En Attendant Ana

Blending fuzzy lo-fi textures with robust melodic songcraft, the Parisian indie group En Attendant Ana occupies a middle ground between garage punk directness and polished pop craft. Their first album, Lost and Found, came out in 2018 through Chicago’s Trouble in Mind imprint, and Juillet followed two years later. On the subsequent full-length Principia the quintet moved deeper into refined pop terrain, deploying intricate layered arrangements and sharpened instrumental skill; the record surfaced in early 2023.

The band coalesced in 2014 with Margaux Bouchaudon on vocals, keyboards, and guitar, Camille Fréchou handling trumpet, guitar, and backing vocals, Maxence Tomasso on guitar and backing vocals, Antoine Vaugelade on bass, and Adrien Pollin behind the drums. After issuing the noisy six-track Songs from the Cave EP in 2016 via a joint effort between Montagne Sacrée and Buddy Records, En Attendant Ana secured U.S. distribution through Trouble in Mind, which put out their debut LP in spring 2018. Lost and Found matched youthful drive to the chiming sound of Britain’s mid-’80s C-86 movement and a touch of Velvet Underground stance. Juillet arrived in January 2020, preserving comparable vitality while displaying more developed arrangements and song forms. Shortly after that release, soundman Vincent Hivert stepped in on bass in place of Vaugelade.

In the years that followed, En Attendant Ana’s music grew more agile and finely shaded as Bouchaudon turned toward a more introspective, probing approach in her lyrics. For their third album the members handled every stage of recording, production, and mixing themselves. The outcome, Principia from 2023, elevated the group’s musicianship through meticulous arrangements and more complex structures without abandoning the stylistic identity established on earlier releases.