ARTIST...: Lost Desert / Spleen Ideal
TITLE....: Conversation
YEAR.....: 2017
LABEL....: Domestica
CAT.NO...: DOM32-L
GENRE....: New Wave
TIME.....: 21:28
SIZE.....: 49,25 MB
QUALITY..: 320kbps/44,1kHz/Joint Stereo
ENCODER..: LAME
SOURCE...: WEB
RLS.DATE.: 2017/10/03
WEBSITE..: https://play.google.com
TRACKLIST
01) (03:35) Lost Desert░-░Conversation
02) (02:08) Lost Desert░-░etrange Satire
03) (03:55) Lost Desert░-░Sunrise
04) (04:17) Spleen Ideal░-░Encore Un Jour
05) (03:14) Spleen Ideal░-░Ocean
06) (04:19) Spleen Ideal░-░Autoportrait
The area of Versailles, not far from Paris, witnessed in the late 80s the emergence
of an alternative movement made up of many noteworthy bands that recorded and
distributed their music using cassette tapes. In spite of the abundance of groups and
small independent labels, distribution remained an issue, and, so, many acts took it
in their own hands. This is the background against which Marc Collin, French
musician, film music composer and record producer (best known as the founder, with
Olivier Libaux, of Nouvelle Vague) joined forces with Pascal Mayer (later to launch
The Perfect Kiss label) to form cassette-label New Horizon, active between 1988 and
1990, with the goal of promoting this emerging local scene. Short-lived as it was,
and with only four titles released, the label managed to become a cult imprint and is
today a must if one is to delve into the French independent cold-wave. One of New
Horizon most cherished releases, in great demand by connaisseurs, is the cassette-
compilation 'Nos Annees Folles' (1990), featuring the most innovative and moment-
defining bands in the milieu; with only 1,000 copies pressed, it is now an extremely
hard to locate item. Represented acts are Lost Desert, Rosa Luxemburg (both
unreleased at the time), Spleen Ideal (a project by Marc Collin and Xavier Jamaux),
Pro Memoria, Formes Nouvelles and Clair Obscur, a band already with a long standing
in the French independent field but admired by Collin and, so, asked in. Each band
contributed two songs. Not long after the release of Nos Annees Folles, New Horizon
launched the album-cassette 'A Travers Le Miroir' by Lost Desert.
Our Conversation split 6-track mini-album retrieves, 27 years on, the sonic legacy of
this particular scene, local, spontaneous and rather DIY (probably out of necessity
as much as ethos) and, as such, truly authentic and meaningful within its musical
boundaries. We have selected two of the most outstanding bands, both present on the
'Nos Annees Folles' cassette: Spleen Ideal and Lost Desert, with 4 songs (2 by each
band) originally released on the New Horizon compilation, plus 2 pieces from around
the same time: ôEncore Un Jourö, by Spleen Ideal, never released so far, and
ôSunriseö, by Lost Desert, previously found on the cassette compilation Mea Pulpa
(Dependance Continue, 1990). The original master tapes have been used in all the
tracks.
Lost Desert was founded in 1986 in the suburbs of Paris, near Versailles. The name of
the band was suggested by a friend and appreciated for its mysterious meaning. They
found inspiration in bands like The Cure, Cocteau Twins, Dead Can Dance, Bauhausà but
also movies and visual art. Initially, the band was founded by two friends and their
younger brothers. Feeling they could improve the vocals, they soon hired a female
singer and started to play live in the Paris area, using a 4-track device for
recording, usually with a drum machine.
Lost Desert released their first cassette Heterogen Infiltration, an entirely
homemade affair, down to the duplication, in 1989. This tape was sold in a few
specialized record stores in Paris. A year later, New Horizon released the album A
Travers le Miroir , featuring both new versions of songs and fresh tracks. Several
songs by the band can be found on various tape-only compilations, like: Nos Annees
Folles, Ineptie, Mea Pulpa. The last track by Lost Desert was released in 1991 on
Supercherie, when the band didnÆt even exist anymore.
Spleen Ideal (in reference to a poem by Baudelaire) is a French band founded in 1985
by Marc Collin near Versailles in France. After a first line up that included Nicolas
Godin (future member of AIR) as bass player, the band became a duo in 1988 with the
arrival of the singer/bass player Xavier Jamaux. After a few concerts and several
tracks in different cassette compilations, they finally changed their name to Persona
in 1989 and split in 1990. Collin and Jamaux reformed the band a few years after
under the name Ollano.
Very influenced by 80s new wave and electro, Spleen Ideal was a kind of proto-French
touch. Marc Collin has been in many projects since then including the successful
Nouvelle Vague. Xavier Jamaux became an international soundtracks composer, and he
still releases music under the pseudonym Bang Bang.
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