While it was snowing outside, Carole Facal (alias Caracol) was enclosed in a sound cocoon composing the elements of Blanc mercredi. In the muffled microcosm of her studio, surrounded by her faithful instruments, she wrote and wrote and wrote. Inspired by wintry images, love poems, art books and art deco, the songs gradually took shape. French and English lyrics were underpinned with music that ranged in style from folk to alternative pop and retro soul. Elegant vocal harmonies, resonator guitars, ukuleles, old amplifiers and all sorts of percussion were delicately joined together, creating a collection of hypersensitive songs where Caracol reminds the listener that beauty is present everywhere and that beliefs and convictions, as rare as they may be, are also beautiful.

Born in Quebec to a Swiss mother and a Uruguayan father, she initially studied the violin before discovering in adolescence another passion, snowboarding. She travelled the world in search of the best ski slopes and glaciers, taking part in half-pipe and big air competitions. A series of lucky breaks finally led her to Montreal and music, and she began her career in 2005 with the duo DobaCaracol.

Her first solo album, L’Arbre aux parfums, was released in 2008 and received several awards and nominations: the Prix Miroir for Local Artist of the Year at the 2009 Festival d’été de Québec, the Prix des Diffuseurs Européens SODEC/Rideau at the 2009 Bourse Rideau event, nominations for a 2009 Juno Award (Francophone Album of the Year), the 2009 Canadian Folk Music Awards (Francophone singer-songwriter of the year) and the 2009 ADISQ Gala, with Le Mépris nominated in the Pop Song of the Year category. She was also named 2009 Revelation of the Year by Radio-Canada.

After its release, Blanc mercredi was nominated for awards for best album of 2011, which meant a lot of media attention focused on Caracol. She was a guest on the television programs Star Académie and Stu¬dio 12, and won a Génie award in the Best Original Song category for Quelque part, which is on the soundtrack of the film Starbuck.

The singer-songwriter Caracol has always composed in three languages (French, English, Spanish), and there are several English songs on her latest album Blanc mercredi. Caracol hopes to share these new songs with her audience via an EP of 6 tunes (available as of March 6, 2012 on iTunes via her website), and in her concerts as a complement to Blanc mercredi. She has also released an album entitled Shiver, which includes six original songs as well as five from Blanc mercredi. It has been available in stores as of March 6, 2012. Those songs were performed in her cross-Canada tour with Amélia Curran and Vincent Vallières in March and April 2012. Caracol will soon be touring Europe and Australia.