Petite Noir Announce UK Headline Tour
PETITE NOIR ANNOUNCES UK HEADLINE TOUR
Releases Debut album, ‘La Vie Est Belle / Life Is Beautiful’, on 11th September 2015
Shares album introductory track, ‘Down’, accompanied by footage filmed in the DRC – watch it below
Announces live dates including The Lexington in London on 15th September
Photo credit Travys Owen
We are pleased to announce the debut album release by Yannick Ilunga, AKA Petite Noir, ‘La Vie Est Belle / Life Is Beautiful’. The 11 track LP from the half-Congolese, half-Angolan, Cape Town-residing artist is due for release on11th September 2015. This follows the release of his breakout EP, ‘The King Of Anxiety’, earlier this year.
Recorded at Box Ten Studios in London with Oli Bayston (Boxed In) and Leon Brichard (Ibibio), ‘La Vie Est Belle / Life Is Beautiful’ is a highly accomplished album with a unique concoction of influences. The record seamlessly fuses intricate contemporary electronics and raw post-punk energy with Yannick’s stirring, soulful vocals and African shuffles that echo his homeland. Named after a revered Congolese film of the same name, the album is both a beacon and a vessel of inspiration, offering empowerment to those who need it.
With footage filmed around the streets of Lubumbashi during Yannick’s recent trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo, the first track to be shared from the album – ‘Down’ – blends unrehearsed imagery and joyful sounds to paint a contemporary portrait of Petite Noir’s Congolese background and his hopes for the country’s future. Watch it HERE.
La Vie Est Belle / Life Is Beautiful represents the first full expression of what Ilunga calls ‘Noirwave’, which is more of a concept than a specific sound. Inspired by innovators like Mos Def and legends Fela Kuti and Tabu Ley, Noirwave encompasses a ‘new African aesthetic’, plain and simple. ‘I think for me, it’s just the story their music tells and the sense of freedom. It’s about seeing the positive in dark times’.
‘La Vie Est Belle / Life Is Beautiful’ will be available on CD (DS100CD), Digital (DS100D) and double vinyl LP with etched artwork on Side D (DS100LP). Pre-order the album through Dom Mart HERE and iTunes HERE, and instantly download ‘Down’.
Tracklisting:
1 Intro Noirwave
2 Best
3 Freedom
4 Seventeen (Stay)
5 Just Breathe
6 La Vie Est Belle / Life Is Beautiful
7 MDR
8 Colour
9 Down
10 Inside
11 Chess
Petite Noir will be playing live throughout the Summer and Autumn in support of ‘La Vie Est Belle / Life Is Beautiful’, including a London show at The Lexington on 15th September. Full live dates are as follows:
Sat 04 July 2015 Belfort, France – Les Eurockéennes
Sat 11 July 2015 Lausanne, Switzerland – Festival de la Cite
Tue 14 July 2015 NYC, USA – Lot 45
Sat 18 July 2015 Dublin, Ireland – Longitude
Sun 23 August 2015 NYC, USA – Afropunk
Tue 15 September 2015 London, UK – Lexington
Wed 16 September 2015 Glasgow, UK – Stereo
Thu 17 September 2015 Manchester, UK – Deaf Institute
Sat 19 September 2015 Nurnburg, Festival, Germany – Melt!
Mon 21 September 2015 Paris, France – Badaboum
Tues 22 September 2015 Brussels, Belgium – Botanique/Witloofbar
Thu 24 September 2015 Amsterdam, Netherlands – Melkweg
Fri 25 September 2015 Hamburg, Festival, Germany – Reeperbahn Festival
Petite Noir can also reveal the album artwork, designed by Lina Viktor. The malachite stone represented in the image is the stone of transformation, love and change; themes that are represented throughout the album itself.