It’s been more than a decade since French duo Les Nubians first impressed international music audiences with their blend of slick and soulful afro-pop grooves and chill-inducing vocal talent. Their 1998 debut album, Princesses Nubiennes, with its hit song, “Makeda,” was hugely successful—at least in the relatively low-impact universe of “world music”—due to the sublimely accessible and engaging approach that sisters Hélène and Célia Faussart used in fusing contemporary soul and Afropean pop. Since then, Les Nubians’ output has been anything but prodigious; it took them five years to release their second album, One Step Forward, and it’s been more than four years since Echos, Chapter One—a compilation of like-minded artists, produced by the sisters—was released. That naturally raises the question of when Les Nubians’ third album proper will be released.
“We’re still finishing it,” laughs Célia in a telephone interview on the eve of the sisters’ West Coast tour. “We’re, like, three-quarters done.
“Of course this album is different, but of course it’s the same because it is us,” she continues. “But for us, it’s a new story to tell. It’s called New Revolution… [it is] way more about world citizenship. It’s an all-togetherness album, if that makes sense, it’s more sing-along. There’s a little more English, but with the accent of course, because we speak more English now and we’ve gotten more comfortable with it.”
Though still a work in progress, there’s little question that New Revolution will be built around the sisters’ ethereal and emotional vocal style and filled with the positive vibes that have marked Les Nubians’ previous work. However, because of the upheaval of music-industry norms, one question hanging over New Revolution is how exactly it will be released. Typically optimistic, Célia seems utterly unconcerned, as long as the music manages to get out to the world.
“We still don’t know [which label will release it],” she says. “We’re moving forward on the album and there are some labels that are looking at it, but once it’s finished, we’ll know what we’re going to do. If we have to release it by ourselves, we are ready to do that too.”
