Charlotte Adigéry and Bolis Pupul, the electronic pop duo from Ghent, are preparing to release their second studio album, Mainland Madinina, in February. The record marks a departure from their 2022 debut Topical Dancer, which focused on satirical commentary about race, colonialism, and performative activism through upbeat, dance-oriented compositions.
The new album emerges from a period of personal hardship for both artists. Zeebroek lost his mother between the two records, while Adigéry’s father, who had Alzheimer’s, also died. To create the album, the pair traveled to Martinique—the Caribbean island from which Adigéry’s parents originally immigrated to Belgium—and worked in a remote hillside location with minimal instrumentation. Adigéry selected the album title to honor both her heritage and her mother’s history; Madinina is the original Arawak name for Martinique and also references her mother’s former cocktail bar, while Mainland nods to Zeebroek’s Hong Kong ancestry.
Though the duo has maintained some characteristic elements of their sound, including funk and glam-rock influences, Mainland Madinina represents a notably more introspective direction. The album addresses themes of aging, parenthood, and grief while retaining moments of humor, such as the single Googoo Gaga, which was inspired by a medieval relief sculpture in Ghent depicting a daughter nursing her elderly father. The record opens with the track Restless and closes with two songs—Rite of Passage and I’m Lost—that explore the emotional weight of processing loss, with the latter featuring Adigéry addressing the disposal of flowers from her father’s funeral.
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