Emilie Autumn
Laced / Unlaced

The rape of respectability, the awakening of the most morbid erotic dreams, the most fetishistic passions, the bloodiest lust. The Victorian era, in its myriad contradictions, is mixed with a tragic sense of romantic reminiscence; in this surreal world, parodies of Shakespearean tragedies come to life, sumptuous and elegant salons appear on the mind's stage, wide processions, ceremonials of a boring aristocratic routine, parades of English ladies enjoying a cup of tea at the fifth chime of the afternoon clock, ladies displaying rare gemstones and exquisite fabrics, beneath which lie minds rotten and corroded by falsehood, revealed by the indecorous lipstick mark left on the fine porcelain set. Behind an angel's face, there is always the worst harlot, behind the fictional innocence of a porcelain doll, lies the most ardent passion.

For Emilie Autumn, the desire to astonish the audience is boundless, and equally boundless are the grace and virtuosity with which she manages to make her instrument speak, an egocentric electric violin that, without any logical thread, simulates macabre embraces and delirious cries. Green eyes, scarlet hair, mischievous look, bizarre as the Queen of Hearts from Wonderland with an electric violin always at hand, in her look halfway between Victorian fashion, childish involutions, and fetishistic hysteria from a sadomasochistic brothel. There is an unstoppable magnetic force concentrated around this young American girl, an autonomous gothic lolita who, step by step, has received worldwide feedback among the usual adepts of dark music, a success with critics and audiences based on the notorious and still tormented alliance between visual and musical components dear to the gothic scene, which however had never before known such sincerity and such extreme and enviable mastery of its own means. A talent that began to show its elegance from the tender age of four years, when for the first time, Emilie, as a child, came into contact with her instrument, then growing in the field of classical music, the only true passion until adolescence, the age of discoveries, of maturation, of the blessing by Art itself.

The first to contact her are obtuse record producers trying to turn her exuberant creativity into a standardized product, appealing to the masses. Emilie feels her music change under the hands of strangers, sees her violin pushed aside, because, according to the producers assigned to her, classical music is too strange for the casual listener. This is too much, and the contract with the major is torn by her under the astonished eyes of the record producers. But Lady Luck has certainly not turned her back; in her glorious past, we find an entire album of baroque compositions for violin ("One day..."), as well as a genuine debut with classical, pop, rock, and electronic influences ("Enchant"), published for the record company she herself founded, Traitor Records, and a tour as a member of Courtney Love's band, along with numerous side-projects (Ravensong, Convent, Jane Brooks project), which have helped pave the way to success, ultimately confirmed in 2006 with the release of the album "Opheliac". In 2007, as proof of an inspiration that refuses to die, both the EP "Liar & Dead is the new alive" (featuring remixes by illustrious names of the electronic scene and unpublished tracks) and the hallucinatory new album "Laced / Unlaced" see the light.

Like a spider spinning its web to capture humble insects that will become a succulent meal, the enchanting gothic lolita has created a musical style capable of reaping victims in large quantities, a trap from which the listener will hardly escape, which graces itself with its own temporal autonomy, reshuffling the cards on the pop scene from the '80s to today, winding through romantic digressions in classical music, pushing into territories of lugubrious vocal psychosis and cacophonous electronic walls, crossing into industrial and gothic metal. A very particular, sensual, and intriguing mélange she defines as "Victorianindustrial”, capable of uniting in the same sonic fluid revisitations of the greatest classical composers (all played by authentic instruments such as piano, harpsichord, cello alongside her lifelong companion, the violin) with fascinating pop reminiscences, in a recipe made of sugar and blood, corsets and fabric ribbons, kisses with poisonous candor and fragile carefree dark nymph sunlight, on a rather varied palette where, however, three colors dominate: red, black, and white, where the watchwords are elegance and deconstruction, melody and brazenness. Emilie Autumn has decided she doesn't want to be merely a supporting actress in the gothic scene but to brand her story into the pages of the new millennium's intellectual musical avant-garde.

But if in previous albums her voice accompanied the instruments' macabre dance, the latest release presents itself in the form of a monologue: that of her enchanting instrument. A long script divided into two epic acts, interpreted by the same spirit in different bodies, like a kind of bizarre play where first Dr. Jekyll and then his dark alter ego Mr. Hyde appear. This is precisely how "Laced / Unlaced" is structured: the first disc is entirely played (for over an hour) by the baroque violin (accompanied by the cello, lute, and harpsichord of the Parlor Rats ensemble) and unfolds through reinterpretations of great composers (Corelli, Ortiz, Bach, Leclair), pieces written by Emilie herself and mysterious live recordings never before published, while the second presents us with the future vision of the Californian artist's sound, a combination of classical elements (this time the electric violin takes center stage), gothic and electronic. It is true that the dark scene abounds with talents, but allow me to state (with confidence) that such a genius had not been seen before.

Who knows if Ophelia, while drowning in the icy waters of the lake, would have enjoyed being accompanied by the violin playing of this young lady. Well, surely all those who, attracted by the cover (and the precious digibook format) depicting from behind this mischievous little spirit with a pale and delicate female face, approach "Laced / Unlaced", will leave this encounter filled with intense emotions, with a smile on their lips and the frantic impulse to press play once again, to let themselves be enveloped in this disorienting and overwhelming dimension of unreality and parody, to bow once again to the will of a divine (or demonic?) creature who, from that moment on, will tear away the soul's keys from anyone's hands.