Anne Pisalle - Ecstase

Anne Pigalle has lived the life and Ecstase is the unquestionable proof, but to be able to put those things into songs in such a spellbinding way is rare indeed. Being part of the French Punk scene, she decamped to London at the tail end of the 70s and settled in the Soho area. She swiftly became a regular face on the club scene and worked on her art. She appeared on The Tube and signed to the ZTT label in 1985 when the imprint’s stock was at its highest due to the success of Frankie Goes To Hollywood. Anne subsequently released the fine Everything Could Be So Perfect LP for them.

In 1986 she relaunched the Café de Paris club in the capital and more recently has worked on a number of projects in a wide variety of fields, including poetry, artwork and photography. Living for a time in Los Angeles, she encountered the late film director Donald Cammell who befriended her and worked on the Ecstase project in its original genesis. She returned to the UK in the 21st century to find that Soho was having the squeeze put on it by big business. Gradually the Bohemian and cosmopolitan spirit integral to the area was being eroded, with clubs and venues being forced out of existence by exorbitant rent increases, whilst the chain stores moved in.

This LP has somewhat of concept to it, taking in the various cities and scenes Pigalle has made her home and the impact the places and times had on her life. Kind of like autobiography psychogeography, if you will. Anne follows her path through the 70s Punk in Paris, to 80s London to LA and finally returning to find a Soho battered by “redevelopment” and greedy landlords, its outsider spirit nearly vanquished but still alive, just needing that spark……maybe this album is it.