Cate Le Bon Explores Heartache on New Album 'Michelangelo Dying'

Welsh artist and producer Cate Le Bon's new album, Michelangelo Dying, navigates themes of heartbreak and recovery. The album, released on September 26 via Mexican Summer, balances emotional struggle with artistic renewal. Le Bon drew inspiration from the work of artist Colette, particularly her 1975 installation Real Dream, which explored rest as a powerful, utopian concept.

Le Bon's latest work delves into the aftermath of a significant breakup. She describes the album as a journey through grief and rationalization, reflecting a period of intense personal change. The creative process for Michelangelo Dying involved an intuitive approach, where musical arrangements and lyrics developed simultaneously.

The Influence of Colette's Art on Le Bon's Work

Le Bon discovered Colette's art during a difficult personal period. Colette, an artist born Colette Justine, created immersive installations known as tableaux vivants, or living pictures. One notable work, Real Dream, featured a woman sleeping in a room adorned with white silk and pink satin. This installation aimed to critique the art world's focus on passive women, instead presenting rest as a strong and essential act.

Colette would lie within these spaces for weeks, engaging in what critics called "endurance works." However, Colette herself viewed these long sleeps as a form of transcendental meditation, a way of gathering inner strength rather than performing for others. For Le Bon, this image resonated deeply with her own desire to find peace during a time of emotional turmoil.

"I felt haunted by the image of this woman lying in a really beautifully decorated, soft, plush, womb-like room," Le Bon shared. "It felt like she had been able to put something down and rest, and that’s how I wanted to feel. But I don’t know if I knew that at the time."

This connection provided a framework for Le Bon to process her emotions. The idea of finding solace and strength through a conscious act of rest became a central theme in her new music. The visual and conceptual elements of Real Dream helped Le Bon explore her complex feelings.

Crafting Michelangelo Dying: An Intuitive Process

Le Bon's approach to creating Michelangelo Dying was highly intuitive. Unlike previous albums, where she might have separated lyrical and instrumental development, this time the ideas emerged simultaneously. She described it as feeling her way in all directions at once, allowing the music to guide her.

Initially, Le Bon tried to avoid confronting her heartache directly. She wanted to steer clear of making a "cliché" album about a breakup. However, she found that resisting these emotions made her feel disingenuous. "I had to surrender to the heartache, and the fact that I was going to make a record about it," she explained.

This surrender led to a shift in the album's sound. Le Bon initially aimed for a more jagged, industrial style, a departure from her 2022 album Pompeii. Yet, as the songs developed, they naturally moved in a different direction. She noted how she would "slowly turn off the drum machine" as she got lost in the creative process. The result is an album characterized by "pillowy layers of texture, spectral and pearlescent," rather than harsh industrial sounds.

Collaboration with Samur Khouja

A significant aspect of the album's creation was Le Bon's collaboration with co-producer Samur Khouja. Their partnership extends back to 2013, when Khouja worked as an engineer on her album Mug Museum. Their production collaboration began with 2019's Reward.

The shared experience of Le Bon's personal struggles strengthened their creative bond. She conveyed to Khouja how Colette's work made her feel, and this emotional understanding became a foundation for the album's soundworld. Khouja's role was not to impose his ideas but to resonate with Le Bon's artistic vision.

"Because he’s a close friend of mine who was also a confidant while I was living and breathing the ruins of heartache, I was able to tell him that how that work made me feel is how I wanted the record to sound," Le Bon stated. "And it became something that was really understood between us."

Their working relationship is built on mutual respect and an instinctive understanding of each other's artistic sensibilities. This allowed them to craft a cohesive sound where each instrument and vocal part is "knitted together," creating a balanced and unified composition.

Challenges and Resilience in Production

The making of Michelangelo Dying was not without its difficulties. Le Bon described numerous setbacks, both in and out of the studio. The album was recorded across five different locations, starting in her workshop in Cardiff, moving through London, Los Angeles, and the Greek island of Hydra, and concluding in Joshua Tree.

One notable challenge occurred during the recording sessions on Hydra. Heavy rain caused Le Bon to slip and fall, an incident she now views as a warning sign of the difficulties ahead. "There were so many moments of warning that this album wasn’t going to be easy – and I missed them all," she recalled, laughing.

The album also required two mixing processes. The initial mix "didn’t resonate" with Le Bon, as it failed to capture the emotional hierarchy she intended. This meant she and Khouja had to re-mix the entire record, leveraging their deep understanding of the songs' formation and emotional core. This commitment to artistic integrity, despite the extra effort, ensured the final product accurately reflected her vision.

The Album Title: Michelangelo Dying

The album title, Michelangelo Dying, holds multiple layers of meaning for Le Bon. She confirmed it has a "tongue-in-cheek" element, given that the famous Michelangelo had a peaceful death at nearly 89 years old. However, she also hinted at a more personal, on-the-nose meaning that she prefers to keep intriguing.

The title reflects the range of emotions experienced during the album's creation. Le Bon suggests that listeners might find different meanings depending on their own emotional state. This open interpretation is characteristic of her work, which often features complex layers of meaning.

Emotional Depth and Healing Through Music

Michelangelo Dying is rich with "authentic emotion." Lines like "You smoke our love like you’ve never known violence" from "Heaven is No Feeling" and "I thought about your mother / I hope she knows I love her" from "Is It Worth It (Happy Birthday)" convey profound sorrow and reflection. The track "About Time" contains the poignant line, "Real dream embraced / I’m not lying in a bed you made," suggesting a move towards self-reliance.

Le Bon emphasizes that healing from heartbreak is not a linear process. She believes that suppressing emotions only makes them heavier. "You have to learn how to put painful things down in a way that is healing and nourishing, rather than trying to outrun them," she advised.

This wisdom comes from personal experience, including a period of mysterious illness that left her feeling "haunted." She explored this feeling in the album track "Body as a River," finding that writing and singing about her sickness helped her understand it differently. This act of creation became a "trustfall into her own power."

Collaboration with John Cale

A significant moment on the album is the penultimate track, "Ride," a duet with her hero, John Cale. The song captures a "shrugging acceptance of heartache’s agitated cycles." Towards the end, Cale's echoing of Le Bon's words transforms, changing "It’s a ride" to "It’s my last ride."

This moment deeply affected Le Bon. "It knocked the wind out of me to hear him singing that," she said. Initially, she was too afraid to ask Cale to participate, but during the second round of mixing, she decided to overcome her fear. His acceptance was a "rare win for screw-ups," she noted.

Return to Joshua Tree and Future Reflections

The album's final touches were added in Joshua Tree, a place with significant personal and artistic meaning for Le Bon. It was where she and her former partner had lived, and it holds connections to her previous albums, Reward and Pompeii. Returning there was not about closure, but about finding a familiar emotional landscape.

Le Bon finds reassurance in the vastness of the desert. "When a place like Joshua Tree makes you feel so insignificant, you don’t need closure from it," she explained. The desert's ancient trees, which will outlive her, provide a sense of perspective. She feels that being in the desert makes her feel "every age," and that this mirrors how love and making music make her feel.

As Michelangelo Dying is released, Le Bon enters the "shocking" phase of the album cycle. She and Khouja created the record in "beautiful privacy," without considering an audience. The transition from private creation to public reception can be challenging. "You make this thing in beautiful privacy, then all of a sudden it’s not yours anymore and people are asking you questions that can feel so brutal when you’ve only just put something to bed," she reflected.

The album's cover art features Le Bon inside a mirrored box, surrounded by pink satin, a nod to Colette's aesthetic. This image symbolizes the tension between burden and rest, revealing or concealing parts of a larger picture. Each song on the album is described as "a shard of the same broken mirror," offering different perspectives depending on the angle and light.

Colette once said of her own challenging work, "People don’t get it at first. They may be fascinated but they don’t understand. And that’s okay, because who really wants to be understood? What artist really does?" In the layers of Michelangelo Dying, Cate Le Bon offers her own intricate answer to this question.