Moderne -

Moderne was a French eletronic new wave band that released two albums in 1980/81 on Arabella.

Members: Thierry Teyssou, Gérard Lévy, Bernard Guimond, Patrick Millérioux, Dominique Marchetti

Background

Moderne formed in 1979 in Tours when lyricist Thierry Teyssou and composer Gérard Lévy launched an electronic studio project from the ashes of Rouge Baiser, and RCA-contract rock band that cut one unreleased single.

Lévy worked in classical music, jazz, free jazz, rock, and local bal groups. He left medical studies in his fifth year to pursue musicology and lute studies. Teyssou studied sociology and learned music without formal instruction.

Teyssou and Lévy opened the Music Hall shop on rue du Commerce in Tours to finance the project and acquire recording equipment. They bought an EMS VCS3, Polymoog, Minimoog, and Oberheim Four Voice. The pair commissioned Tours electronics engineer Christian Ferré to build a custom sequencer.

By late 1979, Teyssou and Lévy built a studio behind the shop and rented a sixteen-track reel-to-reel recorder. They recorded each song track-by-track from synchronization tracks that controlled the sequencer. Lévy established the musical backing for Teyssou’s lyrics, sung by former Rouge Baiser drummer Bernard Guimond.

Discography:

Moderne (1980)
L’espionne aimait la musique (1981)

Sources

The strongest source is the 2007 Thierry Teyssou interview for Minimal Wave. Teyssou covers Rouge Baiser, the RCA deal, Lévy and Teyssou backgrounds, Music Hall, the synthesizers, Christian Ferré, the home studio, Düsseldorf mixing, the Bourges video, and the Arabella signing in considerable detail. (Minimal Wave Records)
Minimal Wave artist and reissue pages confirm the 1979 Tours formation, the principal personnel, Lévy/Teyssou production roles, and the Düsseldorf mixes. (Minimal Wave Records)
Discogs confirms Patrick Millérioux on video/graphics for the 1980 album and on video for the “Indicatif / Vers L’Est” single. (Discogs)
I would exclude Dominique Marchetti from this BK. Teyssou places Guimond in Rouge Baiser and on the first Moderne album, then identifies Marchetti as a Tours friend recruited for the second album. Minimal Wave credits also place Marchetti on L’Espionne Aimait La Musique. (Minimal Wave Records) A secondary account in Dominique Grandfils’ Anthologie du rock français reverses that sequence and says Guimond replaced Marchetti; the first-hand account and record credits outweigh that claim. (Scribd)