Who sings the female backing vocals on Roxy Music’s ‘Avalon’?
In ten whirlwind years, Roxy Music found themselves at the top of a pop climate they’d paved the way for.
It was a different band. Reduced to a trio and crafting immersive soul expanses, the glittering superheroes from a decade earlier, unveiling the kaleidoscopic ‘Virginia Plain’ during glam’s pomp, evolved over the years to a more refined and brooding outfit, as captained by their frontman, Bryan Ferry. Upon the return of their hiatus in 1979, the atmospheric pop chapter was heralded in earnest, Roxy Music dropping their disco-flecked chanteur romance that Ferry had artfully eased into the role of.
Into the 1980s, punk and the ensuing new wave all namechecked Roxy Music as foundational influences, the latter new romantic scene worshipping early records like For Your Pleasure and Stranded along with David Bowie’s Martian messiah. Yet, Ferry and the band were far beyond the sequined rock strut that Duran Duran had so eagerly aped, dreaming up the culmination of austere and haunting pop stylings for their LP swansong while much of the Second British Invasion around them already began to creatively curdle.
Dropped in May 1982, Avalon concluded Roxy Music’s ongoing fascination with the studio, building a dense and layered pop collage of textured brass and rippling guitar, all percolating spectrally amid its ambient sonic space. Led by the evocative ‘More than This’, the title track’s single release three months later would stand as the band’s final canonical number, a ghostly love song that inhabits an even deeper submerge of apparitional croon, helped in no small part by Ridley Scott’s flashy video.
So who sings the backing vocals on ‘Avalon’?
During the sessions at New York’s Power Station studio, Ferry had been up the Saturday night, sketching out ‘Avalon’s lyrics, ready for a take the following day during the facility’s weekend downtime. Attending the studio was a group of Haitian singers making use of the facility during its quiet hours, one vocalist in particular’s siren tones were so stunning that Ferry and producer Rhett Davies’ jaws dropped when heard in the hallway during their coffee break.
Invited to Roxy Music’s inner sanctum, Yanick Étienne, via the translation help of her partner and manager, was guided to sing the “Avalon” refrain in various notes before being instructed to simply sing a freeform improvisation that’s heard at the song’s end. Ferry was so inspired, he immediately re-recorded his vocals to better complement Étienne’s majestic contribution.
“We were doing the playback and I’d never seen the look on his eyes before,” Davies recalled to Mix in 2004. “He went, ‘Jesus fucking Christ! That is incredible!’ Well, we knew it was a really high point of the evening. I remember going, ‘Wow! We have really created something special here.’ That is how I felt. Then we mixed it the next day with Bob [Clearmountain]”.
Lightning was captured in a bottle, elevating the number’s mystical energy and imbuing the elegant wander with an engulfing sensuality Roxy Music would never have quite gleaned otherwise. ‘Avalon’ and its album would set the template for the majority of Ferry’s solo career onwards, recruiting Étienne’s services again for later records.
Étienne had shaped the album’s character more than she could ever have realised. “I remember we had dinner a couple nights later, and I asked Bryan, ‘What are you going to call the album?’” Davies recounted. “’I’m going to call it Avalon,’ and I thought, ‘Yeah. Of course.’”
