BAD INFLUENCE MAGAZINE

Alexandra Lost is a musical synthesis of singer-songwriter Jane Erhardt and composer-producer Simon Paradis. After years spent working as solo artists in the Quebec City music scene, the pair joined forces as Alexandra Lost in 2017. Smoke is their third full-length album.

Smoke combines the world of folk’s haunting harmonies and lyrics, jazz experimentation, hip-hop beats, and funk rhythms, all under an indie umbrella. Despite the lofty connotations of trans-genre ambitions, Alexandra Lost seamlessly blends the best aspects of each world into a psychedelic fever dream.

Given the emphasis on fusion, it’s no surprise Smoke is eclectic. While still cohesive as a unit, each track on the album features a different influence at the forefront. “Orange” is chant-like and rhythmic, reflecting the likes of Jefferson Airplane. “Going Down” approaches the 70s from a different angle; the strings add an element of sensuality, Ernhardt’s voice drips like molten chocolate over soft hi-hats and a font-and-centre bassline that sends the rhythm straight into one’s bones.

Staying true to the worlds of psychedelia and folk, the album’s motifs centre around nature, both as a celebration of its beauty and a condemnation of man’s failure to protect it. These natural elements take the form of windchimes, sampled animal calls, drums that pound like heartbeats or rhythms that are as steady and magical as a horse running through an open meadow. Erhardt was inspired to explore the dynamics of predator and prey after a camping where she found the lyrical muse for “Orange”, a pack of coyotes, sniffing around her tent. “Le monde en feu” is an examination of faith in humanity and an attempt to maintain it in the face of human-manufactured climate change. The song calls out the human penchant for self-preservation through self-destruction. Though written a year prior to 2023’s record-setting wildfires, it reminds the listener the calls to climate action remain unanswered and unacknowledged.

Overall, with the combination of rich vocals, natural motifs, and political commentaries, Smoke feels like a psychedelic adventure undertaken at an artist’s retreat. The varied and unconventional choices of instrumentation, samples, and musical inspiration, mixed with the warmth of Erhardt’s voice and the lo-fi crackle like a campfire, propel the listener into an out-of-body sense of comfort. The sounds on Smoke transcend the mundanities of daily life, transporting the listener to a simpler world where music is everywhere; you just have to listen.