With ethereal melodies that feel like they‘ve been uploaded directly from the Cloud, caro♡ is making hypnotising dream-pop with a soft, emotional core. The French-born, London-based musician first arrived on the scene as a member of Planet 1999, the first-ever band signed to PC Music. Now a solo musician, she’s made a name for herself across the net, enchanting listeners with celestial production, AutoTuned vocals, and digitally enhanced, cutecore-coded visuals that draw on themes of magic and nature.

Having played recent shows in New York and Paris alongside internet-born artists such as umru and Sam Rolfes, her latest album wild at ♡ sees caro♡ embark on a spiritual quest for internal peace. Following on from her solo debut Heartbeats/Heartbreaks, the 11-track record is a synthetic and unfiltered next chapter for the artist, whose previous releases have felt more melancholic. In contrast, wild at ♡ is faster-tempo and unbridled, reaching to heavenly heights with airy beats that grow wings and soar upwards.

“Being as free as possible as a person, and an artist,” agrees caro♡, ”I just really want to try to get as close to unfiltered artistic expression as possible,” She compares her creative process to alchemy; each track is a deeply instinctual process that demands a leap of faith. “It feels like magic a bit when u can’t explain why it works but that somehow it really does, to you at least. You get carried away in a sort of feedback loop between you and this thing you’re making.”

Growing up in a small town outside of Marseille, the internet was a portal for caro♡ to expand her horizons and “feel a part of something bigger than my tiny hometown”. She elaborates, “I didn’t have friends who were deep into music or weird stuff, that’s something I had to dig into on my own for a long time. Also, YouTube changed a lot of things. But yeah, discovering music is mostly what I do online still.” 

It was also through the internet that she first connected with PC Music’s label head A.G. Cook, who arranged to meet Planet 1999 after hearing their music online. “I would not be doing what I’m doing now if it wasn’t for the online communities I found,” she confides. “I still think meeting and being around people IRL is unmatched, but knowing where to find these people makes a big difference.”

Below, the artist takes us down some of her favourite internet wormholes.

FAVE SONG: D’EON, ‘#118’

caro♡: Maybe it’s weird to say you have one favourite song because then you think, ‘oh it depends on the context, what time it is, how I’m feeling, and so on’. But I do have a forever favourite and it’s ‘118’ by d’Eon. I find it so pure. Each time I’m alone in a country I don’t know, or if I come back from somewhere on my own at dawn or something. You know when you get to that place where, for some reason, you feel you’re at a crossroads, where your past and future are perfectly merging, and making sense for a second. Time stops and you’re just floating. You’re sad, but happy too. You’re lost but also it feels comforting somehow, like you’re finally really living in this very moment, and you know it’s just fleeting, and this feeling of suspension will be entirely gone when you wake up tomorrow.

I listen to this song and it is this feeling to me. It tells you such a deep story but there’s no space and time, and it sounds like a mystery, but also like this eternal wisdom of some sort. I think this is the most beautiful song I have ever heard. It takes me out of my body, like I’m nowhere and everywhere at once. It’s full of melancholic hope.

FAVE ALBUM: LOVELESS, MBV

caro♡: Very hard to choose a favourite album. The only one I think about that I could potentially place first is MBV’s Loveless. It’s also something I listen to when I travel alone and need some sort of anchor. Like if I’m overwhelmed on the tube because there are a million people and stuff going on, I’ll hear the beginning of ‘Only Shallow’ and instantly feel like a purposeful warrior again. 

FAVE YOUTUBE: WOLF CONSERVATION CENTER

caro♡: I was watching a lot of this this past year, it’s just wolves being cute <3

FAVE INSTAGRAM: @THECREATIVEINDEPENDENT

caro♡: I love this page because there are always great quotes and articles from artists talking about their practice. It’s nice to know how other artists go about their work, how they deal with the hurdles, the doubts, and what sort of values and axioms they go by. It’s inspiring and reassuring to me.

FAVE PODCAST: CRÉATION ON AIR

caro♡: It’s all in French but I really like France Culture’s podcasts. There’s one that’s called Creation on Air which is incredible, there’s an extensive range of topics. It’s often random people giving intimate testimonies, or old recordings, or someone telling some sort of story – and there’s this beautiful sound design. It really takes you into another world.

wild at ♡ is out now via PC Music

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