White Hinterland and the Legacy of Brigitte Fontaine

In 1969, a French chanteuse, an Algerian multi-instrumentalist, and a Chicago jazz quartet undertook an experimental, exploratory, revolutionary musical voyage. The album was Comme à la Radio, the fourth record for theater actress turned vocalist Brigitte Fontaine. Working with the experimentally-minded Areski Belkacem —who'd become her ongoing collaborateur and lover— and the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Fontaine fashioned what's been called "one of the coolest albums ever recorded," and one that's found pride of place on my Definitive Alternative Albums list.

In the four decades since Comme à la Radio was unleashed upon an unsuspecting world, its legend has grown and grown; new generations of adventurously-minded listeners warming to its strangely-psychedelic blend of half-spoken vocal incantations, gentle free-jazz fragments, and forceful North African percussion. In recent years, Fontaine has crossed paths with artists who've drawn influence from her ahead-of-its-time experimentation, the '00s finding her collaborating with indie heavyweights Stereolab and Sonic Youth.

Fontaine's ongoing legacy was brought to light, again, last month, when Boston-born, Portland-based songsmith Casey Dienel —aka White Hinterland— covered a cut from Comme à la Radio. Putting together a French-language EP, Luniculaire, Dienel rewrote "J'ai 26 Ans" amidst swathes of delay and full-bore drones. "I extracted the most quintessential element and made that [my] focus," Dienel explains. "In the original Brigitte Fontaine song, there’s a lot of implied drone, with the middle Eastern timbres in the basslines that’re being played. I thought it would be really fun to play more with that."

Recently, with the release of Luniculaire on Secretly Canadian-pimped imprint Dead Oceans, I spoke to Dienel in an interview concerning Fontaine, the French tongue, and, um, crotch-grabbing.