Astral Bakers (FR)

It’s a story that was bound to happen. Four seasoned musicians find themselves in the same room and make music as if for the first time. Some will call it a kind of acoustic rock; others will say soft grunge. Songs in English, everyone will agree. Somewhere between Big Thief, Supertramp, and an unplugged Nirvana concert. But the names don’t really matter – here, the substance comes first. And it’s elemental.

It all began when Sage, Theodora, Nico Lockhart, and Zoé Hochberg met through previous collaborations on tours and albums. All of them have made a living from music for over ten years. All have worked with artists as varied as Clara Luciani, November Ultra, Woodkid, Pomme, and Revolver. Each has experienced the world of studio arrangements, endless layers of digital tracks, and meticulously choreographed stage performances.

Together, they wanted something else: moments of revelation and presence, friendship and simplicity. Their birth as a band came with a concert at Le Consulat, where they felt an urgent desire to embark together on a return to the roots – to become earth, fire, water, and wind once again. To stop getting lost in the maze of demos and production, and instead reconnect with what’s essential. To play as an act of liberation.

In warm, wooden rooms, they composed their first songs by playing them over and over. No interruptions, no safety nets. No demos, no re-recordings – only listening, in a circular motion, between two guitars (Sage and Nicolas) in dialogue, a bass (Theodora) holding time together, and a soft, enveloping drum (Zoé) wrapping it all up.

Over this foundation, the voices rise – casual yet focused. Sage’s first, embracing vulnerability more than ever before, and then the others’ surrounding it, forming warm, confident harmonies – precise yet open to the imperfections of the moment, those imperfections that make grace possible.
Playing together, then, to capture life as it passes – fragile and real. And, in doing so, to remind us of an essential truth we too often forget: music is the art of presence.