La Force

La Force is the mesmerizing solo project of Ariel Engle, who has spent more than a decade as one of Canada’s most sought-after musical collaborators. Born and based in Montreal, Engle’s experience reaches from <a href="spotify:artist:7lOJ7WXyopaxri0dbOiZkd" data-name="Broken Social Scene">Broken Social Scene</a>&#39;s indie rock to Québecois pop and the experimental avant-garde, culminating in her first two solo records, 2018’s La Force, and the astonishing XO SKELETON.

XO SKELETON&#43; features 3 new tracks: protection, risk and ouroboros (original version)

XO SKELETON is the supple, steady, uncanny new album by La Force: a mixture of haunted pop and hot-blooded R&amp;B that glistens at the meeting-point between life, death, and love. It is a kind of reckoning: a coming-to-terms with the oblivion that bookends a life, but also the gooey center of love, loss, touch, and memory.

In 2018 Engle released La Force, garnering a Polaris Prize long-list nomination and drawing attention from Stereogum, the Globe &amp; Mail, and NPR’s “Morning Becomes Electric,” as well as <a href="spotify:artist:2cCUtGK9sDU2EoElnk0GNB" data-name="The National">The National</a>’s Aaron Dessner, who recruited Engle to appear on the 2021 <a href="spotify:artist:7gXy60xRcwYujBFoYHnR2O" data-name="Big Red Machine">Big Red Machine</a> LP alongside <a href="spotify:artist:4LEiUm1SRbFMgfqnQTwUbQ" data-name="Bon Iver">Bon Iver</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:06HL4z0CvFAxyc27GXpf02" data-name="Taylor Swift">Taylor Swift</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:4EVpmkEwrLYEg6jIsiPMIb" data-name="Fleet Foxes">Fleet Foxes</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:2wJ4vsxWd7df7dRU4KcoDe" data-name="Sharon Van Etten">Sharon Van Etten</a>. Engle was also invited to contribute to recent records by <a href="spotify:artist:6A2d6U7npV8B6suj2A5bVJ" data-name="Safia Nolin">Safia Nolin</a>, one of the most important singer-songwriters in French Canada, and <a href="spotify:artist:7bPs6jf983f0bjRAt1yxDM" data-name="Patrick Watson">Patrick Watson</a>, who used their collaboration as the lead single on 2022’s Better In The Shade. Meanwhile, Engle has shared stages with the likes of <a href="spotify:artist:4NZvixzsSefsNiIqXn0NDe" data-name="Maggie Rogers">Maggie Rogers</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:67pQ8Yr09zDDzzwWw3EG9R" data-name="Martha Wainwright">Martha Wainwright</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:4OyRutd80DZC22C4pl63l7" data-name="The Barr Brothers">The Barr Brothers</a>.