UTO

About

" Ethereal, postmodern tracks from a French duo "

Thanks to the awe-inspiring, ever-expanding porosity between music genres today, many artists choose to follow their instincts and embrace the diversity of their influences, as different as they can be. Like many of their peers, UTO ’s music could hardly be reduced to the vague notions of electronics or pop. It does belong to both styles, with additional flavours including trip-hop, dream-pop, techno and synth-pop. Pitchfork rightly described their debut album, Touch The Lock, as ‘prismatic’. Released in 2022, this collection of twelve songs is a perfect introduction to the wonderful albeit strange world of the Parisian duo formed by Neysa Mae Barnett and Emile Larroche, who are currently writing their second album (to be released in 2024) and have just released an effervescent new song called ‘Zombies’.

When the pair met in 2013 in Ivry-sur-Seine, in the southeastern suburbs of Paris, she was studying French literature, while he was one half of the electro-pop band Saint Michel. Neysa and Emile started making music together in late 2016, with encouraging early songs culminating in their first album, an obvious landmark in their career. The initial spark to make this record originates from a three-week break in Oxford in the summer of 2019. They had brought along some of their instruments (a guitar, keyboards and a computer) and they felt creatively inspired by spending their days on a narrowboat sailing up the canal. Back home in France, they polished their soundscapes in their home-studio, oscillating between their two languages, French and English. The result is an incredible work of imagination and freedom as if the three letters of UTO were in fact the beginning of the word utopia.

Congratulations to UTO, who have been selected as November’s Band of the Month on Europavox.com! Discover more about this fascinating electronic and pop duo with the interview below.