"..psychedelic-mechanical.."
Puce Moment
Paralyzing Darkness
Puce Moment Bio:
Puce Moment is the musical and visual project of Nicolas Devos and Penelope Michel (aka CERCUEIL). Kenneth Anger ay not necessarily be the name that will come to mind when listening for the first time - distracted, confused, disoriented - to Puce Moment's debut album. Yet it is the only one that will seem relevant upon second listen -narcotic, infernal, fascinating. Puce Moment does not only borrow a title (of his eighth short film, made in 1949) from the baron noir of experimental cinema. Ghostly wanderings, satanic Masses, mystical romances, mechanical hell : everything in the duo from Lille (France) and their album in form of an invocation to ancient Sybarites authorities refers to the Californian filmmaker's obsessions. Launched in 2006 by Nicolas Devos and Penelope Michel, along with their project Cercueil (responsible for three albums particularly noteworthy), Puce Moment has so far existed mainly on stage, diluted over time (a handful of concerts only) and image ( projections, performances or contemporary dance pieces). Ice, dust and blinding flashes of white light : Puce Moment had the scene, the soul and backbone were only missing. This will be achieved in 2012. Isolated in a cabin, the duo composed and recorded nine songs that make up their first album, between spectral marauding ("Moonoom") and drone wizards ("Legacy"), resurrecting old ghosts ("Video Dada" single title survivor of their invisible past), revealing the first images of a future draped in chrome ("L'ombre", composed for choreographe (Christian Rizzo's new project ). Mastered by Joe Lambert (Animal Collective, Young Magic, Dirty Projectors), Puce Moment is both the sum of a singular journey, fueled by forays into dance and cinema - a confirmation of their simply unreal abilities - and the beginning of a long and disturbing procession. Their next step will be the stage for which the group is preparing a set modeled after their music: blazing, poisonous, untouchable, but always human.
Hello, how are you?
We are quite ok, we just came back from our rehearsal for our forthcoming shows at Mixtures Festival in Bordeaux and at Trabendo in Paris (with Liars). The sound was good so we can expect good shows. The only problem come from our van, the poor boy is getting old so we have to fix some problems before we hit the road. So is our car ok..?
What are you currently listening to?
We just got few different vinyl records, so we are listening to those these days... lasts releases being; The Knife, PVT, and Matmos. We finally succeeded in finding the vinyl version of Liar's 'Drums Not Dead' so we are also listening to that. We also bought the 'Berberian Sound Studio' movie soundtrack made by Broadcast (the movie was good too by the way, something like early Polanski). We went to a second hand market and found lots of good oldies as well; Satie, Les Percussions De Strasbourg, Ligeti, Stockhausen... all very cheap, we were lucky that day!
Is there a story behind the band name?
The name "Puce Moment" comes from a Kenneth Anger movie. Kenneth Anger for those who don't know is an experimental underground filmmaker from the early 50's. He realized such movies as Scorpio Rising, Lucifer Rising, Invocation Of My Demon Brother...The music takes a really important place in all of his movies. Puce Moment was one of his first short movies made in 1949, with two great songs by Jonathan Halper on it.
When did this project come about and did you have a planned sound you were going for?
The project was created in 2006, at first we didn't plan to record an album or to tour with this project. It was only one time shows or music we made for a movie, theater, and/or dance. We decided last year to record some of this music we made for these events and make them into an album. Before we recorded the songs, we wanted to have time to creates new ones, so we rent a small house in a forest and came with all our gear. We finally created there a whole new album, so we gave up with the idea of recording the old work.
Care to shed some light on your latest s/t LP; theme, favorite track, etc?
We can't say there were a theme behind the album. We try to have all of the songs different from one and another while at the same time we wanted the album to stay coherent in it's entirety. We gave up songs that finally didn't fit with the whole album but will perhaps fit those on a new release one day.
Will you be touring extensively for said release?
Yes we would love to! We are starting to book shows ourselves, but we would really need to find a booking agent. So we are open to any suggestions;]!
Got any other projects we should know about?
We are running another band together (Penelope & Nico from Puce Moment), this band is called Cercueil, which means "coffin" in French. We could say that Cercueil is more Pop or "more direct" than Puce Moment. We already recorded two albums with Cercueil. We are also touring this year with a live soundtrack project on David Lynch's 'Eraserhead'. We already played few festivals in France with this project and we will be playing Finland and Nederland this summers as well.
What movie would work best on mute while listening to you music?
Well on Eraserhead our music fit well, but we recreated a complete soundtrack for the movie so that's why it fit so well. But if you were just muting a movie and playing the Puce Moment record, perhaps on one of Guy Maddin's movies (his latest 'Ulysses Souviens-Toi!' is amazing) or maybe Hiroshi Teshigahara's 'Suna No Onna'...
You can only keep/listen to ONE album for the rest of your life ..which album would it be?
I would prefer not to listen to music anymore and remember the music I used to listen to than to listen to the same album till the end of my life. But if we had to choose one, perhaps 'Flaming Tunes' by Gareth Williams and Mary Currie.
Are you living your dream?
I would say we are trying to build some...
Thanx Nico & Penolope and Jerome too!
Puce Moment recently released their debut LP, make sure you check into that right away..
