L’Impératrice’s debut album arrived in 2018 all the pomp and circumstance of a coronation. “Impératrice” is French for “Empress”, and if their moniker is the most difficult thing to grasp for anglophones, then musically there’s nothing that doesn’t translate. The Parisians draw from a range of genres, from 70s space disco to downtempo 90s synth pop, taking in French film composers like François de Roubaix and Michel Legrand along the way. “Albums that sold 500 copies in the 1970s are the records that interest us most,” they say. Matahari is a glittering, cinematic summation of six years hard work that draws on some of the finest found sounds and forgotten sonic fandangos hiding in crates across the land, all given L’Impératrice’s own inimitable 21st century twist.