Charlotte Isabelle is one identity composed by John and Bruno. The French duo has been performing live since 2012 and began to produce mental techno in 2016. Each of their releases such as “Monad XXIII” on Stroboscopic Artefacts, “Fast Dance Fase” on HOHA Records, “Bad Rocks” on Illegal Alien, “Ceres” and “Hopis” on Lemme Records is characterized by a unique shamanic and cinematic dimension. This year, they came back with “Poursuite” still on Elijah's label. This mini album, incorporating 8 compositions, demonstrates one more time a willingness to plunge listeners into their futuristic world and a trance. 

Welcome, a glass of?
A bottle of red wine "Côte de Provence" please.

Where do you come from? 
John: We met on school benches in the South of France. We both come from a family with a big interest in art. Bruno started playing piano at a very young age while I was still playing with pebbles.

Do you remember how you discovered electronic music? 
We remember the first time we listened to electronic music, it was in a park with friends between classes, we pressed the button of a computer cd player and here was our first encounter with the Azzido Da Bass “Dooms Night” (Timo Maas remix)" in 2000. Our ears have kept the imprints of this strong heavy bassline. BooooOm, welcome to the new millennium!

Your main influences? 
Our main influence comes from Berlin, the first time at Berghain in 2012 was a revelation. The aesthetics, the sound system and the energy of the people inspired us a lot. It is as if we had taken a bit of spirit seed from there and when we back home germinated the idea to create Charlotte Isabelle.

Your live setup?
Our setup is a computer, Ableton, ARP Odyssey and AKAI controllers.

What is the most important when you perform live?
The most important thing when we perform live is to not forget the computer. Our attention is not focused on the audience, we create something without worrying. We are deeply in our bubble, concentrating on the music.

How did you meet Elijah, owner of Lemme Records? 
We knew Elijah but he didn't know us. Everyone in the area knows the man with 15.000 vinyls. The first oral contact with him was on the steps of the Toulon Opera, he was discussing music as usual, that's when we said a few words to him about our musical project. Then, he decided to visit us in our tiny music studio lost in the forest, which looked more like the "little house on the prairie" but in stone. Can you visualise it? It was the start of our collaboration. 

We describe your sound as shamanic…
The goal of the repetitive drums is to make people enter in a state of trance, so yes with our sound we can call it "shamanic", it mostly depends on the sensitivity of the listener. 

And your compositions also have a deep cinematic atmosphere. Any anecdotes?
Yes, especially after we received a message from the Stroboscopic Artefacts label which told us that one of our tracks could be used for the film "Jaws". Unfortunately, the project did not come to fruition. So frustrated that we decided to create a cinematic album with "Poursuite".

Speaking of which, what kind of story is behind "Poursuite"? 
The intention was to project ourselves into the future, we imagined a post-apocalyptic world, a bit like Mad Max.

What are the gears used for this album?
We used Ableton to compose and mainly micro sampling, layers and layers of samples.

How important is technology to your creative process?
We learned to use it and we worked to free ourselves from it, to concentrate on the essential which is to work on a musical universe.

If i tell you AI?
AI, we leave that to the new generation. We already have difficulty managing our social networks…

Your top favorite albums of all time? 
. Funki Porcini "The devil Drives" (2011)
. Philip Glass "Metamorphosis" (1988)
. Eric Serra "Le Grand Bleu" (1988)
. Serge Gainsbourg "Histoire De Melody Nelson" (1971)

Without music, life would be…
Without music life would remain life. We spent time asking ourselves the questions over a glass of red wine about the meaning of it all, and ultimately couldn't we achieve this trance state by other means?

Your projects?
Bruno: We have different projects, John is also a jewelry designer and I am also an illustrator.

Why “Charlotte Isabitch”?
Because sometimes we are sluts (laughs).

Current Charlotte Isabelle in 3 words? 
Cinematographic, deep, hypnotic.

Interviewed by Sabrina Bouzidi / Photos by Zespiral