The Trip

VINYL FORMAT. For as long as records are made - or at least listened to in some fashion, Laetitia Sadier will forever be linked with Stereolab, the band she has fronted with ex-partner Tim Gane throughout the heady pre-and-post-millennial years of the past two decades. But 2009 signaled changes - Stereolab announced an indefinite hiatus and Laetitia disbanded her original solo project/band, Monade. Fittingly, Laetitia is releasing her first "official" solo record, The Trip. Laetitia has been performing her new songs at solo live shows this summer with just voice and electric guitar, but for The Trip she packed a band sound, with musical collaborators including Americans Rebecca Gates, Richard Swift and April March and French musicians Julien Gasc and Emmanuel Mario. The band sound was conceived with a spare touch in mind. It was Laetitia's intention not to "overload or layer" the music on the new record too much. Throughout the album, a straightforward, carefully arranged approach expresses Laetitia's reflections in a personal, yet public form of entertainment. Completing the contemplation of Laetitia's own songs are three covers, including Wendy & Bonnie's "By the Sea" and Les Rita Mitsouko's dance-funk-punk classic "Un Soir Un Chien," featured in Jean-Luc Godard's 1987 film, Soigne Ta Droite.