La Force

a mixture of haunted pop and hot-blooded R&B that glistens at the meeting-point between life, death and love.

“In dreams, the dead and living are the same,” Ariel Engle sings on “october,” her voice shimmering. “Maybe that’s why I’m better in the dark.” These nine extraordinary songs are human-scale and intimate, with chord changes like the shifting of limbs. “october”, brings us right inside the protective cloak of kisses (or “XO SKELETON”) cast by love and memory; at the same time, it explores the spookiness of that space, the movement of invisible spirits, like a saxophone rippling through a hall of mirrors. Other tracks were informed by Engle’s participation in “Song A Day,” a COVID-era invitation-only songwriters’ circle, where La Force worked alongside musicians like Leslie Feist, Maggie Rogers, Beck, and Big Thief’s Buck Meek.