Edith Crash
Los Angeles, CA | Established. Jan 01, 2009
Music
Press
French queer folk-pop singer Edith Crash is releasing her new LP, Patir, this fall, and she’s given us the exclusive premiere of her first single “On Aurait Pu Rester Là (We Could Have Stayed There).”
Edith moved to Spain for her teen years and now lives in Los Angeles where she recorded the album with producer Alain Johannes (Queens Of The Stone Age) at 11AD Studio. - After Ellen
French singer-songwriter Edith Crash is artistically reborn, but not without experiencing the pain caused by the death of one of the most important people her life. When the musician from the south of France came to Los Angeles two years ago, she brought her political and poetic Inonde album in tow. The desire to create new songs for a followup existed in the abstract but became less certain when Crash's mother Anna-Marie Atge fell ill with cancer and died last year. Recording an album was the last thing the one-woman band phenom felt like doing.
At the onset, the situation didn't seem so dire. In the course of two years, Crash's mom recovered to a point where she could meet with her daughters for a vacation in New York. But within, she became weak once more. After being rushed to the emergency room, Crash's mom flew back to France and the musician followed.
"I went through a lot of different up-and-down emotions like hope and fear," she says looking back. Sometimes Crash would write or play with melodies on her guitar whenever they came naturally as a form of coping. "It was more like a catharsis," she says. "I kept playing because music helped me a lot through this."
Crash stayed with her ill mother in the hospital for several months, spending the night by her bedside until the moment of her passing came last year. Distraught, the musician stopped singing and was unsure about returning to LA, but with the support of family and the loving memory of her mother, she found the strength to do both, even if it didn't come easy at first. "I was just confused. Everything was complicated in coming back here," Crash says. "It was hard for me to go back to life without knowing how to start again."
An opportunity to make music with producer Alain Johannes remained when she returned. Crash had been a fan of his work both as a solo artist and with musicians like Queens of the Stone Age and Chris Cornell. The intimate settings of Johannes' living room studio in Los Angeles provided just the right the environment for the songs she began composing. "You don't have the pressure," Crash says. "It's a more familiar place." The live take recordings captured the rawness of her sound and emotionally charged lyrics.
After finishing eight songs, the new album Partir pays tribute to Crash's late mother. "The songs are all about what we lived together," she says. "It is like a journey in someway." The title is fitting given Crash's mother having left the world of the living and her home departure from France once more. She's offering an early digital exclusive of the new album to fans who donate to her Pledge Music campaign.
So far, the response has been immense from around the globe. And why wouldn't it be? Crash sounds rejuvenated and more powerful than ever. Her vocals can howl with commanding, raspy range just as easily as they can strike softer, more intricate tones. A one-woman band, her music is simple yet ferocious. Bass drum hits rattle with force while a tambourine incessantly paces alongside her impassioned guitar strums.
All together, the elements form an explosion of sound on Partir unlike any other making it a definitive album that would make any mother proud to call a musician like Crash her own.
Check out Edith Crash's PledgeMusic campaign video HERE! - OC Weekly
Edith Crash is a traveling Frenchwoman with a case of the blues. The singer-songwriter's love affair with traditional black music actually started in the south...of France. No, it's not quite the bayou, but her passion for the music took hold of her at a young age.
"If I have to pick only one blues influence it would be Blind Willie Johnson, I love raw dirty old blues," Crash tells the Weekly.
Last year, she left France for Los Angeles where she's been exploring the city and its myriad music scenes. "Every crazy thing you can find, you can find it here," she says of LA's musical melting pot. "It's quite different from Europe."
Before leaving France, the musician spent time in Spain during her teenage years. Spanish press has heralded her as "the daughter Edith Piaf could never have with Kurt Cobian." Crash's raspy vocal prowess actually does fall somewhere between the legendary French singer and the patron saint of Seattle grunge.
When she decided to cross the Atlantic ocean in March of last year, many peers urged her to cross the language barrier as well and sing in English when she arrived to the States. "I didn't know what to expect singing in French," Crash says not wanting to comprise the sentiment of the songs she writes. "I've gotten good feedback from people and I truly believe that music is the universal language."... - OC Weekly
..."The show culminated in an appearance by the well-known French singer Edith Crash, who equally evoked in my imagination the poignant passions of Siouxie Sioux, Kurt Cobain, and Jacques Brel. Everyone stood impressed by this strange foreign punky creature, transfixed by her fiery songs, though few of us understood even a single line being sung. As Crash (any relation to Darby?) was whelping out her final number, darkness began descending like a cozy blanket over the park. It was time for warm goodbyes and stumbling towards obscured parking lots in the perfect confusion of a night-time park."... John Connolly (Mountair) - Nerdpop.net
Artista: Edith Crash
Título: De l’autre côté
Sello: Casa de la Música – Salamandra L’Hospitalet
Fecha de publicación: 2011
Más información: http://www.edithcrash.com
Listado de canciones:
De l’autre côté
Le diable est parmi nous
Je veux être sage
Là-Bas
Trop vite oublier
Comme avant
Sans elle
Tu n’es jamais venu
Demain
Por muy saturado que esté el mercado discográfico, por mucho que la oferta de bandas supere a la demanda y por más que la radio fórmula se imponga de una manera casi dictatorial sobre los artistas de oficio y vocación siempre existe una parcela destinada a la sorpresa. Bajo el nombre artístico de Edith Crash encontramos a una cantante y compositora auténtica, de aquellas que crean más con el estómago que con el corazón, porque su letra y música son viscerales. La artista francesa se ha granjeado un nombre en la ciudad condal y De l’autre côté, su primer larga duración, es la confirmación de un talento que aún ha de reconocerse de manera superlativa.
La traducción literal del álbum es “Del otro lado”, un título significativo para un disco que se asemeja a una mirada musical a través del espejo de la realidad. El LP engloba nueve temas donde el existencialismo enfrentado a la muerte es el núcleo sobre el que giran unas canciones satélite repletas de dudas, sueños y esperanzas. Para sus historias, Edith se refugia en la comodidad de su lengua materna, el francés, donde las letras vibran entre acordes de un rock que, más que oscuro, se define como intimista. Pero se trata de una privacidad repleta de matices, de una multipluralidad sonora que transforma a la artista en toda una banda rockera. Porque ese es una de las grandes virtudes de esta compositora, la cual parece desdoblarse en esencia y concepto hasta convertir sus interpretaciones en asociaciones numerosas de escala estereofónica.
www.dianamartinbcn.com
Al escuchar sus temas conseguimos ir desvistiendo influencias y querencias estilísticas entre las que predominan la canción de autor, la chanson, el folk americano o el rock fronterizo en su vertiente más hosca. Canciones que, lejos de identificarse con creaciones de acompañamiento, invitan a saborearse con una entrega total, con la predisposición de quien reserva un momento especial para un determinado vino o licor, o de aquel que acondiciona el ambiente de un cuarto de baño antes de sumergirse en una bañera repleta de espuma. Y no peco de cinismo al negar que se trate de una devoción personal por una artista en particular sino del juicio de un disco de aquellos que suelen llamarse redondos, y no por el continente.
Pero rara vez unas cuantas líneas pueden definir o, ni siquiera, recoger la esencia de un disco, así que ¿para qué seguir leyendo cuando puedes escucharlo? Agradezcamos a Edith Crash el hecho de tener colgado, en descarga gratuita, De l’autre côté en su página web. - Mundo Musica
EDITH CRASH
Arriesgarse o morir
Alicia Rodríguez
Ríanse de las cantautoras folkies al uso. Esa era está enterrada. Edith Crash va por otros senderos más tortuosos y, quizás, torturados. Pero también más reales. La avalan actitud, nervio y, ante todo, singularidad artística manifiesta. Sólo hay que presenciar alguna de sus actuaciones a pelo y sin amplificación: guitarra, voz y percusión en el pie. "Un día estaba tocando encima de un suelo de madera y empecé a marcar el ritmo con mis botas, me gustó la idea y poco a poco le añadí matices, primero un shaker atado al zapatos, luego un mini bombo y ahora una amiga me ha construido un suelo flamenco para todo tipo de percusión".
Ella se lo guisa y ella se lo come. Y, aún así, ya llena el escenario, sin precisar de banda de acompañamiento, "no está en mis planes actuar con banda. Primero, porque busco un sonido crudo y segundo porque estas canciones son algo muy visceral y, al estar sola, tengo más libertad para jugar con la interpretación y los tiempos. Sé que es un formato más difícil de digerir pero de momento quiero ir por ese camino...". Y es que Edith es una chica valiente, una francesa viajera que, un día hace ya diez años, se lió la manta a la cabeza, dejó Perpignan y se instaló en Barcelona, hinchándose a ofrecer conciertos.
Que nadie piense en una cantautora francesa al uso, sus canciones se nutren del rock norteamericano y del blues (seguro que no hace ascos a Johnny Cash) tanto como de la chanson: "Piaf, Brassens o Brel me dejan ahora alucinada". Y pueden ser sórdidos lamentos y a su vez resultar altamente melódicas. Ese es su talento real. Pronto consigue autoeditarse un EP "Des mots", trabajo, por cierto, que puede descargarse gratuitamente en su web.
Pero digamos que, pese a tener ya pedigrí y recorrido en la escena underground, no es hasta su actuación en el Altaveu cuando empieza a hacerse justicia con ella. Cosas de la música. "Fue una de las primeras veces que me encontraba sola en un escenario de ese tamaño; al principio me sentí un poco descolocada, sobre todo por estar tan lejos de la gente, pero fue una muy buena experiencia. Además, gracias al festival entré en el programa 'Artistas en Ruta' para organizar cuatro conciertos en la península entre abril y junio, así que estoy muy agradecida y bastante alucinada con todo lo que ha pasado este año...". El pasado mes de junio también teloneó a Neal Casal, de quien guarda grato recuerdo. "Es un tipo muy tranquilo y humilde a pesar de tener un talento inmenso. Su música es sincera y se nota enseguida".
Su nuevo disco caerá en marzo. "De momento el título que tengo en mente es 'Sur le fil du rasoir', sobre una situación inestable y extrema en la que puedes bascular de un lado o otro en un segundo como un funambulista en la cuerda floja. A veces hay que arriesgar aún sabiendo que puedes caerte y darte una buena ostia". - Go Mag
"Deep down, Edith Crash is a rock band. A one person band, one instrument and one only voice. But, definitely, rock. Dirty, dark, captivating, sexy... Crash, borned in Perpignan, doesn’t fit in what somebody would expect a french songwriter would be. Forget about Edith Piaf, Françoise Hardy or the chanson and start thinking of PJ Harvey, in punk rock and in a more atlantic musical tradition: blues not being blues, rock not being rock, folk not being folk, western not being western... Everything and
nothing at the same time. Like the chaos theory, but in contemporary songs shape!"
Ramon Marc Batallé - Ladyfolk Festival
"Deep down, Edith Crash is a rock band. A one person band, one instrument and one only voice. But, definitely, rock. Dirty, dark, captivating, sexy... Crash, borned in Perpignan, doesn’t fit in what somebody would expect a french songwriter would be. Forget about Edith Piaf, Françoise Hardy or the chanson and start thinking of PJ Harvey, in punk rock and in a more atlantic musical tradition: blues not being blues, rock not being rock, folk not being folk, western not being western... Everything and
nothing at the same time. Like the chaos theory, but in contemporary songs shape!"
Ramon Marc Batallé - Ladyfolk Festival
"intense French blues exile Edith Crash" - The Guardian
Como nos cuenta su biografía, Edith Crash nace en Perpignan (Francia) a principio de los ochenta. Muy pronto se apasiona por la música y los viajes, lo que la lleva a cruzar la frontera para estudiar sonido en Madrid y más tarde Barcelona, cidad en la que reside actualmente. Toca en varias formaciones pasando por estilos muy diversos, hasta que decide dar forma a finales de 2009 a un proyecto más personal e íntimo armada con su guitarra acústica. A inicios de 2010, graba el primer EP Des Mots y en pocos meses se multiplican los conciertos. Con un repertorio principalmente cantado en francés, ahora nos presenta su segundo trabajo grabado en el estudio Salamandra gracias a una beca de la casa de la música. De L’autre Côté está disponible en descarga gratuita o edición CD…
CRAZYMINDS: Comparando el Ep con el Lp; se ha encrudecido el sonido y has optado por una sonoridad más homogénea entre todas las canciones. ¿Como ha sido el proceso de creación/inspiración de este LP?
EDITH CRASH: Con Des Mots no estaba pensando en un conjunto, grabé un par de canciones en casa y las colgué en Internet sin saber cómo las iba a llevar al directo. Luego salí con mi guitarra y me di cuenta de que quería centrarme en un sonido crudo y que, de momento, la mejor manera de tocar esas canciones era haciéndolo sola. Empecé a experimentar con varias percusiones atadas a mis botas hasta llegar al mini set que llevo ahora.
A la hora de plantearme el disco pensé que tenía que ser el reflejo de los conciertos que había dado durante el ultimo año, por eso era importante grabarlo en las mismas condiciones, con tomas únicas, guitarra, voz y percusiones a la vez y pocos arreglos.
C: Podríamos hablar de un proyecto cada vez más personal, distanciadote de la etiqueta de “folk” que tan de moda está estos días y que suele asociarse indiscriminadamente. ¿Cuáles son tus inspiraciones y/o impulsos a la hora de escribir? ¿En qué te basas para añadir un toque tan personal a tus composiciones?
E.C.: Evidentemente, todos llevamos un bagaje musical y lo que escuchas te influencia a la hora de componer, pero creo que es muy importante encontrar tu propio camino. Para escribir suelo basarme en experiencias personales o cosas que observo a mi alrededor, también en sensaciones o emociones que me resultan difíciles expresar de otra forma.
C: ¿Que te impulsó al proyecto en solitario? Porque estuviste girando como componente de Cannibal Queen…
E.C.: En realidad, esas canciones existen desde hace mucho pero no las veía como algo que podía compartir con los demás. He estado metida en varias bandas porque siempre me ha encantado tocar, es lo que paso con The Cannibal Queen. Ray, el cantante, que es también amigo, me propuso entrar en la banda y acepté encantada porque me gustaba el proyecto. Con el paso del tiempo, me atreví a colgar mis canciones y presentarlas en directo, primero compaginé los dos pero rápidamente me di cuenta de que era mejor centrar toda mi energía en una cosa u otra.
C: También participas en Lady Folk., compuesto por un grupo de solistas que salís a la carretera. ¿Nos puedes presentar un poco este proyecto, como nació?
E.C.: Todo empezó cuando Cesc de Ninette & The Goldfish decidió montar un pequeño festival con grupos del underground barcelonés liderados por mujeres. Por problemas con la sala se aplazó ese primer concierto y su manager Marc de Danger Hill se unió al proyecto.
Finalmente, el Ladyfolk entró en la programación del festival internacional de folk Tradicionarius y decidieron ampliar la idea llevándola a todo el país con bandas de otras ciudades. Mas allá de los conciertos se crearon lazos entre las bandas y fue una experiencia muy positiva, creo que ahora se están planteando seguir con la propuesta fuera de las fronteras españolas.
C: Eres una artista muy activa, has hecho un montón de conciertos en lo que llevamos de año. ¿Desde el punto de vista de un artista nacional, con qué dificultades te encuentras para darte a conocer? Tengo entendido que la autoedición supone dificultades también en la distribución del CD físico, sin tener en cuenta los condicionantes económicos…
E.C.: Afortunadamente, a día de hoy hay bastantes herramientas para autoeditar un disco y moverte de forma independiente, pero necesitas mucha energía y algo de dinero si no tienes ninguna discográfica que apueste por ti. A veces me gustaría centrarme exclusivamente en tocar y componer, es un poco agotador estar dividido entre el trabajo, los ensayos, los bolos, la web, los envíos de discos y toda la parte de producción, pero es lo que hay, de momento todo lo que estoy viviendo y la gente que conozco a través de la música compensan esos esfuerzos.
En cuanto a la distribución, el disco esta en descarga gratuita a través de la web, para los amantes del soporte físico también se puede comprar en formato digipack desde la misma pagina, en algunas tiendas de Barcelona y evidentemente en los conciertos, no esté en todas las tiendas del país pero si algu - Crazyminds
French blues-folk femme Edith Crash has unveiled the video for her track ‘Trop Vite Oublier’.
The monochrome clip sees Crash pounding out the urgent, heartfelt track like her life depends on it. Even though our French is a little rusty and we can’t understand all of what she’s hollerin’ about, we know that she bloody well means it, and we like that a lot. - The Girls Are
French blues-folk femme Edith Crash has unveiled the video for her track ‘Trop Vite Oublier’.
The monochrome clip sees Crash pounding out the urgent, heartfelt track like her life depends on it. Even though our French is a little rusty and we can’t understand all of what she’s hollerin’ about, we know that she bloody well means it, and we like that a lot. - The Girls Are
Born in Perpignan (France), singer-songwriter Edith Crash blends a symphony of passionate blues and frenetic folk. After living in Spain for the majority of her teenage years, Crash honed in her sound which gave way to her recording and producing her first albums in 2010. Now appearing as a one woman band based in Los Angeles California, the enigmatic front woman exudes power and commands an incredible live performance that is not to be missed. She comes to us today with a new single, “On Aurait Pu Rester Là” (We Could Have Stayed There).
In 2013, she left France for the US where she’s since familiarized herself with the city and its diverse collection of music scenes. “Every crazy thing you can find, you can find it here,” she says of LA’s musical melting pot. “It’s quite different from Europe.”
When crossing the Atlantic ocean in March of 2013, many of her artist-peers that she also also cross the language barrier and sing in English when she arrived to the States. “I didn’t know what to expect, singing in French,” Crash says not wanting to comprise the sentiment of the songs she writes. “I’ve gotten good feedback from people and I truly believe that music is the universal language.”
Her latest album Partir was recorded with producer Alain Johannes (Eleven, Queens Of The Stone Age, Mark Lanegan) at 11AD Studio.
Edith has been making additional headway recently, with the the song “Casser”, remixed by Sokio, featuring in the movie “Knock Knock” directed by Eli Roth and starring Keanu Reeves, Lorenza Izzo and Ana de Armas. The film premiered at Sundance Festival 2015.
Edith has also announced a fall tour, saying “We’re booking a tour with The Great Sadness in November and we’re looking to play in your house!”
More details are certain to come later.
“On Aurait Pu Rester Là” (We Could Have Stayed There) is the debut track off the LP to be released in the fall of 2015. - Northern Transmissions
By Eleni P. Austin
Chances are, when you think of French music, maybe three styles come to mind: That kind of lilting, accordion accented music that conjures up berets, baguettes, stripe-y Jean Seberg shirts, and a million love montages from Rom-Com movies.
Then, there’s that sort of louche “every little breeze seems to whisper Louise” approach usually embodied by (Nazi sympathizer) Maurice Chevalier or Looney Tunes lothario, Pepe Le Pew. Finally, there’s the torchy, tortured chanson singer best epitomized by the legendary chanteuse, Edith Piaf.
But if you choose to move beyond these Pop culture stereotypes, you might discover that French music is as diverse and eclectic as, well, American Pop music. Bands like Air and Phoenix, as well as solo artists like Bertrand Burgalat, Manu Chao, Charlotte Gainsbourg and Dimitri From Paris have all found variations of success on American soil. Edith Crash is a musician that should be added to that list.
Edith Crash was born in the South of France in Perpignan. Her family had migrated from Spain to France early in the 20th century. Edith was a shy child and music provided emotional stability when other elements of her life seemed over-whelming.
She began writing songs at age 13. Her first band played a cover songs, Edith was their drummer. By the time she was 17 she had moved to Spain and was studying to become a sound engineer. She also acted as a roadie for several festivals and events.
During her years in Barcelona and Madrid, she cycled through a series of groups, finding success playing bass in The Cannibal Queen, a Metal band who opened for Avenged Sevenfold and Deep Purple, among others. The Cannibal Queen did well, but their music wasn’t as emotionally satisfying as the material Edith created alone. She was determined to strike out on her own.
In 2010 she released her solo EP, Des Mots. The next year she followed up with the full-length Del L’ Autre Cote. Her third album, Inonde arrived two years later. Each effort seemed informed by Edith’s myriad musical influences, from deep Delta Blues, to Nina Simone to Jacques Brel and Portishead.
Of course, she was advised to sing in English, or risk limiting her appeal. But she made a conscious choice to sing in her native tongue. Quite honestly, her music seems all the more authentic and evocative because it is sung in French.
After an extended stay in Los Angeles, Edith decided to re-locate permanently. Unfortunately, her Mother, Anna-Marie Atge, became ill with cancer and Edith and her siblings rallied around. She completely put her career on hold, caring for her mother until she passed away.
Throughout the illness, creating music became her solace, but once her Mom was gone, Edith was at a crossroads, unsure about returning to L.A. and resuming her career. Ultimately, her family supported her choice to continue, giving her the strength to persevere. Back in Los Angeles she met one of her biggest musical heroes, Alain Johannes. He agreed to produce her next album.
A Rock & Roll Zelig, Alain Johannes has been a quiet force on the L.A. music scene for nearly 30 years. He started his first band with Flea, (pre-Red Hot Chili Peppers) while both attended Fairfax High School. But he found his most creative and enduring success in Eleven, the Power Trio he started with his late wife, Natasha Schneider and Jack Irons.
Along the way he played bass with Queens Of The Stone Age (after Nick Oliveri left), and rhythm guitar for Them Crooked Vultures, the Super Group that included QOTSA’s Josh Homme, Foo Fighter Dave Grohl and Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones.
Behind the scenes he produced Chris Cornell’s first solo album, and has lent his production expertise and musical skills to albums by No Doubt, Mondo Generator, Eagles Of Death Metal, Masters Of Reality and Arctic Monkeys. He has also recorded two stellar solo albums and is currently working with another Super Group, the Ten Commandos, featuring members of OFF!, Screaming Trees, Pearl Jam and Sound Garden.
Setting up in Alain’s 11AD recording studio, things came together very quickly. The result is a fluid, eight song collection entitled Patir.
The album opens with the one-two punch of “Perdu La Foi (Lost Faith)” and “On Aurait Pu Rester La. (We Could Have Stayed There).” On “Perdu…” slashing guitar chords crash over a bare bones melody and pummeling beat. The lyrics limn the sense of desperation that envelopes us as we watch a loved one succumb to disease. “Into a pit, my heartbeat stops, between snakes and dog fights weakened by their fangs/I drank their venom, the sound of drums closing in.”
“On Aurait…” is anchored by a heartbreak beat. See-saw guitar riffs slowly accelerate as Edith’s vocals build from a whisper to a scream. Railing against the fates she attempts to process her grief; “We could have stayed there wondering why, you would have cried over my fate I would have cried over your body/But we walk toward different roads, and fight the ache that holds us.”
Her sorrow is tempered two on tracks, “Octobre (October),” and “Quand Le Jour Viendra (When The Day Will Come).” The former feels more intime, he vocals are hushed and whisper quiet. The melody is a strummed acoustic roundelay in ¾ time. She softly intones “you should know how much I love you.” It echoes the pastoral grace of Nick Drake’s best music.
The latter has a prayerful quality. Guitar notes ring like a tolling bell as she offers this quiescent benediction; “May the veil lift, may the light lead us/Where the calm reigns, where your peace will be mine.
Edith’s vocals on “Sur Le Bord De La Route (On The Side Of The Road)” split the difference between a siren song and a cri de Coeur. Over spiky guitar chords and a metronome rhythm, like a banshee wail, the lyrics seem to foretell death.
Her fleet fretwork provides ballast for Edith’s vocal flights of fancy on the title track. As her mother’s life ebbs, she promises undying fealty. It’s also a bit of a restless farewell, as she is reluctant to say goodbye. “Since we must take the last train, fearless, you go on board/On the dock I expect mine, singing with all my soul.”
“Comme Une Flamme” (The Flame)” offers a bit of respite from the sturm und drang. Despite the devastation and loss, Edith remains vaguely hopeful “No, I’m not done believing, no, I’m not through dreaming/I’m still caressing the hope to see the rising dawn.”
The album closes with “F8643.” A rather utilitarian title for a beautifully nuanced acoustic instrumental; the melody is almost beatific, like a beacon of light at the end of a lonely road.
Alain Johannes’ stripped down production is pitch-perfect. Partir is relentlessly revealing, personal, and cathartic. It recalls watershed albums by PJ Harvey, Ani DiFranco and Patti Smith. It’s definitely not dinner party music. It demands the listener’s full attention. Nothing less will do. - Coachella Valley weekly
Intriguing anger isn’t the right word, but it’s the first one that comes to mind. Edith Crash is a one woman band who relocated from Perpignan, France to Los Angeles and proudly released her latest album, Partir. The 8-track compilation is in French, but the emotional angst which Crash sings in, needs no translation in relation.
Throughout the album, Crash paints honest images with emotional melodies to transport the listener in a moment of time. Raw simplicity bounces from track to track, and you get a deeper connection from the start. Crash questions faith with her sharp tongue, and angry vocals on the track, “Perdu La Foi (Lost Faith).” The questioning is felt in her voice against a scratchy guitar, and still holds a western feel that justifies her “dark folk” labeling. Despite this anger, other darker songs such as “Comme Une Flamme (The Flame),” acts as a simple expression of a shred of hope left, “Non je n’ai pas fini de croire / Non je n’ai pas fini de rêver (No, I ‘m not done believing / No, I’m not through dreaming).”
Strength is a theme that resonates throughout Partir, and comes to life with the self-titled track. “Partir” is one of the stronger songs that balances Crash’s intensity of emotions, and trumps her own power by controlling her feelings. On the other side of the spectrum is “Octobre (October),” which is somber, honest, and gentle. Crash displays love with a haunting sound that seems to come from a hidden place, and isn’t as easy to showcase as anger. “Octobre” translates Crash’s feeling and time derived from the track’s origin and makes a listener tread slowly behind her vocals, which is again heard on “Quand Le Jour Viendra ( When the day will come), ” and the instrumental track to close the album, “F8643.”
Human isn’t the right word, but it’s what comes to mind. - Girl Underground Music
Edith Crash "Partir"
No album in recent memory makes me wish I could revisit my high school French than Edith Crash’s “Partir.” The title, of course, translates to “go” — and the songs in general fit into the many meanings of that simple verb. Crash, who was born in Perpignan, France, and spent her teen years in Spain before moving to Los Angeles, pays tribute to her late mother on the album, a guitar-and-drums affair that accentuates her intense poetry (thankfully, the lyrics on Bandcamp have translations). Produced by Alain Johannes, “Partir” is folk like Patti Smith folk and blues like PJ Harvey is blues. She performs as a one-woman band [she’s playing the Lost Knight, right before Avi Buffalo, on New Year’s Eve], so be prepared for a haunting, yet compelling, set. “Perdu La Foi” translates to “Lost Faith” and starts: “Prayed to God / Don’t see a thing / Neither his hand / Nor a gleam of hope / Seems like this is the end.” - http://buzzbands.la
"Based in LA by way of France and Spain and somewhere in between Led Zeppelin III and the Cure lies Edith Crash."
NPR - NPR
Edith Crash is a French transplant to L.A. who performs bluesy, folky music that is all very dark and strange, complimented by her sultry voice. - NPR
Discography
2015 Partir
2013 Edith Crash & Alex Augé - Inonde (Vagueness Records)
2011 De L'Autre Côté
2010 Des Mots
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Bio
Edith Crash belongs to no one. In fact, her music—sung in French, Spanish, and English—transcends the international origins of this one-woman band by blending them all into one cohesive project. Inspired by dark experimentalism of vastly different artists such as Portishead, Jacques Brel, and PJ Harvey, Crash’s dynamic mix of folk and grunge is as much of a cross-cultural creation as the singer herself. Born in France, raised in Spain, and based now in Los Angeles, Crash’s songs defy genre by pulling bits and pieces from clamoring post-punk, bluesy folk, and vigorous Spanish guitar.
Edith Crash is on the rise and people are noticing. She was recently included one NPR’s list of favorite SXSW discoveries, and described as “bluesy, folky music that is all very dark and strange, complimented by her sultry voice.” Indeed, Crash’s latest and most haunting record ‘Partir’ combines her impassioned, French singing with thunderingly loud guitar playing dedicated to her late mother. Though self-released, this stormy LP was produced by Alain Johannes (who has worked on records with Queens Of The Stone Age, PJ Harvey, and Mark Lanegan). Crash recorded its entirety live as a one woman set on the studios 11AD in LA.
Edith Crash, both in sound and style, is reminiscent of young Françoise Hardy deep in a Tom Waits obsession. That said, it’s no wonder both her music and her likeness have appeared in feature films like the Eli Roth horror film “Knock Knock.” The uniquely cinematic quality to her music comes in full-bodied melodies, dramatic vocal delivery, and a penchant for Western folk drama.
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