Earlier this year, Yannick Ilunga—the half-Congolese, half-Angolan dance artist and songwriter who goes by the name Petite Noir—released his breakout EP, The King of Anxiety. Now, Domino has announced Petite Noir’s debut full-length, La Vie Est Belle/Life is Beautiful. Watch Ilunga dance his way across the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the video for lead single “Down” below.
La Vie Est Belle/Life is Beautiful was recorded in London with Oli Bayston (Boxed In) and Leon Brichard (Ibibio) and is named after the beloved 1987 Congolese film La Vie Est Belle. Ilunga calls his sound “noirwave,” a “new African aesthetic” that’s influenced by the likes of Mos Def and Fela Kuti and which Ilunga says is “about seeing the positive in dark times.”
Check out La Vie Est Belle/Life is Beautiful‘s track list below. If you want to catch Petite Noir live in North America this summer, you’d better make plans to be in Brooklyn for this year’s AfroPunk Festival on August 23; Petite Noir also plays Lot 45 in Brooklyn on July 14.
La Vie Est Belle/Life is Beautiful track list
“Intro Noirwave”
“Best”
“Freedom”
“Seventeen (Stay)”
“Just Breathe”
“La Vie Est Belle/Life is Beautiful”
“MDR”
“Colour”
“Down”
“Inside”
“Chess”
La Vie Est Belle/Life is Beautiful is out September 11 on Domino.
