Marie Davidson (born 1987) is a Canadian electronic musician and producer from

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

Career

Davidson was part of the duo Les Momies de Palerme, along with Xarah Dion. Their album, ''Brûlez ce coeur'', was released on Constellation Records in 2010. She has collaborated with various other musicians including Matana Roberts (on her project '' Coin Coin Chapter One: Gens de couleur libres'') and

David Kristian David Kristian (born November 5, 1967) is a Canadian musician and film score composer and sound designer. David Kristian has been involved in audio for media since the early 1980s, when he first started work as an animation and experimental fil ...

, and she was part of the orchestral project Land of Kush. She is also one half of the

minimal wave Minimal wave is a broad classification of music that comprises obscure, atypical examples of genres such as new wave, stripped-down electronic or synthesizer music, synth-pop, post-punk, and coldwave. Most of the music tends to focus on elect ...

duo Essaie pas, a duo she formed with her partner, Pierre Guerineau. The duo were longlisted for the 2016 Polaris Music Prize for their album ''Demain est une autre nuit''. Her third solo album, ''Adieux au dancefloor'', was named by ''

Pitchfork A pitchfork or hay fork is an agricultural tool used to pitch loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. It has a long handle and usually two to five thin tines designed to efficiently move such materials. The term is also applie ...

'' as one of "The 20 Best Electronic Albums of 2016". The album is themed around Davidson's ambivalent feelings towards dance music and club culture. She released '' Working Class Woman'' on

Ninja Tune Ninja Tune is an independent record label based in London, with a satellite office in Los Angeles. It was founded in 1990 by musicians Matt Black and Jonathan More, known collectively as Coldcut. The label was established as an outlet for Col ...

in 2018. She released ''Renegade Breakdown'' on

in 2020, and ''

City of Clowns ''City of Clowns'' is the sixth studio album by Canadian electronic musician Marie Davidson. It was released on February 28, 2025, by Deewee. Background Incorporating a mixture of techno, spoken word and pop, ''City of Clowns'' was produced and ...

'' in 2025. ''City of Clowns'' was longlisted for the

2025 Polaris Music Prize The 2025 edition of the Canada, Canadian Polaris Music Prize will be presented on September 16, 2025 at Massey Hall.Kerry Doole"Polaris Music Prize Announces 40-Album 2025 Long List, Announces SOCAN Polaris Song Prize" ''Billboard (magazine), Bil ...

Musical style

Davidson's music has been labelled as

techno Techno is a genre of electronic dance music (EDM) which is generally produced for use in a continuous DJ set, with tempos being in the range from 120 to 150 beats per minute (bpm). The central rhythm is typically in common time ( ) and often ...

and minimal wave, with

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

's Paul Simpson describing it as "cold, hypnotic minimal wave with

analog synthesizer An analog synthesizer () is a synthesizer that uses Analogue electronics, analog circuits and analog signals to generate sound electronically. The earliest analog synthesizers in the 1920s and 1930s, such as the Trautonium, were built with a var ...

s and

drum machine A drum machine is an electronic musical instrument that creates percussion sounds, drum beats, and patterns. Drum machines may imitate drum kits or other percussion instruments, or produce unique sounds, such as synthesized electronic tones. A d ...

s, showcasing her intimate yet detached lyrics that are more often spoken than sung." ''Pitchfork'' critic Sophie Kemp has stated that the sound of ''Working Class Woman'' is "somewhere between

spoken word Spoken word is an oral poetic performance art that is based mainly on the poem as well as the performer's aesthetic qualities. It is a 20th-century continuation of an oral tradition, ancient oral artistic tradition that focuses on the aesthetic ...

electroclash Electroclash (also known as synthcore, retro-electro, tech-pop, nouveau disco, and the new new wave) is a Music genre, genre of popular music that fuses 1980s Electro (music), electro, New wave music, new wave and synth-pop with 1990s techno, re ...

Miss Kittin Caroline Hervé (born 15 July 1973), known professionally as Kittin, is a French electronic music producer, DJ, singer, and songwriter. Since rising to prominence in 1998 for her singles "1982" and "Frank Sinatra" with The Hacker, she has worke ...

and the dreamy dissonance of

Julee Cruise Julee Ann Cruise (December 1, 1956 – June 9, 2022) was an American singer and actress, known for her collaborations with composer Angelo Badalamenti and film director David Lynch in the late 1980s and early 1990s. She released four albums beg ...

Discography

Studio albums * ''Perte d'identité'' (2014) * ''Un autre voyage'' (2015) * ''Adieux au dancefloor'' (2016) * '' Working Class Woman'' (2018) *''Renegade Breakdown'' (2020) *''

'' (2025)

References

External links

Marie Davidson
at

{{DEFAULTSORT:Davidson, Marie Canadian record producers Singers from Montreal French-language singers of Canada Living people 1987 births 21st-century Canadian women singers Canadian women record producers Canadian techno musicians Minimal wave musicians Canadian women in electronic music Félix Award winners