Sarasara releases Elixir

French avant-garde performance artist and songwriter Sarasara will release her third album ‘Elixir’ on March 1st 2024 on One Little Independent Records. Though consistently creating and experimenting – in 2022 she penned a tribute EP to Serge Gainsbourg – ‘Elixir’ marks her return to the album format following 2019’s ‘Orgone’. An audio manifesto for the angry and disenfranchised, the new LP is fierce, honest, and combative.

Of new single and video ‘The Call’, Sarasara tells us; “The Call is the mystic feminine anthem of the album, it transcends time and space. The lyrics weave the tapestry of intuition, superstition, and cosmic forces, guiding all women through a universe where faith knows no bounds. We all know the adage “Feminine Intuition”. With a driving obsession and a fearless commitment to change, most of us speak the "language of the witches", surrendering to The Call and embracing the prophetic energy that propels us forward. The Call is a declaration of empowerment, a fusion of mysticism, feminism and reality that beckons all to follow the flow and burn the bridges without fear. Now is the time to heed The Call and let the impulses guide the way..."

‘Elixir’ is brewed from a variety influences and experiences and, as Sarasara explains, “it contains different ingredients; some dark magic and alchemy, some anarchism, a couple of drops of 70’s indie horror film essence, a lot of feminism, a bit of punk and rock, some suffragettes vibes, some black leather, a lot of anger and revolt, some activism, and as always a lot of self-examination and thinking time.”

Once again, Sarasara penned everything herself, before recruiting long-time collaborator Liam Howe for additional instruments. The process was informed in large part by the company she was keeping between writing in Bristol and Ibiza, contrastingly. In Bristol she spent time with members of Crass and The Mob, another anarcho punk band of the 70s and 80s. Frontman Mark Wilson founded Rockaway Park Commune were Sarasara began writing and recording demos for ‘Elixir’, between engrossing philosophical debates in the communal restaurant. These inspired a lot of the more outgoing and political elements of the album as well as the artwork, which takes direct cues from the work of anarcho-pacifist legend Gee Vaucher.

“Visually It was fuelled by a very strong feeling of disgust and despair after events happening all around the world against women these last couple of years. There is also some reflection of my own experience as a woman in the music industry for the last 8 years. I have had many epiphanies working on this record, realising the amount of micro violence perpetuated daily against us and seen as the norm.”

The albums potent mix of cultural ideas fuses with dark industrial synths and gothic atmospherics to shape her intoxicating, cinematic sophisti-pop. Enthralling, groove-laden compositions recall the likes of David Bowie and Jehnny Beth, but Sarasara found more influence in political writers; Bell Hooks, the distinguished professor of race and class, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, a French socialist, and the first person to declare himself an anarchist, and Édith Thomas, the French novelist and bisexual pioneer of women's history, among others. She continues; “I am not sure I can explain what inspired it musically. It was written in different places, cities and countries even, and over a long period of time. It still feels like a bit of a mess to me. I can’t make sense of it just now and it will probably have to be reflected on in the future. I just know I was tired of being called an electronic artist, because that’s not who I am. I like to experiment, but I don’t want to be put in that box. I like old book smell and writing with pens, I like to play with words and dictionaries and analogue things.”

‘Elixir’ was written as a remedy for the symptoms of modernity and late capitalism. Sarasara has crafted a companion-piece to the decline of civilisation as she sees it; “Everything that’s been happening with AI and social media these last couple of years makes me sick. Humans are not able to think anymore, and I feel disgusted by technology altogether at the moment, like a vital repulsion. I feel Baudrillard’s Hyperreality in my bones and I want to stay away from it. For this album I wanted to come back to basics.”

Sarasara released her debut album ‘Amor Fati’ to acclaim from The Fader, The Guardian and more. As experimental as it is versatile, it took in elements of industrial, trip-hop and breaks. Second album, 2019’s ‘Orgone’, saw her explore further her unique breed of leftfield, avant-garde RnB and dealing with extreme existentialism. The enigmatic artist found peace through meditation, faith, and learning how to live in the present.

On her new album, there’s an actively enraged side to Sarasara. Rather than passive political upset, her frustration at “the big tech fascist surveillance system” is raw and impassioned. The tracks on ‘Elixir’ may be brooding, even mystic, but behind them there’s a seething activist fighting to make herself heard over the noise. “It all makes me really sad, angry and powerless at the same time. I feel attacked in my flesh and in my heart, I feel threatened daily. There is too much pressure. I guess these pictures are a physical reaction and the way my whole body and mind process those feelings. Elixir is my Anarcha-Feminist album.”