Rictus

Rictus was a French symphonic-rock band that released three albums on assorted labels between 1981 and 1988.

Members: Roland Brultey (keyboards, backing vocals), Jean-Claude Schmidt (vocals), Daniel Aizier (guitar), Daniel Corbont (bass), Jean-Marie Wisselmann (drums), François Corbont (drums), Agnès Brice (bass, backing vocals), Stephen Durand (guitar, backing vocals), Loïc Mahé (drums, backing vocals), Jean-Luc Machurey (guitar), Philippe Medjaldi (guitar), Fabrice Bony (drums)

Background

Rictus formed in 1979 in the Luxeuil-les-Bains area when keyboardist-composer Roland “Rol” Brultey assembled bassist Daniel Corbont, guitarist Daniel “Asta” Aizier, drummer Pierre Pomet, and singer Jean-Claude Schmidt for the rock opera Christelle ou la découverte du mal.

Corbont and Aizier came from Secession, a regional dance orchestra where Brultey played accordion and keyboards. Pomet came from Smog, led by guitarist-composer Claude Marchadour, while Schmidt sang with the Raddon dance group ONESYME. Drummer François Corbont, brother of Daniel and another Secession member, soon joined Rictus as a second drummer.

Brultey was born in December 1954 in a village near Strasbourg and moved to the Luxeuil area as a teenager. He began music theory at seven with Juliette Portman and started piano lessons the following year. His parents gave him an accordion at eight. At fifteen, he took up acoustic guitar. Jean-Pierre Defer told Brultey in August 1972 that Secession needed a temporary rhythm guitarist for Gérard Salvaty. Brultey filled the post for one month and later joined the orchestra on accordion and keyboards. Lead guitarist Paul Benoît later gave way to Aizier, and Secession settled around Brultey, the Corbont brothers, and Aizier through the final months of the decade.

Early Activity

Brultey conceived Christelle from a February 28, 1975 Genesis concert in Colmar, where he saw a narrative stage production built around music and projected slides. He wrote the story in summer 1976 around his young second cousin Christelle and composed most of the themes on a Yamaha CSY-2 home organ. He built rough arrangements by bouncing parts between two Philips EL-3302 cassette recorders and began approaching musicians in late 1977 or early 1978 across the Luxeuil area.

The musicians first rehearsed in the Smog room on a farm in Ormoiche. They next used the Servigney town hall until Schmidt secured the Raddon youth center as a regular rehearsal room. François Corbont joined once Brultey expanded the stage arrangement to two drum kits. Painter-photographer Guy Mauvais entered the project in 1979 and prepared the slide sequence for the stage production.

Corbont helped Brultey secure the Fougerolles cinema for a July 18, 1980 premiere. Aizier brought guitarist Marcel Bony into the concert lineup. Bony played only the opening show, and Rictus restored the single-guitar arrangement for later performances. Rictus presented Christelle seven times in small towns around Luxeuil using the Secession sound system and Mauvais slide projections.

In early 1981, Mauvais proposed a record and Brultey found a Rock & Folk advertisement for the Paris pressing service Le Kiosque d’Orphée. The group borrowed an Akai four-track from Francis Paul and recorded the opera at the Raddon youth center, with the ensemble on two tracks and later overdubs on the remaining channels. Brultey bounced the final mix to a Revox B77 and sent the master to Le Kiosque d’Orphée for the first Rictus LP.

Discography:

• Christelle ou la decouverte du mal (1981)
• Candide, Pangloss, Cunegonde et les autres (1983)
• Le jour d’après (1988)

Sources

• Roland Brultey interview, The Self Portrait Gospel — by far the strongest source here: Brultey gives his childhood training, Secession history, individual Rictus recruitments, rehearsal locations, Fougerolles premiere, seven-show run, and first recording procedure. (The Self Portrait Gospel)
• Official Rictus history — dates formation to 1979, first stage appearance to July 18, 1980, and the first LP to the following year. (Grouper Ictus)
• Ville de Luxeuil-les-Bains, Vivez Luxeuil, Winter 2021–22 — municipal account identifies Rictus as a Luxeuil group and places the launch of Christelle on the Fougerolles stage in 1980. (Ville de Luxeuil-les-Bains)
• Culture 70 / Pôle culturel de Luxeuil-les-Bains — gives the July 18, 1980 Fougerolles premiere and states that the subsequent record was taped at the Raddon youth center on borrowed equipment. (Culture 70)
• MusicBrainz, Le Kiosque d’Orphée catalog — independently places Christelle ou la découverte du mal and the later “Mécanique” single in the Kiosque catalog. (MusicBrainz)
• Strawberry Rain reissue descriptions preserved by Light in the Attic and Forced Exposure — corroborate the Akai four-track recording, 250-copy private pressing, and local distribution. (Light in the Attic; Forced Exposure)