It’s a long way from France to Brazil and back again to Europe, but for Laetitia Sadier her musical career has always been a journey.
Born in the east of Paris, the musician spent time in the US as a child, but her musical journey began while working as a nanny when, at a show by McCarthy – an English, politically-charged indie combo – she met the band’s lead guitarist Tim Gane and moved to London to co-found Stereolab.
The band made 10 acclaimed and influential albums from 1990 – 2009, incorporating diverse influences such as Krautrock, bossa-nova and Yé-Yé (’60s French pop).
Since her band’s recording hiatus (they do still perform together live) Sadier has worked solo as well as under the Monade banner, but has also joined the likes of Mouse On Mars, Atlas Sound, The High Llamas, Common, and Blur (on ‘Parklife’ single ‘To The End’).
This collaborative and multi-national theme was kept going on ‘Modern Cosmology’, her album with Brazilian group Mombojó, which was released last May, and continues with her first solo full-length effort since 2016’s ‘Find Me Finding You’.
‘Rooting For Love’ sees Sadier reunited with regular collaborators Xavi Muñoz, Hannes Plattemier and Emma Mario, along with players from the Source Ensemble.
The new album’s central theme, Sadier says, is “a call for a collective striving for Gnosis” – further described as “an inquisitive outlook that will lend clues to the traumatized civilisations of Earth” – while she’s also joined by a vocal ensemble of men and women, collectively credited as The Choir, across the record.
The new album also follows ‘Modern Cosmology’s nature-based theme which saw Sadier tell Juno magazine of “trust in the innate intelligence that lies in nature itself: the acorn will know by itself how to become an oak tree as this is its path”.
This is perhaps bourne out in the ‘Rooting’ of the album’s title, or its cover, mirroring the word patterns, while a perhaps more organic sound resonates across the recordings – the familiar Stereolab drones are still evident but the record also draws inspiration from Zen Shiastu, while bassist Muñoz leads a Chic-adjacent slink to the occasional dance floor vibes, while Hannes Plattemier and Emma Mario take turns in mixing the tracks and adding vibes, additional drum programming and synths alongside a talented cast of players and singers from Sadier’s Source Ensemble – and beyond.
‘Rooting For Love’ is out now. This article originally appeared in the Sunderland Echo.