ABVOLTA • Stace

STACE promptly put herself on the map with her impressive debut EP Green Onyx. She was soon playing major stages, including those of Dour, Couleur Café, Les Nuits Botanique and AB.

On her new EP – that will be released at the end of October via 62 Records – the neo-soul songstress seeks the connection between extreme emotions. Her soulful, sensual sound is as vulnerable as it is authentic.

About 'Overblue'
How do you find your place in the world? As broad as it is breathtaking, this question obviously suggests millions of answers. The answers provided by STACE are now woven into the filigree of its second EP. Intimate, eminently personal, "Overblue" bridges the gap between extreme emotions. Soulful, sensual and epicurean, this essay places resilience at the heart of a renewed space of expression. In harmony, able to tame her melancholy, the Brussels-based singer glimpses the light through sunny, ultra-contemplative melodies.

The fruit of intense reflection, "Overblue" exposes the journey of an artist aware of her strengths, her shadow zones, but also her doubts and apprehensions. In this respect, "Selfish" doesn't cheat. Shaped by authenticity, this song lets us hear another voice, that of Darnell L. Moore. Sampled here, the American songwriter takes on the theme of Afro-descendence. In a Western society
largely regulated by monochrome norms, the subject penetrates to the heart of introspection. Where words hurt. Where notions of integration and competition come a little too dangerously close. A hymn to acceptance, "Selfish" reflects all the questions that run through STACE's mind on this new EP.

With a degree in anthropology, the Martinique-born artist observes the times with an extra measure of empathy and an innate sense of interpretation. Immersed in her own experience, tracks such as "Flood" and "Underwater" overcome the pressure and the waves of the soul to experience the moment, the present happiness. This approach is at work throughout the record, from the single "Tainted" to the final seconds of "Healing", the closing track punctuated by a benevolent piece of advice: Make love in a heartless place. Repeated like a mantra, this magic formula opens up alternatives. But above all, it opens up the possibility of creating relationships in a society that has become accustomed to the mechanics of individualism and capitalism.

Where STACE's songs once reflected a music developed in a vacuum, "Overblue" opens up to the world, to encounters and to multiple dialogues between instruments. Now supported by musicians : Louise van den Heuvel and Lou Wery, and sometimes by the bass of Grégoire Oboldouieff, the artist sublimates her nu-soul visions with an extra soul(s) that makes all the difference.

Co-produced with Daniel Bleikolm (Robbing Millions, Baloji), this new EP stands out from the R'n'B crowd thanks to electronic infusions and sophisticated arrangements. On shores docked by the likes of Solange, Cleo Sol, Nick Hakim and Erykah Badu, STACE's music offers an intimate counterpoint.