Pretty Soily Company
Pretty Soily Company is the brainchild of French musicians Olivier Bonneau and Henri Vaugrand. If the former had his own musical project, Half a Bandand several collaborations, he joins the latter in his French progressive universe, Grandvalin 2019 for the recording of their second album, Descendu sur Terre. Bonneau and Vaugrand continue their collaboration on Grandval‘s third opus, eau | feureleased in 2022, with Bonneau more involved in the conception of the music. But just as the two musicians began work on a hypothetical sequel (Grandval 4? ), there’s a twist. Everyone contributed new music, but the first lyrics Henri wrote were in English. And so began this new adventure…
With each of them contributing basic songs and musical ideas recorded in their own home studios, the two musicians decided to create the arrangements together and record in a single location, Shepherds Street Studio, somewhere in the Auvergne countryside. And so was born this then-untitled album by a band with no name!
A first album with drawers
Each of the two artists enriched the other’s proposals, and together they opted to design a vinyl-format album with a songs side and a more conceptual side featuring a single track. The result is five tracks on side A and a single track on side B. No concept behind this construction, just the curiosity and enthusiasm of working together, getting to know each other better as friends and musicians. While the lyrics, all written by Vaugrand, are sometimes very personal (“Upside Down”, “Get Out of Here”), there are also serious subjects, as on “Tribal Crimes” – written after the all-too-long list of terrorist attacks in recent years – or “In the Shades” – about our analytical blindness to global warming. But that doesn’t stop them from being humorous and self-deprecating, as on the pop intro “We Reverse ” and its 10cc-style ambience. The B-side is like a collage of different parts, an evolution that took place during the recording process, as the Beatles or Genesis sometimes did, with lyrics and meanings with drawers.
Subtle and neat / dirty and DIY
This fun game ended – as sung in “We Reverse” – with the search for a name. After some hesitation, enlightenment came when Pretty Soily Company became an obvious choice for a multitude of reasons and lineages that observers will no doubt be able to identify.
From a musical point of view, this album is a blend of many styles and mutual influences that forge a musical identity of their own, a sound that is both subtle and polished(pretty?) and a little dirty and DIY(soily?). You can hear The Beatles, Genesis, The Buggles, King Crimson, David Bowie, Pink Floyd, David Sylvian, Tears For Fears, Kraftwerk, Badfinger, Yes, The Police, Pendragon or Wings… to name but a few!
An unbearable question comes to mind: Is Pretty Soily Company just a one-shot album, or the start of something bigger and more unexpected? As the song suggests, “(…) Who knows?”