The Stool Pigeon

It would be really fun to play in a glass box,” says Charlotte Marionneau, laughing, “as long as it had holes to breathe.”

Marionneau is an extremely shy, well-humoured London-based French woman who, in an hour, could single-handedly improve our two countries’ relations better than a lifetime of eating those lovely chocolate croissants would. With her musical project, Le Volume Courbe (‘The Volume Curve’), she has also found a way to enter into our hearts through rickety, sweet electronic pop and refreshing ego-less humour.

Marionneau’s first gig was a four-minute Nico tribute and she reveals her love of both ‘Le Petit Chevalier’ and Andy Warhol’s idea of imprisoning his German icon in transparent casing. From there, her career has gone from strength-to-strength - 10 minutes in front of 650 people in Glasgow and an epic 20-minute blow-out in Nantes the following day. You’d imagine she’d want to get through a few more shows before she’d consider recording, but with Marionneau everything is the wrong way round.

Perhaps it was the influence of wisened friends Kevin Shields and Hope Sandoval that steered Charlotte towards her home studio. With the help of those two and members of Primal Scream, team La Volume Courbe’s first album, I Killed My Best Friend, became an acclaimed small-time hit. That’s not suprising: it’s a half hour of classy, soporific beauty, with Marionneau’s sweet, brittle voice filling the listener with the kind of calm only the likes of Rachael Dadd and Josephine Foster can instil.

So why the seeming lack of confidence? “To me, my work is experimental because I can’t really play music,” she says. “I can play guitar really badly, but the melodica or the banjo is where I’m aiming. But when I get on stage I start to shake. Having the focus on me makes me uncomfortable.”

Marionneau’s nerves affect her so much that even a summoning from the Great Lord of the Indieground, Alan McGee, was put off for an age. He finally got to hear a cassette comprising one Le Volume Courbe song twice and promptly released it on Poptones.

She has converted this self-doubt well on her new single, ‘Freight Train’, a cover of an Elizabeth Cotten song to which she adds an ethereal tone and some seriously cheery banjo. “She sings with so much soul, but she’s not the best singer, so it gets rid of some of my complex!” says Marionneau in a statement rendered ridiculous when you hear how glorious her vocal interpretation is.

Perhaps it is her lack of ego and bravado, but Marionneau is the kind of character audiences will absolutely adore. She’s cute, full of giggled tales (“My mum bought me my first album, Sex On The Beach, when I was 10”) and she’s got a killer sense of humour. Notice the multiple James Browns in their coffins on her new single sleeve.

Let her climb into the glass box, she’ll make for an intriguing exhibit.

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