Coming soon (15th january 2010): "Fausse joie". 7 tracks download only album on Helvet Underground.
Out november 2008: Hemlock Smith & Les Poissons Autistes: "Three Times Dead". 10 tracks CD published on Everestrecords. Listen to some tracks on the project Myspace page. Order it on the label site.
Bio
Les Poissons Autistes (The Autistic Fishes) exist since 2001 and are a duo formed by Philippe Simon and Stéphane Babey (both born in 1972).
Unfortunately, it's not their first offence: they participated in the activities of the Swiss Dada-influenced collective Pictus Ouarg, an organisation (if it's really the right term for such a mess) active between 1989 and 1995, which illustrated itself by committing happenings, concerts, publications, exhibitions, and primarily recording cassettes of bands as improbably named as The Noisy Fucking Klub, Les Irradiés du Père Lachaise (The Irradiated Mutants of the Père Lachaise Cemetery), Comestibles Vasquez, Skrymmingues Pyjamas, De La Merde (Some Shit), The Novosibirsk Optigal Poulet Bresse Band or Légume Salade Chien Valise (Vegetable Salad Dog Suitcase). Bands in which the two of them played a throng of instruments they didn't master at all, with the notable exception of sheet metal banged with the head…
(Picture taken in Berlin, june the 23rd 2002, Colorsync Night at Neue NBI. Les Poissons Autistes sucked in front of an audience for the fist time ever)
After this saga, which probably had less to do with music than thoughtlessness, ignorance of the meaning of the word "ludicrous" and the absence of a decent retard-tracking program in the schools they went to, Simon and Babey began a career as very amateur DJ's (occasions when they could mix two discs successfully can be counted on the fingers of a penguin), under monikers as sexy as DJ's Q & Che-Meeze (untranslatable), DJ's Chenit & Meurdji (something like: Trash & Garbage, in patois of their home region), DJ's Goebbels & Branli-Branlo (a bit like Wanky-Wanko, if it means anything in English, which we doubt) and DJ's Philippella & Poulpoulpipi (another untranslatable but dirty joke).
Their parents didn't receive flyers very often.
It's only at the end of 2001 that Simon and Babey began again to create their own "music" (people knowing them well demand quotation marks when writing the word in relation to Les Poissons Autistes). Struck by a sudden inspiration during a drunken night, they plugged jacks into the inputs of a tape machine and then sucked and manipulated the free extremities of the cables to produce some particularly irritating and saturated noises. Feeling very proud, they christened themselves Les Poissons Autistes. Then, their crime accomplished, went to bed to sleep their wine off. The recording, exhumed and listened to sometime later by well-known deaf people, led to offers of live performances, although Simon and Babey had asked for nothing. Perspectives of easy glory and naked groupies fighting to join them in the backstage were sufficient to convince the duo to take up that stupid challenge. Failing to empty venues, they emptied more than a forest during summer outdoor performances that some of the participants still fondly remember as "the worst night of [their] life". These encouraging debuts persuaded Les Poissons Autistes to persevere.
Taking their courage with both hands, and therefore their instruments with their feet, Simon and Babey have since then perfected their technique of sonic collage, assembling on the computer recordings of various noises made on Minidisc, instruments (trumpet, flute, accordion, guitar, bass), contact-miked objects and sounds produced by different machines diverted from their normal use (guitar effect pedals, reverb racks and other old stuff). The improvement is appreciable since now they don't empty venues any more but are kicked off stage by young people eager to dance to good techno music and take drugs.
(Picture taken during the Lausanne Underground Film And Music Festival, october 14th 2004. Stéphane Babey, on the right, performs an office lamp light bulb solo while Philippe Simon is surfing the Web to revise his first aid procedures in case Babey is struck by an electric shock)
During their first experiences, Les Poissons Autistes played with the possibilities of everyday sounds: to track down musicality or rhythm in raw noises. After that, a more melodic side progressively appeared, with the more frequent use of instruments like guitar as sonic basis, evolution in part guided by the desire to develop a more spontaneous edge in concert.
To make their music heard, Les Poissons Autistes home-burned CD-R's, then distributed them under the name of their own fictive label, Fickraum, but also for the part of the Tricycle Evolutif label in Lausanne. Several projects of vinyls for the Swiss label Mercurochrome unfortunately aborted due to the lack of money, but a trace still exists on a CD sampler released in 2004. Those rare and difficult to find releases were sufficient for Rafael Wolf to invite Les Poissons Autistes to compose the music for one of his movies. The short film was presented in official competition in Locarno in 2005 and broadcast by the Swiss public television network. In 2006, they joined the Midinette Records Netlabel, wich released "Mal foutu".
In 2007, after a remix for Magicrays, Les Poissons Autistes united their forces live with Bio and Larkian. An exlusive concert took also place in Lausanne with Consor, Opak, Seychal-Mills and POL, all five units functionning as a single band.
In 2007, Les Poissons Autistes met singer-songwriter Hemlock Smith. After swapping files for a wile, they released a collaborative CD in 2008 on Everestrecords. The project melts songs with noise and electronics. A new album is to be released in 2010, with Arnaud Sponar (Goodbye Ivan) playing the drums on some tracks. Diverse other collaborations are on their way with Consor, Bio and Larkian.
(Picture taken during Les Digitales de l'Arabie, Vevey, june 17th 2006. Philippe Simon, on the left, looks with despair at Stéphane Babey, who proves to the eyes of the world that he doesn't even know how to hold a guitar properly)
RELEASES
2001 "On est trop timides", K7, Fickraum, 11 tracks
2002 "Friture sur la ligne", CD-R, Fickraum, 9 tracks live
2003 "Le monde du silence", CD-R, Fickraum, 8 tracks
2003 "Téléthon", CD-R, Fickraum, 9 tracks
2004 "Pouètch' the beat", CD sampler, Mercurochrome, 1 track by Les Poissons Autistes
2004 "Nage bête", CD-R, Fickraum, 10 tracks
2004-2005 "Domaine privé", music for a short film by Rafael Wolf, 33 minutes, screened at the Locarno International Film Festival in 2005
2005 "Sourdre", mini-CD-R, Tricycle Evolutif, 4 tracks
2005 "Fallait pas (et tu le savais)", music for a short film by Yves Bouzaglo, 2 minutes
2005 "Ramasse-poussière", CD-R, Fickraum, 11 tracks
2006 "Mal foutu", Net-release and CD-R, Midinette Records, 6 tracks
2007 "Bon pour les oreilles 2", Web-sampler, 1 track by Les Poissons Autistes
2007 Magicrays: "Take Me Home remixes", CD, Gentlemen Records, 1 remix by Les Poissons Autistes
2007 "The LUFF Audio Enforcer Vol. 1", CD-R sampler, LUFF, 1 track by Les Poissons Autistes
2008 "Expedition 3", CD sampler, Everestrecords, 1 track by Les Poissons Autistes
2008 "Midinette All Stars", CD sampler, Midinette Records, 1 track by Les Poissons Autistes
2008 "Fort festif", CD-R, Dead Vox, 5 tracks
2008 Hemlock Smith & Les Poissons Autistes: "Three Times Dead", CD, Everestrecords, 10 tracks
2009 "The LUFF Audio Enforcer Vol. 2", CD-R sampler, LUFF, 1 track by Les Poissons Autistes
FORTHCOMING RELEASES
Downloadable album on Helvet Underground (15th january 2010)
1 track on the next LUFF sampler (end of 2009)
CD with Arnaud Sponar (Goodbye Ivan) and Consor on Shayo Records (2010)
1 track on the next Shayo CD sampler (2010)
Collaboration with Bio and Larkian (probably 2010)
(Picture taken at the Queen Kong Club, Neuchâtel, december the 5th 2008. Simon and Babey are playing so fast that they are all blurred.)
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