‘La Colonie de Vacances’ initially standed for the collective tour that Papier Tigre, Electric Electric, Pneu and Marvin did during summer 2010.
The idea of 11 musicians playing together emerged in July 2010 at Tours’ Festival Rayons Frais where they were invited to play at the 4 corners of Tours’ Castle courtyard. This first successful and enjoyable experience turned ‘La Colonie de Vacances’ into the quadraphonic sound system we now know, throwing the audience in the center of a musical ping-pong game played by two, three or four teams.
They recently invited musician Greg Saunier * from Deerhoof to compose a unique piece for their quadraphonic sound system.
Rather than an ordinary gig, ‘La Colonie de Vacances’ is a proper live show creation. It is celebrated and acclaimed as one of the most unique and exciting project of today’s live music scene. It already made an impression at renowned venues and festivals such as Les Vieilles Charrues Festival in Carhaix, La Route du Rock in Saint Malo, Dour Festival in Belgium, the FME in Rouyn Noranda (Canada), Nuits Sonores Festival in Lyon, Printemps de Bourges Festival, Centquatre-Paris, Gaité Lyrique in Paris and many more.
- Greg Saunier is the drummer and founding member of the San Francisco band Deerhoof, created in 1993. He studied music at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music (Ohio) and at the Mills College of Oakland (California) from where he got a masters in songwriting.
With the support of : Lieu Unique / ‘Sortie d’Usine’ program for artistic creation (Nantes), Le Temps Machine (Tours / Joué-les-Tours), Le Confort Moderne (Poitiers), La Cartonnerie (Reims), CENTQUATRE-PARIS (Paris), Région des Pays de la Loire, l’Adami (society for the collective administration of performers’ rights) and CNV (National Center for Music), Institut Français de Paris, Convention Institut Français / région Poitou-Charentes, OFQJ, SPEDIDAM and CNV.
PRESS
One hour and 45 minutes of an insane show, throwing sound back and forth. A extraordinary live experience, as progressive as it is powerful, facing a spinning audience eager not to miss any part of it. THE HUFFINGTON POST (Canada)
In comparison to traditional gigs, where there is only one stage and you can either stand at the front or back, or left to right, this ‘quadrophonic show’ offers unusual subjectivity. It’s so inventive. And it’s a concept that La Colonie De Vacances – a band you could bracket with the UK’s Blood Sport or Golden Teacher, revisiting the percussion fascinations of Liquid Liquid and the New York no-wave – pull off without error. THE QUIETUS (UK)
Often they would play together, weaving in and out of each other or just all at the same time for maximum power, though it never got messy. This was rather disorientating for the audience who were all in the middle, but this only added to effect. For the most part each band took it in turns to start individually, with the sole lighting and focus on them, but then the rest of the room would kick in towards the end. It really was mightily impressive. KATPIN IS DEAD (Scotland)
Like any good orgy, there are moments of tenderness, fits of aggression, and very little chit-chat. Each band takes turns playing some of its own tunes unaccompanied allowing the other three to take a blow before bringing in the full orchestra for a rousing collective outro. The performance is tight and mathy, yet sufficiently artsy to hold the audience’s interest. The songs, most of them all-instrumental, range from euphoric trance to hard driving new wave to spastic hardcore. MAGNET MAGAZINE (USA)
A consortium of underground rock and noise acts from France, each jamming on an individual platform, that cause such shapes and body thrashing amongst the crowd. THE SKINNY (UK)