Cleo T.

Just in time for Valentine’s Day comes an album of the most extravagant romanticism: a heady blend of decadent cabaret, European folk music and art-rock, delighting in drama, celebrating and mocking passion. Parisian songstress Cleo T‘s, Songs of Gold and Shadow should ideally be listened to whilst wearing silk and reclining on a chaise longue, sipping absinthe or chai tea.

The producer is John Parish, best known for making grittier music with PJ Harvey, but he’s done a fine job with the ornate, eccentric arrangements found here. The album opens with a minute of eerie sounds produced by wine glasses and a cello. Eventually they’re joined by a piano and then by a voice reminiscent of Björk at her most tremulous, evoking the tormented state of mind suggested by the first song’s title: ‘I Love Me, I Love Me Not’.

The recent single ‘We All’ is more agitated, Cleo leaping into a girlish soprano over scratchy guitar and a piano that sounds like it should be in a saloon bar in a cowboy film. ‘Columbine’ is all flowers and rural flirtation and is as carefree as Songs of Gold and Shadow gets, but even here there’s something a bit woozy and drunken about the rhythm, a suggestion of instability. This only continues on the boisterous ‘Song To The Moon'; a punk-folk waltz on which Cleo is like Edith Piaf fronting The Pogues, featuring some of the supernatural imagery that’s sprinkled liberally throughout the album, and ends with lycanthropic howling. - TGA

To many British folkies, it may seem as though Cleo T has suddenly burst on to the avant-folk scene in a shower of glitter, silk and French perfume. But this Italian-French demoiselle has been performing her intoxicating brand of Parisian-infused, cabaret pop since 2010, steadily nurturing her craft, unique philosophy and growing fan base with patience and care. Meeting Cleo T prior to the album launch of Songs of Gold and Shadow is akin to listening to the record for the first time – both are beguiling, witty, playful, warm and wicked. She is a diminutive beauty, sporting a 1920s-style headdress, elaborate eye-make up and heels.

Later, during an exhuberant set, she coaxes the audience from the back to the front of the room, effortlessly slipping between English, French and Italian. In short, we’ve never felt so British, unsophisticated and monolingual – and this is probably a very good thing. Cleo T is testament to the wealth of fantastic music being produced beyond our shores, if only we have the ears to listen. With this in mind, we make a concerted attempt to sound European and knowledgeable, and kick the interview off with a biggie… - For Folk's sake / UK

Chi è. Cantautrice parigina, cresciuta tra ninna nanne neorealiste e cinema italiano, affascinata da Fellini, fan del sud, di Pompei, delle sue case, e dalle poesie di Leopardi che ne ispirano la malinconica speranza. Musicista in tour dal 2010, colonizza l’Europa con la sua musica evanescente, che mixa stili e suoni, tra valzer e ballate, jazz (accennato) e doo-wop. Cloe T., Giovane Talento nel 2012, ha costruito la sua storia discografica iniziando da un’etichetta italiana (la Macaco Records) per poi scegliere di fare tutto da sola e impegnarsi in prima persona, coniugando ruolo di artista a senso degli affari, creando la sua etichetta indipendente, moderna e concreta, fatta di collaboratori stretti.Ora. Il suo esordio si intitola Songs Of Gold And Shadow, primo album, prodotto e registrato a Bristol dal leggendario John Parish (PJ Harvey, Eels, Tracy Chapman). Un debutto che porta con sé una grande carica emotiva, un disco che sceglie il buio come pentagramma e il pensiero introspettivo come note, da suonare (e cantate) con poesia. Il primo singolo che lancia l’album è We All, brano che celebra tra evoluzioni doop-wop e influenze jazz (appena accennate), matrimoni e funerali, tenebre e speranze. Nella gallery in alto il video del singolo in anteprima. - Marie Claire Italy