FRANCE DE GRIESSEN

Witch folk, romantic punk, dreamlike minimalism
New album “Dawn Breakers” produced by Ben Scott Turner, feat NY antifolk artist Cannonball Statman
Prohibited Records/Kuroneko 

“stripped-down, carefully crafted folk pieces”
Radiohoerer, Germany

“…her most refined and beautiful work. Her romantic folk, stripped down to its essence, is infused with the dark blood of punk (…) Listening to this full-moon music, one is reminded of Johnny Thunders’ Hurt Me or Current 93’s Soft Black Stars. It is music that evokes the promises of adolescence and the sparkle of early rock ‘n’ roll, close to that burning passion.”
Magic RPM, France

“a singular aesthetic that merges vulnerability with ritualistic theatricality.(…) On “Dawn Breakers”, that sensibility reaches perhaps its most distilled form. Recorded in Somerset, in the tiny English city of Wells, the album feels saturated with landscape. Not landscape in the pastoral folk sense of cheerful meadows and acoustic authenticity, but landscape as psychological architecture. The songs seem to emerge from damp stone walls, candlelit chapels, forgotten gardens and dreams interrupted just before dawn. The countryside here is not comforting. It is enchanted in the old sense of the word: beautiful,disorienting, faintly dangerous. (…) The imagery throughout the record constantly bends physical reality into symbolic dream logic. Snow turns blue, voices become ghosts, memories mutate into living presences(…)You can almost feel the ghosts of Federico Fellini and Pier Paolo Pasolini hovering somewhere nearby, not through direct imitation but through atmosphere: the sense that beauty and alienation are inseparable companions wandering through the same frame. (…) And yet despite all its spectral qualities, “Dawn Breakers” never feels cold. Beneath the mysticism and surrealism lies genuine emotional urgency. De Griessen is not hiding behind aesthetics. She is using them as portals toward vulnerability. The album’s recurring concern with transformation, with bringing darkness into light without erasing the darkness itself, gives the record its quiet power. (…) In the end, “Dawn Breakers” resembles a strange devotional object washed ashore from another artistic era, one where symbolism still mattered, where art could be irrational without apologizing for it, where beauty and discomfort were allowed to coexist without corporate mediation. France de Griessen offers no easy catharsis here. Instead, she hands the listener a lantern and invites them deeper into the fog.”
Chain D.L.K,Italy & USA

“…a set of songs that balance wild folk textures, romantic punk spirit, and eccentric minimalism. De Griessen’s music feels cinematic and symbolic, guided by a poetic worldview steeped in mystery, fantasy, and emotional nuance.»
Norman Records, UK

“…mantra-like song structures (…) and lyrics rich in symbolism.”
African Paper, Germany

“The interdisciplinary artist’s fourth album, featuring New York antifolk artist Cannonball Statman (…) delivers a kind of surgical folk, ethereal and melancholic, at once wild, delicate, and haunting (…) Guitars, subtle shruti box drones, organ, and piano weave a minimalist tapestry where grace and intensity continuously intertwine.”
Rockerilla, Italy

“The ensemble draws on the romantic neo-medieval English universe, as well as Johnny Thunders’ punk ballads, Donovan’s melancholy, Jessie Sykes’ wide open spaces, and Nico’s dark hours. As minimalist as it is elegant. (…)Music that should appeal to film directors.”
Vinyle et Audio, France

“A female Kurt Cobain ”
Black Sifichi, Audiometric

“raw and unflinching (…) vibrant and magnificent”
Sodapop, Italy

“beauty that embraces the shadows, a caress threaded with wire (…) sober sensuality, restless imagination, and unapologetic romanticism.”
Solénopole, France 

“Vocals and orchestration are exquisitely crafted, drawing us deep into the singular world of a truly extraordinary artist (…) songs that feel at once intimate and intense (…) in the lineage of the great singer-songwriters, where  just a voice and a guitar are sufficient to pierce the heart (…) masterful folk textures and refined arrangements cradle a finely tuned two-part vocal harmony (…) France de Griessen delivers a work of striking depth and sensitivity”
Music in Belgium, Belgium

Extraits de presse/media :

«  …son plus épuré et son plus beau. Son folk romantique, irrigué du sang noir du punk, y est ramené à son essence. (…) On pense beaucoup, à l’écoute d’une telle musique de pleine lune, à l’album Hurt Me de Johnny Thunders ou encore à Soft Black Stars de Current 93. C’est une musique très proche des promesses de l’adolescence et des étincelles du premier rock’n’roll. Proche de leur brûlure. »
MAGIC rpm

« L’ensemble puise dans l’univers romantique néo-médiéval anglais aussi bien que dans les ballades punk de Johnny Thunders, la mélancolie de Donovan, les grands espaces de Jessie Sykes ou les sombres heures de Nico. (…) Aussi minimaliste qu’élégant. Une musique qui devrait séduire le 7ème art »
Vinyle et Audio

« une beauté qui n’ignore pas l’ombre, une caresse avec un fil de fer dedans, un romantisme qui ne s’excuse pas.»
Solénopole

“A female Kurt Cobain ”
Black Sifichi / Audiometric

« Quatrième album pour l’artiste interdisciplinaire, accompagnée par l’artiste antifolk new-yorkais Cannonball Statman : le disque livre un son épuré, un folk chirurgical, éthéré et mélancolique, à la fois sauvage, délicat et lancinant, pour raconter des motsqui saignent et des hallucinations (…) Des guitares, des présences discrètes de bourdons de shruti box, d’orgue et de piano tissent une trame minimale qui alterne et mêle et grâce et intensité. »
Rockerilla

« …des structures de chansons évoquant des mantras (…) une écriture dans laquelle les symboles ont une importance de premier plan. »
African Paper

« Un folk ciselé et épuré »
Radiohoerer

« (Elle) revendique son romantisme et impose un style : la witch folk (…) un disque lumineux (…) un regard poétique où l’imagination est reine à travers une écriture très symbolique. »
AF News

 « Anti-Folk, Acoustic, Dream Pop, Neo-Medieval (…) dix compositions guitare-voix conjuguent en un juste équilibre chansons d’amour et rituels incantatoires (…) entre catharsis et prière »
Music is Life

 « Brut et sans concession (…) vibrant et magnifique »
 Sodapop