Alsace Lorraine, besides being a historic region of France which has been occupied by several European empires throughout the last thousand years, is Chicago based pop composer Paul Francke’s vision and words but sung from the lips of Argentinean indie-singer Isol (Entre Rios). Although Alsace Lorraine has been a project since before 2001, this is only Francke’s second album and his first collaboration with Isol. But together, this duet proves they can create delicate and adorable dreamscaping songs which hark back to a memory of a slowdance we might have shared once in the 1980s. (You were that girl with the scrunchies, right?)
On the songs that feature Isol’s cloud-like overcast vocals, Francke’s music tends to bend in the direction of Stereolab’s synth-backed rhythms and scenic backgrounds. This is most-definitely a good thing, it puts her breathy-voice in the spotlight and takes attention away from the layered home-recorded instrumentals. “Call For Papers” begins like the mellow-dub of a Dire Straights song or at least something we might expect to hear on reruns of Miami Vice. Dark One, and more so the collaboration of these two unknown talents, definitely fits within the genre it parked itself into though. “Stormy Sky” and “As We Fight” lightly pet our ears like the harmonies of Camera Obscura.
My criticism is that the entire album, although beautiful and well-thought-out mostly, sounds like something I might have casually breezed past on Myspace one day. However, subtleties sprinkled all over the album make it a worthwhile piece of work that unfolds slowly as more care and attention is given to it.
“The Gravel Dew” stood out immediately for me. It is unusually sandwiched at the end of the album, between two remixes. Instead of tacking the remixes as far back as possible, treating them like bonus material, they were placed into the album as a sort of narrative twist. “The Gravel Dew” is a clear digression of songwriting as well. Francke leaves behind the electronic dream-pop mold that the rest of the album is carved from, and opts for a more solemn, OK Computer-influenced timbre. He graciously awards Robin Guthrie of The Cocteau Twins the final word of his album, which is perhaps, a nod to the “band name without a band” characteristic of the project itself. Francke’s lineup of musicians and collaborations is a constantly changing rotation. But here, with Isol and company, Francke may have a found a lasting combination.
