La Force

La Force is the mesmerizing solo project of Ariel Engle, who has spent more than a decade as one of Canada’s most sought-after musical collaborators. Born and based in Montreal, Engle’s experience reaches from Broken Social Scene's indie rock to Québecois pop and the experimental avant-garde, culminating in her first two solo records, 2018’s La Force, and the astonishing XO SKELETON. XO SKELETON+ features 3 new tracks: protection, risk and ouroboros (original version) XO SKELETON is the supple, steady, uncanny new album by La Force: a mixture of haunted pop and hot-blooded R&B that glistens at the meeting-point between life, death, and love. It is a kind of reckoning: a coming-to-terms with the oblivion that bookends a life, but also the gooey center of love, loss, touch, and memory. In 2018 Engle released La Force, garnering a Polaris Prize long-list nomination and drawing attention from Stereogum, the Globe & Mail, and NPR’s “Morning Becomes Electric,” as well as The National’s Aaron Dessner, who recruited Engle to appear on the 2021 Big Red Machine LP alongside Bon Iver, Taylor Swift, Fleet Foxes and Sharon Van Etten. Engle was also invited to contribute to recent records by Safia Nolin, one of the most important singer-songwriters in French Canada, and Patrick Watson, who used their collaboration as the lead single on 2022’s Better In The Shade. Meanwhile, Engle has shared stages with the likes of Maggie Rogers, Martha Wainwright and The Barr Brothers.