Michelle Blades, an artist born in Panama and raised in a musical environment, has developed a unique aesthetic through her many experiences. After developing a DIY approach in Arizona, where she played with friends on the independent scene, she moved to Paris. Her discography, marked by great stylistic diversity, includes Visitor (2019) and the EP Nombrar las cosas (2020), released on Midnight Special Records—a label with which she has collaborated prolifically for ten years.

At the same time, Michelle Blades has enriched her career by playing with various bands: she toured with Pomme as a bassist, participated in the arrangements for Flavien Berger’s latest album, Plouf!, joined the band La Brume, created for the occasion, and joined La Femme as a singer, traveling the world with them.

After these five years of experimentation, Michelle Blades is embarking on a new phase with Where To?, an album recorded live in just nine days at La Bergerie in the south of France. Recorded by Emmanuel Mario, aka Astrobal, the album brings together Astrobal, Vincent Guyot, Gaétan Nonchalant, Nina Savary, and Michelle Blades, forming the live band. This project marks a return to her early influences—folk, jazz, and noise—which she rediscovers in the intensity of listening and the sensitivity required by such a live performance, both powerful and delicate.

This refocusing on folk songs with rich harmonies is also accompanied by her very first compositions for piano and Rhodes. The nine tracks were written almost spontaneously, during days off between tours or recording sessions—with the exception of the opening track and first single, “You’re the mother, you’re the man,” which dates back to 2018.

The writing here takes on a variety of narrative forms, combining intimate sensitivity, poetry, and humor, while maintaining a raw intensity. She explores a wide range of themes: personal vulnerability (“Dear Friend,” a letter in song form addressed to a friend in need; ‘No Test Drive’, a confession of the need to be loved), poetic imagination (‘Show and Tell’, a piece exploring a pastoral ideal; ‘I Missed The Dance’, a scene of a symbolically late arrival), and humor (‘Hotel Solitude’, a song about a hotel dreaming of becoming a home; ‘I’m The Port Authority’, a scathing and caricatural piece with political undertones). Throughout, raw emotion remains.

Where To? blurs the lines between original influences and more refined soundscapes, revealing a Michelle Blades at a crossroads—oscillating between dream and reality, loneliness and the search for meaning.