Margaux Sauvé and Louis-Étienne Santais of Ghostly Kisses understand the allure of a secret. The hum and hiss of its magnetism. The unimaginable joy of being a conduit for openness. We all want to feel intimacy, the pull of our heart, growing and learning together. So Ghostly Kisses set out on a seemingly impossible journey to collect anonymous stories and letters from fans around the world through their “Box of Secrets” posted to the band’s website. Sauvé and her partner Santais, along with co- producers Oli Bayston and George FitzGerald (Golden Eyes), synthesized those missives into the mesmeric Darkroom (due May 17th via Akira Records), a record that wills our inner monologue into view, tears falling on the dancefloor only to find mystic connection in the darkest electronic corners. Darkroom illuminates the gossamer threads connecting fans around the world, weaving anonymity into a microcosm of comfort, and a safe space for reinvention for the Quebec City-based band.
Fresh off the critical success of a debut album steeped in introspective reflection on painful experiences, we arrive here, after the pandemic revealed a level of postmodern loneliness felt collectively across the world. “So many people at our shows would tell us that they listened to our music through heartbreak, grief, pain, questions they asked themselves, so I thought we should give others a safe space to do the same,” Sauvé explains. “For this project I wanted to live in those themes, those experiences, to make it a multidimensional conversation.” The resulting songs further showcase Sauvé’s ability to lightly convey complex floods of emotion via poignant, unforgettable songwriting. And through her classical violin training and Santais’ multi-instrumentalist wizardry, these stories fold into compositions that simultaneously reach the grandeur of a classical epic and the lux, experimental electronic pop of the likes of Caroline Polachek and Romy Madley Croft.
Each track of Darkroom’s magnetic run comprises its own world, with Sauvé’s vocals as the radiant arc connecting their orbits, the moments and themes finding resonances— the whole Ghostly Kisses universe together even when expressing its loneliness. In moments, Ghostly Kisses offer an awe-inspiring hope for connection, for love, even when it seems impossible. By opening their music to be the conduit for other people’s stories, they landed up finding their own. And by doing so through the stories of their fans and in new, more kinetic tones, Darkroom should prompt that same hope in many around the world who may otherwise have felt the darkness creeping too far in.
