Since Le Cirque de Consolation, her second album released in 2021, a seismic shift has occurred in Léonie Pernet’s life.The musician travelled to Niger to meet her father family — previously unknown to her. Upon returning from the trip, Léonie came across a line by René Char: “I took my head as one takes a lump of salt and literally pulverised it.” The shock of this revelation stayed with her and led her to Poème Pulvérisé, a 1945 collection by the French poet and resistance fighter.
Opting for the plural, Léonie titled her third album Poèmes Pulvérisés, to be released in June 2025 via Crybaby and InFiné. A crossroads of continents, the album links the limestone skies of her childhood in the Marne (France) to the deserts of Niger. From classical and electronic music to French pop, African and Arabic rhythms and experimental soundscapes, Léonie Pernet pulverises form, language, and composition. What are we, if not scattered fragments?
Léonie has also recently contributed to projects by friends such as Clara Ysé, percussionist and composer Lucie Antunes, and Rome-based French-Senegalese singer, songwriter and actress Awa Ly. As a composer for film and stage, she has created original scores for H24 (Arte, 2021 – CSDEM Prize), the theatre piece Dispak Dispac’h (Avignon 2024), and the documentary Le Deuxième Sexe (2025). A final testament to her deep connection to poetry — her artistic compass — is her preface to La femme qui boit by Colette Andris (Gallimard).
