OohLaLa! festival in London

I've been meaning to write about the OohLaLa! festival that's being held in London  in October, so the

release of a promotional video for the event give me the perfect excuse.

For three days, October 21-24, some of France's top acts take to the stage at the Village Underground.

It's a great line up of contemporary French acts, many of which should be familiar to readers of this blog.

The first night sees Fauve, Petit Fantôme and Moodoïd.

The second night has Dominique A, Rover and Mélissa Laveux, and the final night has Lescop, Christine and the Queens and Tomorrow's World.

There are also dj sets from Laetitia Sadier, The Line of Best Fit and The Quietus, and appearances at the Rough Trade shop by artists appearing at the event.

If you're in the London area, the chance to catch so many quality French acts at one is one not to be missed.

Hopefully the attention that the likes of Phoenix and Daft Punk have been getting will spread to these acts, and ideally we'll see more of them playing at this side of the channel before too long.

I mentioned that I've featured some of these acts before in the blog, and I'll certainly feature them again before the gigs take place.

Mélissa Laveaux: Postman

A nice boost fro French Canadian singer-songwriter  Mélissa Laveaux in the UK with BBC Radio One DJ
Lauren Laverne promoting the song Postman as her choice Free MP3 of the day.

You can get the track from Lauren Laverne's blog here >

Her second album  Dying Is A Wild Night was released in France in February.

She released her debut Camphor & Copper in 2006. The following year a remixed  and re-recorded version of the album was released after she won a bursary.

This second version of her debut was released in France in 2008.

She's playing dates in France and elsewhere in mainland Europe, and plays a show in London as part of the Ooh La La festival in October 22.

The album is released in the UK on September 30, and the track Postman as a single on September 22.

OohLaLA! festival

Appropriate to see the announcement today - being the day of the Fête de la Musique in France - of a festival later this year bringing some of france's finest music acts to the UK.

The OohLaLA! festival on October 12.22 and 24 sees three nights of acts at the Village Underground in east London, with some great acts already confirmed.

So far Dominique A, Lescop and ≠ FAUVE, along with Christine and The Queens and The Quietus DJs have been revealed, with more acts and special collaborations to be announced.

I've featured several of these acts in the blog over the years, and it certainly looks a great opportunity to catch some great acts we rarely get the chance to see in the UK.

Dominique A has been active since the 90s, his most recent album vers Les Lueurs released last year, and along the way he's acquired the reputation of being one of France's most visionary singer songwriters.

Lescop, meanwhile, should also be no stranger to regular visitors to this blog. He released his debut album in the UK this month, having already blown audiences away in France since it came out there late last year. He played in London to mark the album's UK release, it's great to see him return again.

As for ≠ FAUVE they're one of France's most innovative acts in recent years, presenting an assuredly modern soundtrack to these tense times.

Christine and the Queens have features here in the past couple of weeks with the release of her Nuit 17 à 52 EP, having appeared at the Great Escape event in Brighton in May.

An impressive and exciting line-up so far, with more still to come.

Although it's the first time it's been held in London, the OohLaLA! festival was founded in 2009 by Sylvain Taillet, the head of A&R for French label Barclay/Universal Music France. It began in LA, and expanded to San Franciso, New York and Montréal as s showcase for French artists and previous years have seen acts like Sebastien Tellier, Kavinsky, Brodinski and François and The Atlas Mountains.

Tickets for the event are available from July 1


La Session de LESCOP dans Le RDV de Laurent... by franceculture