About

A TAV Curator's Pick.

La Vie Est Belle / Life Is Beautiful is the debut album from Yannick Ilunga aka Petite Noir. The 11 track LP from the half-Congolese, half-Angolan, Cape Town-residing artist follows the release of his breakout EP, The King Of Anxiety, earlier in 2015. Recorded at Box Ten Studios in London with Oli Bayston (Boxed In) and Leon Brichard (Ibibio), La Vie Est Belle / Life Is Beautiful is a highly accomplished album with a unique concoction of influences.

The record seamlessly fuses intricate contemporary electronics and raw post-punk energy with Yannick’s stirring, soulful vocals and African shuffles that echo his homeland. Named after a revered Congolese film of the same name, the album is both a beacon and a vessel of inspiration, offering empowerment to those who need it.

La Vie Est Belle / Life Is Beautiful represents the first full expression of what Ilunga calls ‘Noirwave’, which is more of a concept than a specific sound. Inspired by innovators like Mos Def and legends Fela Kuti and Tabu Ley, Noirwave encompasses a ‘new African aesthetic’, plain and simple. "I think for me, it's just the story their music tells and the sense of freedom. It's about seeing the positive in dark times," he says. – Domino Records

 “In a pop music landscape where eclecticism has become the status quo, Ilunga’s not only pulling from a broader range of sounds than all but a few other players in the game, he’s able to synthesize them into a seamless sonic entity that stands entirely away from the pack. La Vie Est Belle is a gorgeous, complex trip, not just aesthetically but emotionally. By turns, it’s abysmally abject, bravely hopeful, unguarded, canny, sexy, and profound—the kind of richly, messily variegated album that only comes around a few times a year. Yannick Ilunga feels like pop music's future—borderless but deeply rooted, challenging but pleasurable— and La Vie is strong enough to have earned Ilunga the right to call his revolution whatever he wants.” – Pitchfork

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