Flamen Dialis -

Flamen Dialis was a French electro-symphonic/folk project headed by Didier Le Gallic, responsible for the 1978 single “Découverte” and the 1979 concept album Symptome-Dei on F.L.V.M.

Members: Y.H. Le Gallic (keyboards, vocals), Didier Le Gallic (guitar, percussion, keyboards, drums), L. Le Clech (harmonica), M. Le Saout (guitar), A. Ernouf (flute), B.B. L’Helgouach (vocals), J.J. Crenn (vocals), T. Tanguy (piano, vocals)

Background

Flamen Dialis formed in 1976 in Lesneven, Brittany, when multi-instrumentalist Didier Le Gallic teamed with pianist Thierry Tanguy and Jean-Luc Parrot.

Le Gallic received his first acoustic guitar from an older brother at age twelve in Montreal and played bass in a school band the following year. At fifteen, he moved to Paris and juggled guitar/bass slots in Lycée groups. He then formed Yecta Blues Band, which played street dates and Paris cabarets. At sixteen, Le Gallic met journalist Yves Adrien, who arranged a single session at the Vogue studio in Villetaneuse, purportedly pressed in England and attributed to the Yecta Plus Band.

At twenty, Le Gallic settled in Quimper, where he absorbed Breton, Irish, and Welsh traditional music. He embraced flute and percussion alongside guitar. In 1975, he moved to Lesneven and played with local groups. Le Gallic developed an interest in synthesizers and met Heldon founder Richard Pinhas, who sold him a Mellotron. Le Gallic concentrated on drums and vibraphone in Flamen Dialis and built extended pieces around improvisation. One stage composition, “Phocaïne,” exceeded sixty minutes.

Le Gallic met journalist Jean-Marc Bailleux, who established F.L.V.M. (Faites Le Vous-Même, French for “Do It Your Self”), a Gratte-Ciel subsidiary launched with 1978 albums by Everaldo Marcial and Heratius. Flamen Dialis debuted with “Découverte” (“Discovery”) backed with “Autre Chose” (“Something Else”), issued as FLVM 4504, ahead of “Billard” by the punk trio Calcinator. Le Gallic cut the two sides with pianist Thierry Tanguy and singers L. Le Clech and B.B. L’Helgouach.

Meanwhile, Le Gallic composed Symptôme-Deï as a cosmic-opera sequence drawn from an LSD experience. For the project, he retained the two “Découverte” singers in a reconfigured Flamen Dialis with vocalist Jean-Jacques Crenn, guitarist Michel Le Saout, flutist-bombardist A. Ernouf, and musicians associated with Bagad de Lann-Bihoué, the music ensemble of the Breton naval air base.

Discography: