No matter what style of music surrounds her, Laetitia Sadier exudes effortless cool. Born in France but based in London since co-founding avant-pop group Stereolab with guitarist Tim Gane, Sadier’s socialist political beliefs are as passionate as her vocals are distinctive. Whether singing in French with Britpop band Blur, sharing the mic with Chicago rapper Common, or filtering through Mouse on Mars’s glitching electronics, her airy voice is unmistakable.
Sadier met Gane when his band McCarthy played in Paris in 1988. After contributing vocals to McCarthy’s final album, Banking, Violence And The Inner Life Today, the duo formed Stereolab at the dawn of the ’90s. Joined by motorik-loving drummer Andy Ramsay and the late vocalist Mary Hansen, “The Groop” spent nearly 20 years as a celebrated, subcultural sensation before going on hiatus in 2009.
Sadier’s work outside of Stereolab began with the formation of Monade, a lo-fi dream pop duo with Rosie Cuckston from Pram, which helped to distance Sadier from the pressures of Stereolab’s increasing popularity; she describes Mondade as her “little kitty sand pit.” The band released their debut album, Socialisme ou Barbarie: The Bedroom Recordings, in 2003. This launched a prolific era of Sadier’s musical output, with a steady stream of solo releases, side-projects, and one-offs throughout the 2010s.
In advance of her latest solo album, Rooting for Love, Sadier was delighted to discuss the various projects that have preceded it, as well as several notable collaborations. This list of 10 selections shows off her ability to inhabit numerous musical styles, poetically weaving politically charged messages and meditations on creativity into effervescent pop bliss.
Laetitia Sadier
The Trip
Vinyl LP, Compact Disc (CD)
After three albums with Monade, Sadier switched to her given name for this 2010 LP released by venerable indie rock label Drag City. “For a lot of people, The Trip is my first solo album,” she says. “I had fun in my sand pit, which gave me more maturity and experience.” While showcasing her penchant for obscure artists with covers of songs by Wendy & Bonnie and Les Rita Mitsouko, the album is dedicated to Sadier’s sister Noelle, who tragically died by suicide. “I wrote this album to channel my sadness and grief, and for her,” she says. “The Trip is about her trip beyond this life into the afterlife. It was really cathartic to be able to honor her this way.”
Silencio
Vinyl LP, Compact Disc (CD)
Silencio amplifies Sadier’s leftist politics with the grooving G20 takedown “Auscultation to the Nation” and the lush orchestral pop of “There is a Price to Pay for Freedom (and it isn’t Security).” Yet the core message uniting this light, jazzy collection of bilingual songs is that silent meditation connects us to a higher state of consciousness. “Silencio started when I was touring Spain and fell in love with the country, big time,” says Sadier. “I was in Zamora, a town where there are the most churches per inhabitant per square kilometer. When I was sitting in one of them during a moment of complete silence, it felt like I went into another dimension and became one with everything in the universe.”
Something Shines
Vinyl LP, Compact Disc (CD)
In 2014, the same year that she released Something Shines, Sadier recorded an album with the art-rock band Little Tornados, led by her then-boyfriend David Thayer. This relationship paid creative dividends when Thayer began collecting vintage organs owned by Swiss families in the 1970s. “They cost thousands of dollars, but it was something you were supposed to have,” says Sadier. “The generation of people who bought these organs was passing away, and their children didn’t have the space nor desire to keep these huge things. You could buy them for one Swiss franc, but you had to pick them up.” With a basement full of furniture-sized instruments, Sadier ran wild across Something Shines, layering her songs with shimmery keys and hissing rhythm boxes.
Find Me Finding You
Compact Disc (CD), Vinyl LP, T-Shirt/Shirt
Sadier surrounded herself with a large group of musicians known as the Source Ensemble for her 2017 album, Find Me Finding You. Alongside frequent collaborators, she welcomed members of the Coventry band Batsch, cornetist Rob Mazurek, and even Hot Chip’s Alexis Taylor on the dreamy duet “Love Captive.” “As always, I like to have people contributing so it becomes some kind of co-creation,” says Sadier. “I orchestrate, of course, but I love having a lot of input to make it as rich and lively as possible. Find Me Finding You was a big collaboration while I established myself in this home studio, where I’m sitting now.”
Rooting for Love
Vinyl LP, Compact Disc (CD)
The genesis of Rooting for Love began with the song “New Moon,” recorded by Sadier six years ago. “I had the big idea of fusing jazz chords with minimalism, like Terry Riley and Steve Reich,” she explains. “I thought those patterns could develop into a theme throughout the album.” The project was put on pause following Stereolab’s 2019 reunion and the pandemic lockdowns, until Sadier began recording with a chorus of male and female vocalists known as The Choir. “I’m absolutely delighted that it’s coming out now, because I think things happen with their own divine timing,” says Sadier. “It’s better than me trying to force something at the wrong moment when it probably won’t get any attention. So it was stretched out for a few years, but a lot of things happened in between, and it just feels right.”
Modern Cosmology
Summer Long
Vinyl
During Stereolab’s initial dissolution, Sadier signed up to Facebook and accepted invitations to perform with musicians in Greece, Belgium, and Brazil. She first met Felipe S. from the band Mombojó in a Sao Paulo dressing room before agreeing to collaborate and form the project Modern Cosmology. “They got some money for me to come over and do an artistic residency, so they rented a house, and we all lived there,” says Sadier. “Over two weeks, we recorded five tracks. One of them ended up on my album, Find Me Finding You, and the other four became our first EP.”
Deerhoof
“Come Down Here & Say That (feat. Lætitia Sadier)”
Vinyl LP, Compact Disc (CD), Cassette
Deerhoof and Sadier may seem like unlikely bedfellows, but when you hear this duet with singer Satomi Matsuzaki, everything clicks into place. On 2017’s Mountain Moves, the cute, crazed San Francisco band welcomed guest vocalists as diverse as Juana Molina, Mantana Roberts, and Awkwafina. “We met at the Big Ears festival in Knoxville, Tennessee, and then they sent me a song to sing on,” says Sadier. “[Deerhoof drummer] Greg [Saunier] put some kind of distortion on my voice so it sounded really authoritative, and voilà!”
MISZCZYK
“In The Dark” (feat. Laetitia Sadier)
Vinyl LP
Toronto’s Marker Starling is a serial Sadier collaborator; she can be heard on his song “Waiting For Grace” and the Silk Rock split 7-inch. They teamed up once again on this spellbinding slow burner by producer MISZCZYK, which also features the mellifluous flute playing of Kristina Koski, each part recorded remotely in home studios thousands of miles across the pond from each other. “This collaboration was mostly over email and on my own, but it wasn’t like we started with a fully formed track for me to sing on,” Sadier explains. “The song became what it is as we worked on it, so it felt very collaborative.”
[Disclosure: MISZCZYK’s album Thyrsis of Etna was released by We Are Time, the label I co-founded with Chandra Oppenheim.]
Pearl & the Oysters
“Read the Room” (feat. Laetitia Sadier)
Vinyl LP
One of Sadier’s most recent collaborations is this 2023 song by Pearl and the Oysters, the psychedelic pop duo of Joachim Polack and Juliette Pearl Davis. On the highlight from their latest album, Coast 2 Coast (released by voracious hip-hop label Stones Throw), spacey synths, fuzzy riffs, and twinned guitar harmonies swirl around Sadier’s breathy alto. “They organized a musical evening in Paris and asked me if I would join them onstage, so that’s where I discovered them,” she says. “Their music feels like an injection of pure sunshine.”
