Sophia Djebel Rose: Sécheresse

Those who have been subjected to the lingering grandeur of Sophia Djebel Rose will know that this is someone forever fearless in going against the grain.

The Franco-Moroccan artist’s debut LP, 2022’s Métempsycose, was a peerless odyssey through the rugged frontiers of avant-folk. Drawing from the French music underground, Rose’s renegade spirit has seen her cross-pollinate folk music with avant-garde to distinct effect, and on her follow-up, Sécheresse, she expands her songcraft beyond the ground previously covered.

Sécheresse has the kind of dynamic disposition of an artist always striving to refine their craft. Musically rigid and poetically baroque, the tone is so saturated in gloom that it almost makes the eyes water. The mystical dimensions at play here, so deep they go to places few others have dared.

On opener, Au Verger, Rose’s voice cuts through the atmosphere like a flashing blade, a dangerous spirit that plagues your night wanderings. It sets the tone for L’Homme Au Costume Doré. A campfire séance born from medieval devilry, the deep echoes that resonate here set fire to the flames.

The droning avant-folk of Les Amandiers is seemingly from another world, which is where Rose guides on following track, the traditional song, Blanche Biche. A murder ballad adapted from more of the French-speaking medieval repertoire, Rose spins a tale of a woman who alters into a white doe at night, who is then murdered by her own brother during one of his hunting escapades. Sonically, Rose conjures up the darkness to match, cultivating the kind of creeping drone rock simmering with Middle-Eastern inflections It possesses all the hallmarks designed for auditoriums and large audiences.

Rose carries that aesthetic into the title track. With ominous drones forming the song’s backbone while vestiges of folk permeate beneath the mix, the song features another haunting figure; this time a white-haired protagonist who is seemingly God in the flesh, or in Rose’s words, “will walk for all those who can no longer walk, and we will speak to say what others have carried beneath the earth.”

On the excellent closing track, Les Noyés, Rose draws the curtains with renewed vigour. The vibrations of sound drifting to unimaginable places, and coupled with Rose’s vocal delivery, rife with grace and spiritual nuance, it’s exactly the kind of song to stop one in their tracks.

Compared to her contemporaries, Rose approaches her art from different angles and positions to the point where the landscape she inhabits is truly her own. An artist so daring and uncompromising in exploring new corners, it’s exactly what she does on Sécheresse. The thought of where Rose’s artistic travels take her next, just as fascinating as what she’s produced on Sécheresse. A brooding force delivered with innocuous proficiency, there is nothing else out there like it.

S​é​cheresse is out now via Ramble Records, WV Sorcerer Productions & Oracle Records. Purchase from Bandcamp.