If the heart-string tugging baroque-pop of Gal Musette isn’t yet on your radar she’s about to be, as the musical prodigy has just released a new EP in the form of Backwards Lullaby [Reimagined]. Comprised of three songs taken from her debut album of the same name the EP sees Musette alongside musician Via Mardot translating her pieces into sparse and lilting instrumentals. Songs like “It Could Be Sin” have been transformed into sonorous and swelling twitterings of strings (all performed by Mardot) that punctuate Musette’s ever-ethereal croons.
On Backwards Lullaby [Reimagined] Musette — assisted by Mardot on theremin, violin, cello, double bass, acoustic guitar, and every other instrument that’s heard on the EP — has not so much rebuilt these songs as expanded their atmospheres. There’s “Julia,” previously sustained by near galloping percussion and a driving piano, that now swells tenderly as a ballad of heart-wrenching sincerity. “Summertime” undergoes the most dramatic changes, replacing its buoyant piano lines with sharp string plucks and layered vocal harmonies that swoop just out of reach of Musette’s now somber but no less devotional ode to that particular season of passion.
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After you’re done with Backwards Lullaby [Reimagined] it would be in your best interests to put on the debut album it comes from. On it, you’ll find Musette at her most vulnerable singing duets with the likes of Rufus Wainwright and etching a niche for her sprawling love songs. Taking inspiration from a variety of songwriters like Joni Mitchell, Regina Spektor, Björk, and Cocteau Twins, there’s something for everyone to find delightful in her music. Whether that’s on stunning album opener “Oliver,” with its soaring message of connection, or other gems like the dreamy “Maybe Some Sleep” and folk rhythms on “Honeymoon.”
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Musette a.k.a. Grace Freeman takes her nom de plum from the accordion-based, waltz-style French instrumental music known as bal-musette. Since the age of ten, she’s been writing lyrical pieces and doing open mics in her hometown of San Clemente, CA. Proving her prodigy status early at the age of fourteen by recording a collection titled 70 Love Songs — an ode to The Magnetic Fields’ seminal album 69 Love Songs — it caught the band’s attention and earned her an opening slot on their tour of the midwest.
Gal Musette will be playing the Love Song Bar in Los Angeles on July 2. Visit Gal Musette’s website, Twitter, and Instagram to stay updated on new releases and tour announcements.
Listen to Gal Musette’s new EP Backwards Lullaby [Reimagined]
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