Bossa nova = Nouvelle Vague = New wave. This transliteration was the starting point for Marc Collin and Olivier Libaux’s unique project, which, by appropriating the punk and post-punk cannon and running it through the bossa nova filter, reinvented the cover band genre, revealing new and brilliant talents along the way: Camille, Phoebe Killdeer, Nadeah, Mélanie Pain, and Liset Alea.

The group’s first two albums, Nouvelle Vague (2004) and Bande A Part (2006) defined their unique sound with bossa versions of new wave classics. Their third album NV3 (2009) featured collaborations with Depeche Mode's Martin Gore, Ian McCullouch from Echo and the Bunnymen, Terry Hall from The Specials, Barry Adamson, The Saints & Minimal Compact.

Nouvelle Vague are Marc Collin, Olivier Libaux, Mélanie Pain, Elodie Frégé, and Liset Alea.

15 YEARS ANNIVERSARY TOUR

October

9th - Grand Central Hall, Liverpool

10th - Dancehouse, Manchester

11th - The Boiler Shop, Newcastle

13th - City Varieties, Leeds

14th - Glee Club, Birmingham

15th - Sugarmill, Stoke

16th - The Level, Nottingham

17th - Thekla, Bristol

19th - Portland House, Cardiff

20th - Union Chapel. London

22nd - Junction, Cambridge

23rd - Chalk, Brighton

24th - Harpenden Public Halls, Harpenden

25th - Butterworth Hall, Warwick Arts Centre

27th - Arts Centre, Colchester

28th - Phoenix, Exeter

29th - Guildhall, Gloucester

30th - The Brook, Southampton

31st - Dorking Halls, Dorking

November

2nd - Epic Studios, Norwich

4th - Liquid Room, Edinburgh

5th - Lemon Tree, Aberdeen

6th - Oran Mor, Glasgow

Hilary Woods is sharing new single ‘The Mouth’ ahead of her new album release. Birthmarks is due March 13 via Sacred Bones. Woods said of the track - "The impulse to write 'The Mouth' came from a longing to articulate feelings aloud that I failed to express til the moment had passed. Braiding together harmonies of distorted vocals and heavy drone woven with saxophone and strings was my own way of exorcising the demise of a relationship that could no longer be resuscitated. 'The Mouth', the threshold of expression and healing."

Hilary Woods’ Birthmarks has been a labour of intensity and intuition, written over the course of two years. Recorded whilst heavily pregnant between Galway and Oslo in the winter of 2019, Woods explores the oscillating and volatile processes of selfhood and becoming, hidden gestational growth, and the birthing of the Self, amidst continuous social and personal change.

Birthmarks is a record that hunts for ways in which to revisit and caress wounds left by the memory of their scars. In its mystery and attentiveness to the art of alchemy and the world of the unseen, it is a journey through textural fog and feral density that gives way to passages of voracious sonic exorcism and poetic healing.  Its eight songs traverse planes of visceral physicality, stark tender space, and breathtaking introspective beauty.

Spurred on and crafted by the impulse to create a more corporeal sonic tendon for her songs to inhabit, Woods took her vision and home recordings to Norwegian experimental noise producer and filmmaker Lasse Marhaug. The collaboration proved rare and fruitful and lies at the heart of this record. Field recordings, analogue bass synthesizers, hushed vocals, and the breath are underpinned with heavy noise processing, fierce and wide cello, rich percussion, sable saxophone, and electronics.

Birthmarks is inspired and informed by ideas of inner transmutation in the face of anxiety, post-war Japanese and wet-plate photography, early music, the secret life of trees, wolves, drone, the drawings of Francis Bacon, the images of Francesca Woodman, the films of Chris Marker, the experiential collapse of community, and the power of the lone human voice. Itis a deeply powerful and enigmatic record that ultimately transcends its disquiet roots

Birthmarks track list:

1. Tongues of Wild Boar

2. Orange Tree

3. Through the Dark, Love

4. Lay Bare

5. Mud and Stones

6. The Mouth

7. Cleansing Ritual

8. There Is No Moon