, there's no denying that the Parisian female indie rock group CocoRosie has proven that with a little inspiration and instinct, anything can happen. And I mean anything...

The story begins in 2003 in New York City with writer/singer Bianca Casady. One day she decided to escape her life in NYC to visit her estranged older sister Sierra who was living in Paris training as a classical opera singer. Bianca bought a round-trip ticket but had no idea she wouldn't be returning as scheduled. Luckily, she and her sister got along and they started recording songs together. After two months of recording, (sometimes in a bathtub wearing costumes and sipping champagne), they had enough songs for an album. They went back to New York and casually showed their project to their friends, not expecting anything to come from it.

The CD-R ended up falling into the hands of Chicago's fabled indie record label Touch and Go, which immediately signed the sisters and released their debut, La Maision de Mon Reve (The House of My Dreams) in the spring of 2004. The genre-blending work has attracted significant attention and acclaim for its originality and strangely enchanting melodies. During a conversation with Chicago Innerview, Bianca Casady comments on CocoRosie's accidental collaboration:

CASADY'S INNER VIEW "I guess I like the idea of doing something really contrasting - like with the Wu Tang Clan - something that would challenge people's idea of categorizing music."

"We recorded a song and didn't know we were embarking on this project, but we didn't resist." Until this point, the siblings had never collaborated on any musical projects together, which some would say makes the event all the more destined and fated. Bianca and Sierra isolated themselves in the apartment and rarely ventured into town or socialized with others. During the recording process, CocoRosie took themselves very seriously even though they had no prior commitments to show it to anyone and were content with the idea of it never being published.

The music on La Maision de Mon Reve evokes genres of soul, gospel and blues, but Bianca and Sierra don't want to be limited by a certain type of music. Their songs play with an older Southern vernacular, with fictionalized stories and monologues. Bianca writes most of the songs and plays with various toys while Sierra puts the writings to melodies and vocals. "Everything is basically the way it sounds. It sounds like an endless resource of sound that creates a story or a feeling or even a sense that it's real, that you are just listening to a real moment," states Bianca about their music.

They integrate their own recorded samples that sound like degraded old records (similar to what Moby does except with authentic samples) and field recordings such as falling rain, birds chirping and an ambulance siren. Even though Bianca and Sierra used degrees of improvising on the album, they let it evolve naturally into structure: "We recorded track by track. Once we had the first track, we knew what needed to happen," says Bianca. After their initial experimentation, they selected the tracks that worked the best, sometimes recording different versions if needed.

The results turned out to be highly original and awe-inspiring. The first track is the melodic "Terrible Angels" where Sierra sings as Bianca backs her up. The track combines their beautiful voices with a sawing sound to become a poignant lullaby. The next song is "By Your Side" where Sierra sings in a blues-inspired Billie Holiday or Nelly Furtado voice about a woman who wants to be a housewife: "All I wanted was to be your housewife/I'll iron your clothes /I'll shine your shoes /I'll make your bed /And cook your food /I'll never cheat /I'll be the best girl you'll ever meet." An array of sounds including crickets, birds and electro beats also accompany the track.

On "Jesus Loves Me," the girls continue with the Southern dialect to tell a story about how "Jesus loves me/But not my wife/Not my nigger friends /Or their nigger lives" to create a minimalist song with jangling tones at the end. The rest of the album appeals to romanticism and naturalism, with the dreamlike and poetic track "Good Friday" which features an acoustic guitar, whispering voices, and swirling sounds. The stripped down "Tahiti Rain Song" uses gospel vocals against the sound of actual rain falling onto a tin; the instrumental track "Candyland" showcases Sierra's opera vocals with the piano and harp highlighting this angelic tune, while the romantic yearning of "Haitian Love Song" contrasts the other songs with its use of subtle hip hop beats. With this style of experimentation, Bianca and Sierra allow themselves to change with the music. "Part of it is an evolving regression to kinda go against myself, to create and consider different types of music. For me, it ended up with qualities people classify as folk/blues."

To support the release of the album, Bianca and Sierra began voraciously touring throughout the States and Europe. But there seems to be a schism between the two hemispheres, according to Bianca: "I go over there [Europe] and I don't feel like I'm an artist being so categorized, like I'm such a novelty. I feel embraced. They have a lot more room for new things there and are a lot less afraid, I think." She also mentions how there is less of a division between the mainstream and underground and how there is more freedom for radio airplay in Europe.

So far, the sisters have had the opportunity to tour with well-respected indie bands like fellow New York avant-garders TV on the Radio, acclaimed folkster Devendra Banhart, Antony and the Johnsons and now Saddle Creek's godfather Bright Eyes. As for collaborating with other artists, Bianca says, "I guess I like the idea of doing something really contrasting - like with the Wu Tang Clan - something that would challenge people's idea of categorizing music." The duo are always recording and collecting new sounds as they embark on another record, which Bianca says gets "weirder and weirder."

"I definitely want to do a lot of other things like video projects, writing projects, just keep collaborating, not dissecting myself so much, just being sort of a musician and letting everything flow together." These sisters have created something so extraordinary with their abstract blend of lo-fi bohemian sounds, it gives new meaning to the term homemade. There may or may not be anything enchanting about the city of Paris, but for these experimental sisters reunited by fortuitous circumstances, CocoRosie found the perfect place to finally come together.

CocoRosie :: with Bright Eyes and Tilly & the Wall :: Riviera :: January 17.

Listen to an mp3 of CocoRosie's "Good Friday," courtesy of Better Propaganda.