Powerdove

NEWS


BIO

Reconfigured as a French-American duo, Powerdove is releasing its fifth album and it’s a dazzling balance of diaphanous melodies and explosive arrangements, at once poppy and in-your-face experimental. Conceived on the Aegean Sea, the staggeringly beautiful songs of Machination suggest high-precision mechanisms that have been expertly tweaked to register the pulse of a hypersensitive and mineral form of songwriting.

Hearing ‘Machination’’s eight songs, which either gently undulate or seem to fight and play with the turbulence of wind and roil—you will not be entirely surprised to learn that their dream-origin was on a sailboat. Over the course of ten weeks in the Spring and Summer of 2019, Annie Lewandowski and her companion went boating by themselves on the Aegean Sea. Though both experienced sailors, nothing had prepared them for the extremities of this experience—the exaltation and the terror of the winds, the wonderment at the beauties of nature, the despair of witnessing plastic overwhelm the beaches and the sea. There was no other routine than to write every morning, when Annie’s dreams were still fresh and palpable and she could feel the opposing pulls of real and imaginary lives. When after seventy radiant days of wind and sun they got off the boat at Lavrio in Greece, she had sketches of all of the songs.

With her calm voice, Annie Lewandowski plumbs the depths of love and solitude, of memory and forgetfulness, of the strange and the familiar. She aims at the heart with a disarming sparseness of words, a lyricism which touches on intimacy (when the one your love no longer desires you, on ‘Someone Else’) and the political (the border, place of fantasy and abomination, on ‘Machination’.)  Red Stain, hatched during one stiflingly hot and windless morning’s fever-dream, hurls her into a psychedelic reality where time has been abolished and loved ones become strangers.

Contrasting with this bruised and fitful vein of inspiration is the sweetness of the vocals and the keyboard figures and myriad percussive sounds imagined by Thomas Bonvalet, which at once envelop and reveal the songs. Machination’ was recorded at the Grange Cavale studio in Dordogne following an MO whose logic is endemic to the duo and also slightly magical—forms are spontaneously generated from within a sonic configuration decided upon by Thomas before even hearing Annie’s songs. With a lightweight set-up, he produces a wide range of unique sounds using mainly a small electric guitar whose strings have been muted with scotch tape, and whose sole amplification is through little pocket amps spread throughout the space and triggered with a foot-switch. To each speaker is assigned a tambourine which vibrates to every sound. You will recognize the clicking of the on-off switches, a timer, a metronome, fragmentary sounds which play with depth-of-field.

A purely musical dialogue is set into motion: “I’ve always preferred to keep some distance from meaning and words,” explains Thomas Bonvalet. “I believe deeper and richer correspondences can be created through abstraction, correspondences between two objects that exist simultaneously but not on the same plane.” And quoting the philosopher Clement Rosset: “Music is not representational, it imitates nothing, speaks of nothing, it is somewhere else (…), free-form, floating, adrift by its very origin, as one would say of a bottomless surface or clothing without a body.”

This surface, this clothing without body, could also suggest what we may be seeing in the sublime cover image of Machination’, haunted as it is by memory and its erasure. When he settled by a pond in the forest of Double in Dordogne, Thomas buried all his personal photographs in the ground. Ten years later, he dug them up and found them altered, charged with new meanings, new shapes and new colors. Like ghosts reincarnated.

LINE-UP
Annie Lewandowski: vocals, sampler, synthesizers, mini-amplifiers
Thomas Bonvalet: audio stutter pedals, tambourines on mini amps, noise gates, mechanical and digital metronomes, six string bass banjo, electric guitar, cellphone, drum skin, tuning forks, mechanical egg timer, microphones, honk horn, foot bell
Manuel Duval: sound


LINKS


PRESS


CONTACT

Booking : Julien Bitaudeau
Promo :
Varvara Papaspanopoulou

DISCOGRAPHIE

  • Machination

    Murailles Music2021
    LP/ Digital
    Buy
  • Bitter Banquet

    Fo'c'sle Records2018
    CD
  • War Shapes

    Murailles Music2017
    CD / LP / digital
    Buy
  • Arrest

    Murailles Music2014
    CD / LP / digital
    Buy
  • Do You Burn ?

    Murailles Music / Africantape2013
    CD / LP / Digital
    Buy
  • split 7″ with Curtis Mc Kinney

    Northpole Records2012
    7"
  • Be Mine

    Circle into Square Records2011
    CD
  • EP Self-Titled

    demo2010
    Digital
  • EP Live at the Maybeck House

    s/r2010
    CD

Past shows

Click on "date", "city" or "venue" to change the list display
  • DateCountryCityVenuewith 
  • 14/05/2020FranceParis (75)Le Beau Festival, La Boule Noire (ANNULÉ)Aksak Maboul, JFDR event
  • 01/12/2019FranceAvignon (84)Les Hauts Plateauxinfos event
  • 30/11/2019FranceVaulx-En-Velin (69)Grrrnd Zero / GZ Anniversaire 15 ansHeimat, Balladur, Physique, Pan Pan Paninfos event
  • 29/11/2019SuisseGenève (CH)Festival Face Z, Salon d'HiverBruit Noir, Vox Low, Lfant infos event
  • 28/11/2019FranceParis (75)Petit Bainrelease party de Arlt 'Soleil Enculé'infos event
  • 26/11/2019FranceToulouse (31)DAdaJeffers Waldo event
  • 03/08/2019FrancePlougonvelin (29)Festival Visions 7,77 - Fort de BertheaumeBorja Flames, Drew Mcdowall, EYE, Tanz Mein Herz, Shackleton, France, Techno Thriller, Tzusing, Vessel, Unit Moebius.infos event
  • 04/09/2018Grande-BretagneLondonCafe OTOinfos event
  • 03/09/2018Grande-BretagneNewcastle upon TyneCobalt StudiosMushinfos event
  • 02/09/2018Grande-BretagneGlasgowSharmanka (matinee performance)
  • 02/09/2018Grande-BretagneEdinburghHenry Cellar's Barinfos
  • 01/09/2018Grande-BretagneLiverpoolBean There Coffee Shopinfos event
  • 31/08/2018Grande-BretagneDorsetFestival End of the Road (BBC Radio 3’s Late Junction) - Larmer Tree Gardens (Tipi Tent)infos
  • 30/08/2018Grande-BretagneBristolCryptCacophonus Sarcophagus event
  • 14/04/2018FranceChabeuil Festival Rencontres entre les mondesinfos event
  • 12/04/2018FranceLilleL'AéronefDominique Ainfos event
  • 11/04/2018FranceMassyCENTRE CULTUREL PAUL B.This is the kitinfos event
  • 10/04/2018BelgiqueBruxellesLes Fabriques event
  • 09/04/2018FranceParisEspace BKaraocake event
  • 19/11/2017FranceLyonTBA - Anniversaire du Grrrnd Zero infos
  • 18/11/2017SuisseGenèveLa ReliureFederico Dal Pozzoinfos event
  • 17/11/2017FranceParisFGO - BarbaraLa Terre Tremble !!!infos event
  • 15/11/2017Grande-BretagneLondresThe DentistAshley Paulinfos event
  • 14/11/2017FranceCaenLe BazarnaomLa Terre Tremble !!!infos event
  • 13/11/2017FranceLilleCentre Culturel LibertaireMAG, Luzerne, Ville Noireinfos event
  • 12/11/2017BelgiqueBruxellesLes Ateliers ClausAshley Paulinfos event
  • 11/06/2017FranceBiarritzPioche Projects event
  • 10/06/2017FranceJurançon (64)La Ferronnerie event
  • 09/06/2017FranceGerm (65)Chez Lily event
  • 08/06/2017FranceConcots (46)La LogetteFaustine Seilman, Infatigable Dead Horse event
  • 07/06/2017FranceBordeauxiBOATChris Coheninfos event
  • 06/06/2017FranceTarbesCeltic Pubinfos
  • 05/06/2017FranceToulouseLe DAdainfos
  • 19/05/2017FranceLyonQuirky Festival, Le Bal des FringantsBégayerinfos event
  • 18/05/2017FranceParisL'Espace en CoursGaspar Claus solo event
  • 17/05/2017FranceNantesLe lieu uniqueTrombe event
  • 16/05/2017FranceMettray (37)La Grange IntergalactiqueTasty Grany event
  • 15/05/2017FranceRennesLe TerminusCantenac Dagar event
  • 14/05/2017FranceLanvéocFestival l'Ex-Îleinfos event
  • 13/05/2017FranceCherbourgLa ChercheUltra Kabron & Rafhell event
  • 08/06/2015FranceToulouseThe Persimmon HouseDavid Simard event
  • 07/06/2015FranceLa Chapelle Gonaguet (24)Prieuré de Merlande (SOLO)
  • 06/06/2015FrancePoitiersFestival Less Playboy is More Cowboy (SOLO)Moon Duo, Wand...infos
  • 05/06/2015FranceMetzLes Trinitaires, Chapelle (SOLO)Elvis Perkinsinfos
  • 04/06/2015FranceSarregueminesLe Terminus (SOLO)
  • 03/06/2015FranceStrasbourgLe Troc'afé (SOLO)
  • 02/06/2015FranceLyonLa Triperie (SOLO)Bess of Bedlam event
  • 31/05/2015FranceCaenGroarg Palace (SOLO)Portier Dean
  • 30/05/2015FranceRouenAître St MaclouSourdureinfos event
  • 29/05/2015FranceParisOlympic CaféMichel Henritzi & À qui avec Gabriel + Dana Valserinfos event
  • 28/05/2015FranceLa Roche-sur-YonLa Gâterie
  • 27/05/2015FranceLimogesLe Phareinfos event
  • 26/05/2015FranceBordeauxLe MaestroKim Myhrinfos event
  • 25/05/2015FranceTarbesCeltic Pub
  • 24/05/2015ItalieBergamo (It)Accademia Carrara
  • 22/05/2015FranceSan Martino Spino (It)Festival Musica Nelle Valli event
  • 21/05/2015FranceGrenobleLe CielRouge Renardeinfos event
  • 20/05/2015SuisseGenève (Ch)Cave12infos
  • 19/05/2015FranceClermont-FerrandL'Hôtel des Vil-e-sinfos
  • 13/05/2015Grande-BretagneLondon (Uk)Bethnal Green Working Men's ClubRichard Dawsoninfos
  • 02/10/2014FranceAnglet (64)Ecuries de Barojainfos event
  • 01/10/2014FranceLabège/ToulouseMaison Salvaninfos event
  • 30/09/2014FranceNantesLe Lieu UniqueWovenhandinfos event
  • 28/09/2014FranceMondeville / CaenLe BocalHerr Geisha and the Boobs, Chat Blanc Le Stagiaire Vert, Poney Crevé event
  • 27/09/2014FranceMontreuilLe ChinoisYann Gourdoninfos event
  • 26/09/2014BelgiqueBruxelles (Be)Les Ateliers ClausYann Gourdon & Hervé Boghossian, Hayvanlar Alemiinfos event
  • 25/09/2014FranceMetzLa Chaouéeinfos event
  • 24/09/2014FranceStrasbourgStimultaniainfos event
  • 23/09/2014SuisseVevey (Ch)Le Bout du Mondeinfos event
  • 22/09/2014FranceLyonLe PériscopeAr Ker, Odessey & Oracleinfos event
  • 21/09/2014FranceSaint-Martin-de-Lansuscle (48)Le TempleMarylin-Rambo, Radio Suicide DJ set
  • 20/09/2014FranceMarseilleL'EmbobineuseNunna Daul Isunyi + Petra Pied de Bicheinfos event
  • 30/07/2014AllemagneHamburg (All)Hörbar
  • 28/07/2014AllemagneKarlsruhe (All)Gudrun's Houseinfos
  • 27/07/2014AllemagneBerlin (All)Heinz / AudioFile
  • 26/07/2014DanemarkFanø (Dk)Fanø Free Folk Festival event
  • 01/04/2014SuèdeSandviken (SE)Kungeninfos event
  • 30/03/2014SuèdeTorpåkra (SE)Torpåkra Ljudstation event
  • 29/03/2014SuèdeFalköping (SE)Galleri Shoinfos event
  • 28/03/2014SuèdeUddevalla (SE)Uddevallakassetteninfos event
  • 27/03/2014SuèdeMunkedal (SE)Munkedals Folkets Hus event
  • 26/03/2014SuèdeStockholm (SE)Club Mother, Restaurang LandetReceptaclesinfos event
  • 25/03/2014SuèdeGöteborg (SE)Kultur i Västsinfos event
  • 24/03/2014DanemarkFrederiksberg (København) (DK)HCØ69 event
  • 23/03/2014AllemagneHamburg (All)Astra-Stubeinfos event
  • 24/11/2013FranceParisL'index event
  • 23/11/2013FranceCherbourgLe Transatinfos event
  • 22/11/2013FranceSaint-Pierre-des-Corps (37) / ToursLe RexyMonte Isolainfos event
  • 21/11/2013FranceSaint Nazairele VIPinfos event
  • 20/11/2013FranceLaval6 par 4Ramona Cordovainfos event
  • 19/11/2013FranceParisLe Café De La DanseRamona Cordovainfos event
  • 18/11/2013BelgiqueBruxelles (be)BrassPattoninfos event
  • 17/11/2013FranceRoubaixLa Cave aux poètesGablé event
  • 30/03/2013FranceParisLe Point ÉphémèreWinter Familyinfos event
  • 29/03/2013FranceOrléansSalle de l'InstitutPeter van Poelhinfos event
  • 28/03/2013FranceLyonGrrnd ZeroMazalda + Antinfos event
  • 27/03/2013FranceMarseilleLe GrimLee Nobleinfos event
  • 26/03/2013FrancePauLa Centrifugeuseinfos event
  • 25/03/2013FranceToulouseLes Papillons sauvages event
  • 24/03/2013FranceBayonneLe musée Basqueinfos
  • 23/03/2013FrancePoitiersLe Confort ModerneGabléinfos event
  • 22/03/2013FranceToursLe temps machinePerrine en morceauxinfos event
  • 21/03/2013FranceNantesLe StereoluxElectric Electric, Double Nelsoninfos event
  • 20/03/2013FranceBordeauxNovo Local event
  • 19/03/2013EspagneMadrid (Spain)Utopic_us event

NEWS

BIO

Reconfigured as a French-American duo, Powerdove is releasing its fifth album and it’s a dazzling balance of diaphanous melodies and explosive arrangements, at once poppy and in-your-face experimental. Conceived on the Aegean Sea, the staggeringly beautiful songs of Machination suggest high-precision mechanisms that have been expertly tweaked to register the pulse of a hypersensitive and mineral form of songwriting.

Hearing ‘Machination’’s eight songs, which either gently undulate or seem to fight and play with the turbulence of wind and roil—you will not be entirely surprised to learn that their dream-origin was on a sailboat. Over the course of ten weeks in the Spring and Summer of 2019, Annie Lewandowski and her companion went boating by themselves on the Aegean Sea. Though both experienced sailors, nothing had prepared them for the extremities of this experience—the exaltation and the terror of the winds, the wonderment at the beauties of nature, the despair of witnessing plastic overwhelm the beaches and the sea. There was no other routine than to write every morning, when Annie’s dreams were still fresh and palpable and she could feel the opposing pulls of real and imaginary lives. When after seventy radiant days of wind and sun they got off the boat at Lavrio in Greece, she had sketches of all of the songs.

With her calm voice, Annie Lewandowski plumbs the depths of love and solitude, of memory and forgetfulness, of the strange and the familiar. She aims at the heart with a disarming sparseness of words, a lyricism which touches on intimacy (when the one your love no longer desires you, on ‘Someone Else’) and the political (the border, place of fantasy and abomination, on ‘Machination’.)  Red Stain, hatched during one stiflingly hot and windless morning’s fever-dream, hurls her into a psychedelic reality where time has been abolished and loved ones become strangers.

Contrasting with this bruised and fitful vein of inspiration is the sweetness of the vocals and the keyboard figures and myriad percussive sounds imagined by Thomas Bonvalet, which at once envelop and reveal the songs. Machination’ was recorded at the Grange Cavale studio in Dordogne following an MO whose logic is endemic to the duo and also slightly magical—forms are spontaneously generated from within a sonic configuration decided upon by Thomas before even hearing Annie’s songs. With a lightweight set-up, he produces a wide range of unique sounds using mainly a small electric guitar whose strings have been muted with scotch tape, and whose sole amplification is through little pocket amps spread throughout the space and triggered with a foot-switch. To each speaker is assigned a tambourine which vibrates to every sound. You will recognize the clicking of the on-off switches, a timer, a metronome, fragmentary sounds which play with depth-of-field.

A purely musical dialogue is set into motion: “I’ve always preferred to keep some distance from meaning and words,” explains Thomas Bonvalet. “I believe deeper and richer correspondences can be created through abstraction, correspondences between two objects that exist simultaneously but not on the same plane.” And quoting the philosopher Clement Rosset: “Music is not representational, it imitates nothing, speaks of nothing, it is somewhere else (…), free-form, floating, adrift by its very origin, as one would say of a bottomless surface or clothing without a body.”

This surface, this clothing without body, could also suggest what we may be seeing in the sublime cover image of Machination’, haunted as it is by memory and its erasure. When he settled by a pond in the forest of Double in Dordogne, Thomas buried all his personal photographs in the ground. Ten years later, he dug them up and found them altered, charged with new meanings, new shapes and new colors. Like ghosts reincarnated.

LINE-UP
Annie Lewandowski: vocals, sampler, synthesizers, mini-amplifiers
Thomas Bonvalet: audio stutter pedals, tambourines on mini amps, noise gates, mechanical and digital metronomes, six string bass banjo, electric guitar, cellphone, drum skin, tuning forks, mechanical egg timer, microphones, honk horn, foot bell
Manuel Duval: sound

LINKS

PRESS

DISCOGRAPHIE

  • Machination

    Murailles Music2021
    LP/ Digital
    Buy
  • Bitter Banquet

    Fo'c'sle Records2018
    CD
  • War Shapes

    Murailles Music2017
    CD / LP / digital
    Buy
  • Arrest

    Murailles Music2014
    CD / LP / digital
    Buy
  • Do You Burn ?

    Murailles Music / Africantape2013
    CD / LP / Digital
    Buy
  • split 7″ with Curtis Mc Kinney

    Northpole Records2012
    7"
  • Be Mine

    Circle into Square Records2011
    CD
  • EP Self-Titled

    demo2010
    Digital
  • EP Live at the Maybeck House

    s/r2010
    CD

CONTACT