CocoRosie

CocoRosie is the project of sisters Bianca and Sierra Casady. After a seperated childhood due to difficult family situations, the two sisters only became close after Bianca left America for Paris, to join her sister. Sierra was pursuing her opera studies at the Conservatoire de Paris but became disillusioned with the establishment. The pair then started recording songs for fun, experimenting with found sounds, including children’s toys and various items found in their bathroom.

These recordings were picked up by the Touch & Go label, who decided to release them as La Maison de mon Rêve (2004). The songs are very childlike and touching, reflecting the sisters’ lost childhood together. The next year, CocoRosie released Noah’s Ark, which they wrote and recorded in various locations while touring. The album is similar in style to its predecessor, although it featured stronger production values. The Casady sisters’ later works favours a more electronic approach to the early lo-fi aesthetic and have garnered critical and commercial succes.

Although their first two records, with their postmodernist collage of lo-fi, folk, opera and hip-hop, aren’t that different from the works of Animal Collective for example, CocoRosie seem to be missing this ‘American’ aura which all other artists from the New Weird America scene emanate. Their relationship to the genre seems more based on their connections with Devendra Banhart, Bianca Casady having been in a relationship with him and featured on many of his songs.