BABEL 17 – ENGLISH BIO .1983-1989 : AT THE BEGINNING 1990 : LIVELY-ART / CELEANO FRAGMENTS 1991 : SHADES 1992 : SHAMANIK ! 1992-1993 : THIS IS THE END 2003 : ALIVE AFTER DEATH BABEL : means "Gate of Heaven" . The XVI Arcane : of the divinatory tarots ( the most destructive ...) is called "The Tower" or "House of God" relating to the Babel's Tower ... 17 : The 17th Arcane of the tarots is called “the star”. BABEL 17 : Science fiction book written by the American author SAMUEL DELANY in 1966 . (Year of birth of 2 Babelians out of 3 !) BABEL 17 (2) : French electro-punkoïd-synthético pop-acoustics-industrialist band with severe tendencies … ^
1983-1989 : AT THE BEGINNING …1983: JEANJEAN (Bass), VINCE PORTE aka LEPEAUCRE (Guitar), and YVES CHARREIRE (drums, future drummer of LITTLE NEMO), play 2 songs LIVE at the festival of their college, in a large theatre of suburbs… It is for them the baptism of fire, and certainly the birth of a vocation. 1985: JEANJEAN (Bass, singer), his old classmate VINCE LEPEAUCRE (Guitar), accompanied by drummer DOMI D-DEZ (aka RODDY COPLANN) repeat steadily, while dreaming to become the best band of the world… (or, failing this, the best group of France and Navarre ! !) . These three guys more than suspect start to secretly assemble the alchemical mixture which later will become BABEL 17, but for the moment, their music is still an unmethodical mixing of Pop and New-wave surspeedée. The arrival at the end of 1987 of ZAZA (Keyboards), another bench of school's comrade , gives a new dimension to the group, which, up to that point, was very skeptic as for the use of synthetizers in a “Rock'n'roll” band . From 1987 to the end of 1989, the Babellerie will occur under names such as: THE MIRAGE, MALICE IN WONDERLAND, then ACID RAIN . Spring 88 : ACID RAIN decides to fire its second drummer and use a rhythm box, being appropriate better for environment and the sound sought by the preones. At that time, ACID RAIN records its first demo - 3 titles: THE MIRAGE, EMPTY LIFE, ANOTHER DAY TO GO NOWHERE. It is the time of the first gigs in the mythical GIBUS, hard beginnings for our three rogues… 1989 : It is the revolution in the band … JEANJEAN suddenly decide to throw away all the old songs of ACID RAIN , to change name and to play a more radical musical style, derived from Cold-Wave, with electronic influences ; The two others agree , the concept of BABEL 17 was born quickly . The first commited misdeeds are : A JOURNEY INSIDE, WATCH, NEW AGE , ANGELS OF TV… quickly followed by ALL SAINT' S DAY, LE MONDEXTERIEUR, SORDID WASTE… and by DARKEST YEARS reorganized, only song survivor of ACID RAIN's old set … BABEL 17 meets LITTLE NEMO in May 1989 , at the time of the festival from school ENSEA in Pontoise, organized by association “les tympans fêlés”, very important meeting , because from now on the two groups are not left any more… It is HOLYVIER, singer/clavierist of LITTLE NEMO which will make later on discover B17 to LOUIS THEVENON (one of both bosses of label NEW ROSE…). This last will sign BABEL 17 on its label : LIVELY ART , under-label of NEW ROSE at the end of 1989 ... This period thus marks the entry of the B17 tribe in the clan of TOUCHING-POP bands : LITTLE NEMO, ASYLUM PARTY, MARY GOES ROUND, and also TEEPEE project (in which BABEL will take part thereafter.) , Those tribes prevail and make speak about them for some time, all also signed on already prestigious label LIVELY ART . JEANJEAN will declare later : "Interest for us to integrate a place within TOUCHING POP tribes before was very justified by the fact of widening our audience, to tour with some bands more known than us, even if we felt , at the time, enough different from the other groups, darker and more savages… Finally, ASYLUM PARTY was the only group of all this hype with which we felt a true musical family ties , even if we generally messed more with the NEMO, and HOLYVIER in particular, which in addition helped us much, what is worth from now on the statute of SAINT HOLYVIER, and the Babélian high considerations to him for its ten next incarnations! ” Other groups of electro-post-cold-wave hype maintained good relationships with B17 : M. A .T , NEUTRAL PROJECT , LES VELLEITAIRES , and finally ZURÜCK PLACENTA (the other group in which JEANJEAN played the guitar) which “influenced” much BABEL 17 at various levels… 1983-1989 :
AT THE BEGINNING
1991 : SHADES 1992 : SHAMANIK ! 1992-1993 : THIS IS THE END 2003 : ALIVE AFTER DEATH
^1990 : LIVELY-ART / CELEANO FRAGMENTS .June 1990 will see the appearance of the album “CELEANO FRAGMENTS” (Arty 25), recorded and mixed in B17 STUDIO, SOMEWHERE… by B17 + “HERR DOKTOR” CHRISTOPHE PERRET, sound engineer and brother of ZAZA PERRET, the eminent Babélian member… HERR DOKTOR will work as a soundman also thereafter for the majority of TOUCHING POP bands , and more particularly LITTLE NEMO with which he will co-produce several records . Album “CELEANO FRAGMENTS” is thus pressed in CD, K7 and vinyl formats, the package differs according to the format… (3 different packages). The climates of the album are voluntarily dark, disillusioned (WATCH, SORDID WASTE, ALL SAINT' S DAY…) , but also combative, luminous. (COME INTO HELL, DARKEST YEARS…) BABEL 17 seems to appreciate the machines, the “Teknologique business”, but also has swallowed the cold-indus trick of the beginning of the 80 's. Like the majority of “TOUCHING” bands , B17 sing most of their songs in english ; LE MONDEXTERIEUR is the only part of “CELEANO” sung in French… WATCH comprises some German samples, but English remains generally the language most employed in the Babelian songs, a question of musical culture, undoubtedly, BABEL having been growing high with the feeding-bottle British Pop-Rock'n'roll or U.S… The CD version of “CELEANO” comprises several bonus as odd as strange , named R' LYEH SUITE : WIZARDS & GHOSTS, BROCELIANDE, DA-YE, MEHADDAH, QUERHELL and MILLENIUM. (this last being also a bonus on the K7 format). B17 will also take part in mini CD Virgin Megastore / LIVELY ART compilation (TP CD3) ; For the occasion , they will even remix one of the titles headlights of album “CELEANO” : COME INTO HELL & MURDER HATE , who will appear on the compilation under the title : COME INTO L (HATE MIX), at the sides of their friends ASYLUM PARTY, LITTLE NEMO and MARY GOES ROUND. At the end of 1990, BABEL 17 tour with LITTLE NEMO for ten dates in all France (TURQUOISE TOUR) , what enables them to promote their album and to test some new songs on stage … where BABEL start to feel like fishes in water. 1983-1989 :
AT THE BEGINNING 1990 : LIVELY-ART / CELEANO FRAGMENTS 1992 : SHAMANIK ! 1992-1993 : THIS IS THE END 2003 : ALIVE AFTER DEATH
^1991 : SHADES .
BABEL 17 will finally release its 2nd opus “SHADES” in spite of the departure (constrained and forced !) of V. LEPEAUCRE in psychiatric asylum for a six months' period … what will not prevent him from taking part in the recording of the disc . “SHADES” (Arty 34) releases in CD, K7 and in 25 cm vinyl formats . (For the legend : SHADES is the last vinyl disc of this format having been pressed by NEW ROSE …) The hypnotic & spellbounding climates developed in “CELEANO”, are thorough here with their paroxysm , the grotesque of the life and of the world of the beginning of the 90 's is sublimated in the Babelian Art , mixture of etherial beauty (BITTERSWEETNESS , IN DISTRESS , LO-HI) and of sordid industrial sound … (LA CUREE , A PRAYER , NOHM-BÔ) . “SHADES”, as “CELEANO” was recorded at the B17 Studio, Somewhere … (difficult to find , because hidden in the higher etheric spheres…) , and co-produced by BABEL 17 + “Herr Doktor” CHRISTOPHE PERRET. BABEL 17 also allows four appearances on compilations : The first compilation : VISA from RADIO LIBERTAIRE (The Anarchist Parisian Radio) , in which BABEL collaborated by offering the song “SHADES OF A DREAM” ; The second is called DYADIQUE compilation , for which BABEL were split of a new track , with strong industrial tendency called “DER OPFER”. An instrumental mix of title “LO-HI”, Re-mixed for the occasion, appears on compilation DEPENDANCE CONTINUE : "Le Passage du Trou Marin" under the title “LO-MI-HI”. The title BITTERMIXNESS (Remix of BITTERSWEETNESS, extract of the album.) will also release on new mini-CD compilation LIVELY ART/PREMONITION (TP4CD) , given free with the fanzine PREMONITION , at the sides of LITTLE NEMO , ASYLUM PARTY and COLLECTION D'ARNELL ANDREA . From this year 1991, BABEL 17 have the memory of a daydream : nervous breakdowns, alcohol, discomfort, medicines , the departure of VINCE are certainly obvious causes , but the trajectory of BABEL 17 turns to be chaotic … It's more difficult to follow the shock concerts they play , in reduced formation (ZAZA + JEANJEAN & their machines…) , or some times accompanied by imparable THX , who immoles on stage in self-destroying and sadomasochistic exhibitions during the Babelian shows… It was very difficult to us to write the list of the concerts, the shows of 1991 being full of mistakes with regard to the dates and the places … One of the most outstanding facts of 1991 will be the recording and the broadcasting of the BERNARD LENOIR's “BLACK SESSIONS” , for his show on France Inter . The principle of this show rested on the same concept as its English counterpart, famous JOHN PEEL, who accepted in his show ALL the largest artists POP-ROCK of the world , of the universe (known & unknown) , in real-time, and that since the 70 's … The bands broadcasted in the LENOIR's show had to record their songs LIVE… For that, LENOIR invited the bands in a studio of France Inter for the recording, as it was the case for LITTLE NEMO (I know it … cos' I was there !) , but, because of timing problems , he asked BABEL 17 to record the session on their premises , what they did, obviously, but while cheating a little… With final, the recorded songs does not sound at all as Live tracks ... and it is undoubtedly better thus… The songs selected on this occasion were : ANGELS OF TV , SHADES OF A DREAM , LES HOMMES DE PIERRE (new), and LOVE LASTS FOREVER (VIRGIN PRUNES' cover) . We are not far from thinking that “BLACK SESSIONS”version of ANGELS of TV largely exceeds the version of the album … 1983-1989 :
AT THE BEGINNING 1990 : LIVELY-ART / CELEANO FRAGMENTS 1991 : SHADES 1992-1993 : THIS IS THE END 2003 : ALIVE AFTER DEATH
1992 : SHAMANIK !
B17 acidulate themselves maquetting the songs of their future 3rd opus : THE NIGHTMARE GOES ON, which BABEL play on stage for some times , KISS OF STORM , song with drawers impresses of a healthy violence , the ballad KIDDIE' S GONE , without forgetting the delicate RING ONE THE BELLS … The basic idea was to make a “Pop-Rock” album , but meanwhile BABEL 17 takes the TEKNO-RAVE's wave in the face ! Especially JEANJEAN , which always adored tricks like KRAFTWERK and synths deviating sounds , and whose current bible is “the grass of the devil and the small smoke” by CARLOS CASTANEDA … 1992 is the year of TEKNO Explosion … ... and its impact will be felt on the next compositions of BABEL 17 : JOUVENCE (true “hit” , potentially …) , GHOSTDANCE, in remembering the Amerindian mystical ceremonies , SHAMANIK , in homage to the “holy substances”, Reggae-Tekno SENSE OF LIFE , VIRTUAL VISION , instrumental & weirdo-teknoïd , without forgetting WATCH 2 … HOUSE version , completely reorganized , but faithful to the original spirit of the song , or also GHOSTDANCER version Long Way Remix , and still SENSE OF DUB , then RING ON THE BELLS instrumental version … At this period , B17 are extremely fertile , and record many various demos , change the subject without sourciller , from songs Pop-Rock to bizarreries Teknoïds … On the whole , BABEL 17 had approximately 22 viable tracks for the preselection of the album . The recording of the 3rd album, contrary to the two first , will be made with the Studio Val d’Orge (SVO) , in Epinay/Orge , & co-procuded by B17 with JEAN TAXIS and “HERR DOKTOR” . Two distinct sessions will be recorded in a few months : the 1st session is made up with more “pop-rock”songs , whereas the 2nd session is much more dancing , but overall , the 2 sessions are completely complementary , and form a rather coherent album , with some exceptions loan … (Between these two sessions , JEANJEAN will get back to the SVO near Easter 92 to record guitars & back voices on the ZURÜCK PLACENTA' album , co-produced by Z. P + JEAN TAXIS , “HERR DOKTOR” honouring them with his presence…) A maxi-single's project for TEEPEE (the french THIS MORTAL COIL !) monopolize the attention of BABEL 17 : JEANJEAN works with PHIL of ASYLUM and HOLYVIER of L.N ... (song : "EROSION") ZAZA works with DANIEL BRAJKOVIC, 1st bass player of MARY GOES ROUND , (and future writer of « Quitte à en crever », black Romance with a premonitory title , because Daniel will die of tragic death a few times after having written its 2nd book « Chiens féroces » , in June 1998 … R.I.P .) , THIERRY of ASYLUM PARTY compromises himself with LEPEAUCRE and VINCENT LE GALLO of the NEMOs … All in all , the pieces are unequal , there is a cruel lack of unit , the songs go in all the directions , and with final , it is a project which will not succeed , and it is (one more time!) perhaps preferable thus … 1983-1989 : AT THE BEGINNING 1990 : LIVELY-ART / CELEANO FRAGMENTS 1991 : SHADES 1992 : SHAMANIK ! 2003 : ALIVE AFTER DEATH 1992-1993 : THE END.
The 3rd album of B17 is ready by September 92 , but, there seems to be problems with regard to their label , LIVELY ART ... Louis THEVENON is in full divorce with PATRICK MATHE of NEW-ROSE, and VIRGIN stares on L.A.'s catalogue ... Thévenon then assembles the “SINGLE K.O” label distributed by VIRGIN, but the BABEL 17 album will not release … Last TOUCHING POP disc to be released on this label must be the “BIO-LOGIC” maxi-single by LITTLE NEMO . (which contains a title recorded in B17 Studio). Finally , Thévenon disappeared in nature , as if he had never existed … Some attempts of canvassing to find a new label will be tested by B17 , but alas , without immediate success ; The concerts are becoming rare , and the future prospects are dark : in 1992 , festive musics (Tekno, Trance, House) … much more attract people that the “good' ol' rock'n'roll circus” … the groups known as “Pop-Rock” are in lose speed , TIMES change , PEOPLE change and like now to listen to HAPPY musics … the world MOVES, the ADVANCING world… Paradoxically , BABEL 17 is as well as possible of its musical health , the rehearsals are increasingly powerful , and the Babélians even added a fourth member , Franck MURDOCK (guitar, bass) , which makes it possible JEANJEAN to better concentrate its efforts on the voices . the songs of the 3rd album turn like clocks , BABEL allow even a brutal cover : “LES MANNEQUINS” of KRAFTWERK … End of the year 1992 : the LITTLE NEMO split , the ASYLUM PARTY already died and buried, the MGR took their distances for a long time with the T.P , (by leaving LIVELY ART , to turn over to head office NEW ROSE …) , yes , definitely , times CHANGE , and people CHANGE, and the small world of the “TOUCHING-POP”, or rather what it remains about it, fails openly … Deprived of immediate concrete prospects, BABEL 17 split at the beginning of 1993… leaving behind them three albums and a bunch of concerts, old reflections from now on of the end of the XXth century … 1983-1989 :
AT THE BEGINNING
1990 : LIVELY-ART / CELEANO FRAGMENTS 1991 : SHADES 1992 : SHAMANIK ! 1992-1993 : THIS IS THE END
2003 : ALIVE AFTER DEATH …
B17 were satisfied overall with this resurrection in a dark small room, in front of about fifty people, of which, primarily, of the accustomed of the Babelian gigs… This concert was thus the prelude to others (rare) scenic appearances of BABEL 17… At the beginning of 2006 : Publication of the book "CARNETS NOIRS" volume 2 - La Scène Francophone . An eulogistic article of three pages is devoted to BABEL 17. Publication of video compilation RVB TRANSFERT - IMAGES DE LA SCENE INDEPENDANTE FRANCAISE 1979-1991 , produced in association by INFRASTITION, OPTICAL SOUND and GODS & BEASTS. On this compilation a recording live of BABEL 17 at La Seyne sur Mer in 1990 is reproduced , during the “Turquoise Tour” with LITTLE NEMO : Come into Hell & Murder Hate. This video can be looked in the video section of the site, as well as others, extracted of the same concert, and of the CHANTIER MUSICAL's gig 2006 ... May 6, 2006 : BABEL 17 plays the festival of the 1st CHANTIER MUSICAL in Paris. Mitigated concert, but nevertheless filmed by a team of cameramen. The audience is of about fifty people . The band explodes again after this concert … JeanJean, the singer, then decides to continue all alone the Babelian adventure … He records new playback tapes for the stage, and rehearse in order to make concerts … while seeking contacts to re-edit the BABEL 17 catalogue , and also preparing a project of new album . At the end of 2006 : Release of compilation 15 (fin 015) on label INFRASTITION : contains a BABEL 17's track : Come into Hell & Murder Hate . February 1, 2007 : ZURÜCK PLACENTA RELEASE SPECIAL GIG ! B17 (JJ alone) plays at LE KLUB in Paris, in front of 170 people, opening for the band FRUSTRATION . their singer is Fabrice, the former singer of ZURÜCK PLACENTA . The event is organized for the release of the ZP album , recorded in 1992, but never published since, which releases the very same day … The B17's live was very well … thank you to the people who came from Lille … And also to the others !!! April 17, 2007 : Re-release of the 1st album of BABEL 17 : “Celeano Fragments” (fin 017) on label INFRASTITION . + “Celeano Fragments” - Limited edition with 99 ex. , with bonus = Video DVD of the CHANTIER MUSICAL's gig 2006 . Summer 2007 : JeanJean works on demos of the next B17 album , and also on covers of bands which influenced B17, in their youth … (Joy Division, Siouxsie & the Banshees, Bauhaus, Society Dance, AATT, The Cure …) The project is called “Cold Academy” . October 2007 : all the demos of the next B17's album are recorded ! A few songs are already mixed … the album was composed, written, interpreted and recorded by JEANJEAN , the delicate task of the mixing being entrusted to Frank MURDOCK , ex-member of BABEL 17 and CYBERCRAFT , he's become since a highly skilled sound engineer … B17 is currently on standby with concerts … November 30th, 2007 : BABEL 17 plays at Le Klub for the second time, with opening act by NO TEARS, headlight group of STR8LINE RECORDS label, for the release of the INFRASTITION compilation "TRANSMISSION CONTINUED" . A new song of the forthcoming B17' album has been played Live at this gig . (SORROW AND TEARS) June 2008 : Release of compilation "MOVEMENT ONE - volume 2" @ STR8LINE RECORDS . A new song by BABEL 17 will be on the tracklisting : SORROW AND TEARS . October 2008 : The new BABEL 17' opus is finally finished . The album is called “The Ice Wall“, and should normally release in March/April 2009 @ INFRASTITION . For the first time, a real drummer collaborated with B17 in the recording of the sessions . The album includes 11 tracks + 6 instrumental Bonus tracks . “The Ice Wall” will be available online also, for all those which could not find it in their favorite record dealer … |
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