‘Ennemi’ is the sinuous single by experimental French quartet L’Étrangleuse from their fourth album, Ambiance Argile, which will be released next Friday under the La Curieuse label.

Lyon-based quartet L’Étrangleuse, which used to be a duo, has a form-neutral approach to music, and their songs can be loosely defined as minimalist rock with four parts. This is the first album of L’Étrangleuse as a quartet. We have Mélanie Virot on harp, Léo Dumont on drums, Anne Godefert on bass and Maël Salètes on djéli n’goni (a traditional West African instrument) and guitar.

The original duo, formed by Salètes alongside Virot, a classical harpist who has always taken her imposing instrument beyond its usual and known contexts, which is still present in this fourth project. However, it has taken to a whole new plane of musical existence with Dumont and Godefert, two immensely creative artists.

‘ENNEMI’ (French for ‘enemy’s) is a masterfully crafted piece of music that encapsulates what “Ambiance Argile” is as an album. The instruments and singing evolve as an untamed “chimera” throughout the track. The juxtaposition of the familiar use of familiar instruments and the unearthly soundscape of exotic instruments and vocal melodies.

This two-and-a-half-minute track bears the mark of minimalistic music yet leaves no empty space whatsoever. Thumping bass and haunting vocals over the background of seemingly otherworldly sonic elements like aggressive and raw guitar works and metallic harp sounds is a recipe for an irresistible nightmarish musical catharsis.