Etron fou Leloublan -

Etron fou Leloublan were a French avant-rock band that released two albums on Gratte-Ciel and 9H 17 Productions circa 1977/78, followed by three albums on Turbo Music S.A. and RecRec/AYAA between 1982 and 1986.

Members: Guigou Chenevier (drums), Ferdinand Richard (bass, vocals), Chris Chanet [aka Eulalie Ruynat] (saxophone, vocals, 1973-76), Francis Grand (saxophone, 1976), Bernard Mathieu (saxophone, 1979-82), Jo Thirion (organ, piano, trumpet, 1981-85), Bruno Meillier (saxophone, 1982)

Thank you Zaragon for your appreciation and analysis. Just received your post’s link from a friend. A few remarks since you invite your followers to react, and also because well.. I just felt a bit concerned :-Emoi’s voice is NOT Jo’s but Ferdinand’s gone through an harmonizer, did not think at the time it was appropriate, his singing, natural and plain was as I recall better, but he could not stand it at the time, too bad. Just a detail. Lyrics are not political, Guigou wrote them.-Emoi’s time signature is a regular 4/4 except it seems we are a bit early within the last bar’s staccatos, we composed and rehearsed it tight… but we kept it… this way ! Lots of EFL parts carry that same weirdness ! Clumsy turned into obvious, this was the recipe I believe, then. EFL often collided different time signatures on top of one another to avoid the boring 4/4, ruling rock music in the early 80’s.-Jo’s keyboard was a Farfisa, very 60’s you are right, she got a Mirage Ensoniq later, but then it was Farfisa only. And it gave a very distinct sound to the quartet.-I played tenor saxophone only, on both pieces, some other Sillons songs feature me on alto (my main saxophone actually), a baritone someone passed me for the recording was used only on a couple of overdubs. I never owned one.-There is indeed a percussion overdub from Guigou on “c’est pas bien, c’est pas bien”, sounding like nutshells. I love his parts here, very clever.-Ferdinand’s bass guitar is a Fender Musicmaster tuned 3 half steps up. Shortly later he was to turn to a Master 6 strings which became his main instrument.-Les sillons material was put together in 1981, by the time I joined the band replacing Bernard Mathieu, but many melodic ideas I brought had been composed formerly. When this album came out, I had already left, but shortly after, Ferdinand and I got together again in the duo Bruniferd (which put out 3 albums and lasted 14 years, just as long as Etron Fou), which sort of extends the composed collaboration we had undertaken in Les Sillons, although the format (no vocals, no drums) tends to have it filed more into the jazz/chamber music section than art rock’s. As for me now, the inspiration is so close, I do not make any differences when listening back to it (I rarely do). Thanks again for your enthusiastic comments, made my day sweeter 🙂

Discography: