Johanna Telander’s Tales of Les Dames Blanches turns some of folklore’s most haunting female ghosts into women with stories of their own. Inspired by legends of the “Ladies in White” across cultures, the concept album follows twelve spectral figures carrying fragments of a woman’s soul toward an esoteric shoreline, where salvation may await beyond the water. Here, Telander asks what happened to the women before they became ghosts.
Musically, the album moves between classical, folk and ethereal pop-jazz, creating a world that feels simultaneously ancient and theatrical. “Ocean of Souls” is especially cinematic, with glistening piano, gorgeous strings and slow, rumbling beats creating the sense of a story unfolding one line at a time. The thick, rich vocal sits beautifully above the arrangement, singing with a mesmerizing theatricality while harmonies soar behind her during the song’s more uplifting moments.
“Brief Grief Lullaby” takes that emotional weight somewhere darker. Glistening piano and heavy strings move alongside slow, thumping drums while Dayna Grayber delivers the song with an agonizing, pained voice. Her voice rises and belts smoothly, making grief feel almost physical. There is tenderness here, but it is the tenderness of someone mourning something that cannot be recovered.
Then “La Llorona” strips the atmosphere down to something eerier. Ghostly textures gather gradually before the singer’s somber voice finally rises into a desolate wail.
With its acclaimed all-female cast and expansive storytelling, Tales of Les Dames Blanches ultimately reframes the ghost story itself. These women are the voices that survived death and finally get to tell their own stories.
STAY IN TOUCH:
FACEBOOK | INSTAGRAM | SPOTIFY | WEBSITE | YOUTUBE
Review by: Naomi Joan