Paris (AFP)

The Penelopes project takes shape: after a title with Isabelle Adjani, a new song with Asia Argento is released this Friday, foreshadowing an album in the spring where the French electro duo makes actresses sing.

When "Meet Me By The Gates", with the star of "The Deadly Summer", went online on October 25, we smelled the concept. Axel Basquiat, half of The Penelopes, ends the suspense for AFP: "There will be another song with Virginie Ledoyen and we will release the album in June, after the Cannes festival, there will be other surprises, ( ...) than actresses, beautiful personalities, strong women ... ".

His accomplice Vincent Trémel finishes the sentence: "... That women were not necessarily wanted, but we realized that we loved working with singers, with the voice of Axel which counterbalances those of the actresses . There will be a dozen titles. "

If Isabelle Adjani was contacted by email, the link is more direct between the Italian actress and the two friends from Stains (Parisian suburbs) now established in London. "I bought a vinyl, their + cover + (cover) of + Alice + of Sisters of mercy, in 2005, at the time there was not even Twitter, Instagram, I contacted them through Myspace (laughs) ", she tells AFP in French, sitting between the two stooges in the studied dandy look.

- "After the suicide of my + partner +" -

"You played it (she's a DJ in her spare time) in New York, London, we were little babies (in music), we were hallucinating", bounces Axel.

In 2014, she took them on the adventure of her film "L'incomprise", a Un Certain Regard selection in Cannes. They incarnate on the screen the favorite group of the young heroine and sign tracks from the soundtrack "Asia has set us up for music for the image", blows Vincent.

The idea of ​​singing together on disc therefore finally materialized with this cover of "Dream Baby Dream" by the group Suicide, where the voices of Axel - crooner - and Asia - serious then childish - intermingle, on a tempo twice as slow as the original.

"This song came after the suicide of my + partner + (Anthony Bourdain, who was a successful chef and TV host), and it's a Suicide song ... It freed me, raised me, helped me in a bad Now, I have turned the page, even if the pain is still there, "she describes.

- "Voices in my head" -

Besides the death of her companion, the life of Asia Argento has been chaotic in recent years. Leading figure of the #MeToo movement after accusing Harvey Weinstein of rape, she was in turn accused of sexual assault on Jimmy Bennett actor and musician then 17 years old.

She didn't want to come back to it: "Everything I had to say, I already said it. This guy (Weinstein), he's very dangerous, I don't want to speak before the end of the trial, I hope it will end with justice for all the women assaulted by this guy. I don't know if you saw what happened to me (Bennett case), I think it is related to this guy, I shut up, after I will speak. "

She prefers to retain the therapy aspect of the music: "mine, those of others, it helps me, it takes away the thoughts, the voices in my head, the music is my girlfriend".

The title was recorded in Rome at her home, in her room, the room where the sound was the best, according to Axel. Enough to give ideas to the actress-singer. "I recorded a new disc in my room, which will be released soon. I needed it so as not to sit there reading books on serial killers, drinking beers and smoking cigarettes".

© 2020 AFP