"These songs are off my recent album entitled The Obsession with Her Voice. You'll soon understand why."
Thus began Erika Angell's beguiling performance during day two of the Festival de musique émergente en Abitibi-Témiscamingue (FME). Stood behind her keyboard and her live pedalboard, Angell cut a striking figure alone on the stage of the Agora des Arts, a stunning performing arts theater in the heart of Rouyn-Noranda. It was a moody and rainy day, a fitting mise-en-scène for Angell's haunting presence.
As lead vocalist of Thus Owls — the Montreal-based indie rock duo she formed with husband Simon Angell — Erika has been the anchoring force of the expansive sound the band has been developing over their five albums, including 2022's excellent Who Would Hold You If the Sky Betrayed Us?. Before relocating to Canada from her native Sweden, she was a central figure in the Scandinavian experimental music scene, developing her unique blend of avant-pop, electronica and vocal manipulation through projects like Josef & Erika and the Moth.
This musical history comes to a head on her debut solo album The Obsession with Her Voice, pushing the limits of her vocal instrument to transformative results. "Through my voice, I speak my heart in music" she once said in an interview, a statement embodied in her live performances. Even through the warping of her vocals, her solo material feels like we're finally getting Erika Angell unfiltered. Her performance style — raw, engaging and generous — is both disconcerting and welcoming, teetering on the edge of dissonance yet maintaining melodic ease. Stripping away much of the record's instrumentation, we're left with the essential: her voice in its most haunting expression.
With disconcerting ease, Angell's performance vacillated between religious communing to demonic preaching. When she was eventually joined on stage by experimental drummer Mili Hong, known for her work with Montreal avant-jazz collective Bellbird and Ottawa pop-rockers Pony Girl, their combined forces coalesced to make us experience the full effect of Angell's compositions. Seamlessly weaving spoken word, '90s art pop, doom metal musicality and minimalist drone, we were treated to an exercise in depth and dynamism. In lesser hands, the vast terrain between the beatnik free jazz sparseness of "German Singer" and the melodic chamber pop of "Never Tried to Run" would cause whiplash, but with Angell it all felt part and parcel of the same narrative. Watching a little girl in protective headphones gleefully run back and forth in front of the stage to the soundtrack of the apocalypse had never felt so prescient.
Meanwhile, elsewhere at the festival, the multiple personalities of the FME were on full display. A bevy of younger locals congregated at the main stage for an evening of Québec hip-hop, including rising Lanaudière star of emo rap GreenWoodz, engaged Montreal rapper Rymz and headlined by québécois rap legend Souldia. Bonbonbon records celebrated their five year anniversary at the nearby Cabaret de la Dernière Chance with a trio of artists that highlighted the wide-ranging and eclectic nature of its roster, including indie rocker Allô Fantôme, jack of all trades Félix Dyotte, and a second festival performance of the newly signed italo-disco power pop belgian group Ada Oda.