Le Volume Courbe - Planet Ping Pong

by Steve Kinrade

published: 8 / 6 / 2025

Label: Duophonic Super 45s.
Format: CD

intro

Sound and survival on quietly powerful first album in ten years from Le Volume Courbe, the project of French-born but London-based experimental musician Charlotte Marionneau

French-born, London-based Charlotte Marionneau returns with' Planet Ping Pong,', her first Le Volume Courbe album in a decade, and it’s a delightful, oddball gem that reaffirms her place as one of avant-pop’s most endearing outliers. Known for her collaborations with everyone from Primal Scream to My Bloody Valentine, and a surreal stint playing scissors in Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, Marionneau crafts music that sounds simultaneously intimate and extraterrestrial—like a handwritten letter sent from another planet. Released on Stereolab’s Duophonic imprint, 'Planet Ping Pong' is a poetic and playfully experimental collection that feels like Vashti Bunyan filtered through a kosmische dreamscape. Self produced and mixed by Brendan Lynch (Paul Weller, Primal Scream), the album is full of eccentric textures and charming imperfections, stitched together with childlike sincerity and indie sophistication. Marionneau’s voice—breathy, fragile, and almost spoken—is the thread that binds these tracks, often dancing just above whimsical arrangements that feel equal parts 'Broadcast, Claudine Longet, and Cate Le Bon. On the standout 'Two-Love', Noel Gallagher appears amidst a swirl of piano and feline meows, while ping pong ball sounds bounce between speakers, underscoring the album’s irreverent spirit. Elsewhere, her cover of Daniel Johnston’s 'Mind Contorted' is deeply moving—sung as a duet with the late Terry Hall, alongside his son Theodore and Gallagher on guitar, it’s a ghostly hymn that feels like a farewell and a celebration all at once. And it’s wonderful. 'Duffy and Mr Seagull', a title-checking tribute to the late Martin Duffy, showcases his elegant piano work, while Marionneau’s spectral rendition of Phil Spector’s 'To Know Him Is To Love Him' reframes the classic with kosmische synths and melancholic restraint. Perhaps most haunting is 'MRI Song', recorded during her chemotherapy treatment, a stark reminder that this collection was born from both necessity and survival. Marionneau has always floated at the periphery of the UK indie landscape, but 'Planet Ping Pong' pulls her firmly into focus. It’s a record that’s personal yet otherworldly, fragile yet fearless. With contributions from beloved figures now gone, and her own battle with illness shaping its creation, this album carries the quiet weight of mortality—but wrapped in daydreams and glitter. 'Planet Ping Pong' isn’t just a comeback; it’s a gentle, defiantly weird triumph.

Track Listing:-

1 Fourteen Years
2 The Moon Song
3 Two-Love
4 Rêve Réveiller
5 Bag Of Excuses
6 To Know Him Is To Love Him
7 Duffy & Mr Seagull
8 MRI Song
9 Mind Contorted
10 Alone On The Rope
11 Planet Ping Pong

Band Links:-

http://levolumecourbe.com/
https://www.facebook.com/levolumecourbe
http://levolumecourbe.bigcartel.com/
https://www.instagram.com/levolumecourbe/

Play in YouTube:-

Have a Listen:-

interviews

Interview (2009)

Le Volume Courbe is the project of Charlotte Marionneau, a French-born singer-song writer who is based in London. She talks to John Clarkson about working with Alan McGee and My Bloody Valentine's Kevin Shields and her band's recording career to date