Julii Sharp

Everything is said in less than a minute.

In a languorous introduction that soars to the heights of stripped-down folk where every note is caressing, Toucan takes us straight to the heart of the matter and announces the programme from the outset. “It's beautiful" sings Julii Sharp in the opening bars of the opening track. And indeed it is. It's simple, it's beautiful, it's obvious. And you find yourself thinking that nothing should be other than this moment of suspended grace, where so much is expressed with so little.

The woman who began her career shouting at Alanis Morissette and Francis Cabrel confesses to an artistic epiphany when she listens to Marie Laforêt. Her ability to combine the French language with folk sounds, without sacrificing one for the other, opened the doors to a new approach to music for the young singer of the time. And mysteriously, if listening to this EP brings to mind Hope Sandoval and her dreamy, hypnotic atmospheres, the miracle happens especially when Julii sings in French: she knows how to take us by the hand and guide us into unexplored territory where we feel immediately on familiar ground.

This confusion of genres is undoubtedly due to her musical heritage and her upbringing without borders, both artistic and geographical. Julii (with two i's) takes her name from a shellfish in the Indian Ocean, where she spent her early years and learned her first songs in Creole, English and French. It's easy to imagine her harbouring a rare gem. Julii's career has been honed by countless concert experiences, open stages and support acts, before she shared the road with local artists on a solo trip to Edinburgh, before settling in Toulouse and being spotted by Printemps de Bourges in 2022. These encounters, journeys and artistic wanderings have fuelled the inspiration for songs that borrow as much from Karen Dalton as they do from First Aid Kit, and unfold the thread of a music that chooses not to make a choice between all its influences. On these layers of weightless pop purity, the listener just has to let himself be lulled, to lose himself without thinking any further.

Everything is said in less than a minute. May it last an eternity.