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Your Own Shadow

by Valerie Renay

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1.
Hollow 04:56
When you feel like your own shadow And every breath your breath brings sorrow When you feel like your own shadow And every step you take seems shallow When you feel like your own shadow And your heart grows dark and hollow ... Hard to shallow
2.
Blue is the warmest colour Melancholy sunsets makes us easy on the eye True is the strangest feeling learning loves these lies exempt from beauty Too eagerly rushed to destruction like a random car crash So eager to rush for destruction like a random car crash waiting to happen So eager to rush for destruction like a random car crash A guilty conscience needs no accused but sleeps like thunder Blue is the warmest colour Blue is the warmest colour A guilty conscience needs no accused but sleeps like thunder A guilty conscience needs no accused but sleeps like thunder Red meat to the bones exhumed in jaundiced numbers Blue is the warmest colour Friendship a worn out gesture Blue is the warmest colour
3.
Sailor 05:57
Once upon a time when the ocean was the sky Once upon a time, the horizon was all mine And when I closed my eyes, I could see your face and smile When I closed my eyes time suspended for a while But with the words I know I could never hold you back And with all the tears I cried I could never bring you back
4.
I woke up late the sun was high up My head was heavy, my thoughts were blurry Rough & ready The day was coming straight at me I tried to face reality A little push would help me maybe Get on my feet and take it easy Rough & ready...oh so ready Can't quite remember, it doesn't matter What happens next I'll soon discover
5.
Kick Again 04:33
How much does it take Until everything breaks How long will you wait? Time ticks, time to wake You've waited long enough It's time to kick again Kick again You feel the shift You know the storm is coming Your body's stiff, inside the pressure's rising You've waited long enough It's time to kick again Kick again Pumping adrenaline Your heart has started racing The rage inside no longer hides x4 It's time to kick again
6.
Melancholia 06:04
Une tristesse vague m'envahit Une voyage au bout de la nuit Une silence enfouit sous la pluis Je crois que je n'ai plus peur Melancholie qui me sourit Nostalgie d'hier d'aujoud'hui Maintenant dans mon cœur Melodie souvenir douleur M'envahit...
7.
Darkest Lake 05:34
I always wish for something that I don t have I'm home alone and you're on my mind I have that longing feeling, I cannot hide This voice inside my secret side My secret side Those words I hear you whisper, they do me well The pain inside is deeper that I can tell I found a place to keep it safe I drown it down the deepest lake, the darkest lake

about

Music for fast moving clouds

Ethereal Electro Visceral Melodic

Berlin-based French Caribbean performer, painter and electronic pop chanteuse Valerie Renay (one half of Noblesse Oblige) presents her first solo album Your Own Shadow, co-produced by Alexander Paulick-Thiel (Kreidler): Empowering and ethereal songs that exude dreamy, dark electronic scents with a visceral twist.

After initial help from producer Moses Schneider and Einstürzende Neubauten’s engineer Boris Wilsdorf, Valerie was set on a path where her sound could continue to develop organically, as she travelled solo, testing new material in front of international audiences (Live appearances in Germany, Poland, South Africa, Italy).

The stage show is raw and sensual, with Valerie delivering a dramatic and emotionally charged vocal performance. Poignant stories are delivered in English and French over layers of synths, guitar, and hypnotic bass lines, bouncing off bewitching tribal beats.
Brutal and soulful at once, each concert can only be described as a ritualistic experience oozing with punk attitude.

Somewhere between two colliding worlds, this album was conceived at a moment of deep transition. The radical transformation Valerie experienced triggered the making of an opus full of contrasts.

Some of the songs like Darkest Lake suggest deep vulnerability, others like Kick Again, a kind of confidence bordering on brashness. As a creature of extremes, these are all parts of Valerie’s journey. She explains how those pulsations are exacerbated when in creative mode, pulling her from ecstasy to complete gloom. From the exhilaration of Speed Of Blue (lyrics by Ian Pickering of Sneaker Pimps) to the deep sadness of Hollow, she takes us through the whole spectrum of human emotions.

Valerie: “The desire to explore my own limits and share intimate sensations motivated me to write these songs. I started this solo project to exorcise private demons. Writing songs alone is such a beautiful but lonely path, you are faced with yourself, your own fear, your own doubts but also the incredible feeling that everything is possible and options are endless. The choice is yours, you’re the pilot flying that plane. I needed to get those songs out of my system because they inhabited me like unresolved, fragile tales that I wanted to share, to understand better who I am.”

“Your Own Shadow, the title of the album refers to the feeling you have when you don’t recognise yourself anymore because you are made to feel small, insignificant, empty and lost. You know this is not the real you... Somewhere the real you still has fire and power but your very existence feels so meaningless. You forget how to be standing on your own two feet.”

Valerie’s music places less emphasis on structure, technical knowledge and production and more on raw emotional content. The songs are quite bare and simple compared to the work she did with Noblesse Oblige, straighter to the point and far more direct.

Valerie: “It was a learning process for me to teach myself how to play every instrument, to create arrangements and basic productions. However, working with these limitations also gave me a strange new sense of freedom and power.”

The result of her solitary journey is Your Own Shadow, a collection of haunting melodies coloured with delicate poetry. A series of soundscapes that invite you to tread the world's darker paths and roughest edges, while still being lifted by Valerie's love for ecstatic electronics and harmonic tones.

credits

released September 7, 2018

All Music & Lyrics by Valerie Renay
Except Speed of Blue: Lyrics by Ian Pickering
Co-produced by Alex Paulick-Thiel
Mastered by Mike Grinser at Manmade Mastering
Photos by CHIPI

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about

Valerie Renay Berlin, Germany

Valerie Renay is a Berlin based French-Caribbean artist.

Live dates:
11 September klunkerkranich, Berlin
1 Oct Mahalla, Berlin

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