After Invisible figure, a debut EP crying out for freedom, Roma Luca returns with Séléné, a new soft-rock project that brings heaven and earth together.

In Séléné, the artist reveals herself in chiaroscuro. We can imagine her on the scorched hill; in her eyes, laughter and sorrow hold back the same tears, under the tireless glow of the silent moon. We imagine her holding her wandering pen by a thread, stretched out towards the night, clinging to the ashes. Roma Luca sees clearly through the fog. Anxious to preserve her dreamy spirit in a chaotic world, she pursues a contrasting French soft-rock project: alternative rock and folk intertwine, and casualness rubs shoulders with high standards, both in the lyrics, co-written with her friend Romain Dolique, and in the compositions and arrangements.

The lyrics delve into a raw, garish reality. A reality ravaged by fire. “Du noir sur la colline” (Black on the Hill) uses a parable to describe the fires that ravage the plains and the dark heat of suffocating summers. This overwhelming reality calls for direct writing: hitting the right note, without detours; raging and hoping. “Ne baissons pas les bras” (Let’s not give up): it’s all in the title. Writing with anger to raise awareness, yet again, all the appeals in the world are never enough to express the despair of feminicide – in this song, Roma Luca sings like a tribute, like a political cry, about the fate of this woman driven to kill herself by a destructive man. Inevitably, the echo reverberates across all the other ruins. She sings of “her” and ‘us’: “What have we done?” In “us” are intertwined hope, collective responsibility, and the necessary calls to emerge from the night.

What remains is the moonlight. Roma Luca, under a compassless sky, summons Selene, goddess of the full moon. It goes back to childhood: the moon had lit her steps one evening when she was lost in the forest, her steps and the trees, the ground, her heart—this founding image, which has remained intact, speaks of an intimate connection to poetry. Poetry is a landmark; it shows the way. The song “Les histoires que j’aime” (The stories I love) holds together disappointment and self-mockery in the tireless failure of the romantic dream. Poetry also opens up to the melancholy of unrequited love; in this modernity marked by the urgency to experience and the sudden halt of the years of confinement, she sings: “Seras-tu encore là?” (Will you still be there?)

Roma Luca carves her own path among her contemporaries: we hear the influence of rock poet PJ Harvey, but also that of American Angel Olsen. Folk, rock, and chanson blend together, echoing Françoiz Breut in her early days. Following on from her first EP, Invisible figure, this new project asserts a rigorous musical freedom. Variations, breaks, and sudden bursts accompany a rich voice that is sometimes soft, sometimes strong. Whether singing powerfully or whispering softly, it is within this spectrum that Roma Luca has found her place, confirming with Séléné her concern for accuracy (and justice) and her taste for nuance.