Oracle Sisters Transports Us to a Remote Island and Idealized Past With Debut Album ‘Hydranism’
Photo by Celia Marie Peterson / Courtesy of the artist
In September 1960, Leonard Cohen bought a house and moved to a small Greek island in the middle of the Aegean Sea. The remote island and its solitary Mediterranean lifestyle brought him significant inspiration for his works, as well as a muse to write about.
Sixty years later, in the middle of a pandemic lockdown, Lewis Lazar, Christopher Willatt and Julia Johansen found themselves on the same island, drawing inspiration from its timeless charm. Over the course of two months, during secluded studio sessions in the company of Grammy-winning mixers and collaborators, the three musicians who make up Oracle Sisters, an alternative trio based in Paris, wrote and finished 35 songs for their debut record, Hydranism.
The work of a band that doesn't know country lines or boundaries between past, present and future, the album contains sounds that can’t be pinpointed to a place or point in time — they just exist, floating along timeless ballads, folk songs and psychedelic headbangers contained within the 11 tracks.
A warm crowd welcomed the trio on their first US show at Brooklyn’s Baby’s All Right. Their onstage chemistry, as they were accompanied by tour band keyboardist Reni Lane, captivated the euphoric audience from the start, inspiring screams of “I love you,” “You’re amazing” and “You’re hot” by concertgoers. One particularly energetic fan playfully drew the band’s attention consistently throughout the show; the band played along as if it was a previously-established bit that they let the audience in on.
“I’ll have whatever she’s having,” Lazar said, following one of the many enthusiastic announcements the cheerful concertgoer shouted in between songs.
“It’s that New York tap water, man,” Willatt promptly responded.
Despite the stylish appearances and fan compliments, the band made sure to emphasize that they weren’t just aesthetics, and the music spoke in agreement.
Oracle Sisters, ‘Hydranism’ / Courtesy of the artist
Oracle Sisters’ sound is evocative of a time of bohemian artists and musicians discovering the depths and widths of the world and sharing it with their audiences. The lyrics read like poetry, the melodies sound like folk songs, the instrumentals bring a psychedelic and early rock edge to their velvety sound. The whole album is reminiscent of an intimate road trip soundtrack and a communal fire pit sing-along.
For a moment during their hour-long set, the year wasn’t 2023, and the songs hadn’t been written over a generation-defining pandemic. Timeless hope, humanity and optimism resonate from the trio’s melodies. During the performance of their 2019 song “High Moon,” Lazar and Johansen closely harmonized backing vocals to Willat’s lead voice, singing together into the same microphone and evoking the mystical images of 1970s bands in tapestry-lined recording booths. The band members’ smiles and devotion to the melodies lit up the room, along with the disco balls and colored lights being emitted from behind them.
A band filled with intercontinental magic, astrology references and nomadic art, Oracle Sisters’ backstory is one of a group of individual artists coming together to cherish their work. Like a star-crossed collaboration, the band was born out of the trio being in the right place at the right time. Scattered in the world away from the Belgium flatlands, where they originally met during their teenage years, Lazar and Willat reconnected while living in New York and Edinburgh as cabaret singers and promoters, mathematics and philosophy students, commission painters and writing as solo acts. The songwriting began, and it sung. Shortly after, the pair moved to Paris, where a blooming music scene welcomed them. They crossed paths with Johansen, at the time an aspiring Finnish musician traveling the world with a guitar and a small suitcase.
Six years following, as the trio walked offstage at their sold-out Brooklyn show, the last remaining fans inside the venue scrambled to get the setlists taped in front of each of the band members’ microphones. Before the last few hopefuls left the pit, they were all gone.
Following a set of shows at SXSW and a UK tour leg, the trio will return to the US as hand-picked openers for Declan McKenna before embarking on a headlining run. ♦