Singer-songwriter Bonnie Banane and musical shapeshifter Joseph Schiano di Lombo invite you to L’Orguasme—an album where the grand organ of the Philharmonie de Paris trades solemn hymns for sultry serenades. Think of it as a soundtrack for both choir stalls and boudoirs: bawdy, devotional, and deliciously unorthodox.
Composed purely for pleasure (in every sense of the word), L’Orguasme dives into the art of ecstasy—from whispered sighs to operatic eruptions, foreplay to fireworks, and the blissful calm after the storm. Bonnie and Joseph sing of kneeling in reverence and climbing the walls, nodding to everything from forbidden fantasies and guilty thrills to the bittersweet beauty of la petite mort. It’s both lighthearted and mystical, burlesque and poetic—a playful tug-of-war between the sacred and the profane, with the organ as their unsuspecting partner in crime.
The minimalist setup (just voice and organ) belies a wildly eclectic feast of influences: R&B, gospel, swing, medieval ballads, jazz, and even a risqué 16th-century folk dance. It’s sexy, stripped-down, and unashamedly lush—a testament to love, music, and life’s inexhaustible appetite for joy. Their guiding principle? Better to come than to cry.
Bonnie Banane, France’s reigning queen of enigmatic pop, blends circus exuberance with funereal grace, serenading life’s oddest in-betweens. Joseph, meanwhile, is a genre-hopping maverick who’s penned music for dogs, written plotless detective novels, and collaborated with long-dead Dadaists. Together, they’re the ultimate odd couple—bridging pop and academia, highbrow and lowbrow, with a wink and a knowing smile.
The project sparked in 2021 when Joseph’s blissful encounter with an abbey organ led to a lightbulb moment: orgue and orgasme aren’t so different after all. Originally an abstract suite about the climaxes of nature itself, the idea evolved when Bonnie lent her voice and lyrics, grounding it in raw human experience. Residencies in Loches and Marseille brought the songs to life, from the sultry La petite mort to the soaring Le cri.
Determined to sidestep any churchy hang-ups, they hunted down a secular organ for their final recording—landing at the Philharmonie de Paris. Three days of euphoric music-making later, L’Orguasme was born.
The album’s grand debut was at Paris’ Hyperweekend Festival in January 2025, with two exclusive live shows set for November this year (buy tickets today). Expect soaring melodies, irreverent humor, and an organ performance that’ll make even the saints blush.
L’Orguasme releases on June 6th, you can pre-order it on Bandcamp
Photography : © Ryan Doubiago
L’Orguasme tracklist_
- Préliminaires (00:52)
- La montée (02:38)
- Le cri (03:10)
- Le plaisir des sources (03:55)
- Ronde génitale (04:10)
- Grand frisson (03:37)
- Branle [Censuré] (02:29)
- La petite mort (04:19)
- Simulation Blues (01:39)
- Le calme après l’œuvrette (04:48)
