Lost Desert / Spleen Ideal – Conversation

The area of Versailles, not far from Paris, witnessed in the late 80s the emergence of an alternative movement made up of many noteworthy bands that recorded and distributed their music using cassette tapes. In spite of the abundance of groups and small independent labels, distribution remained an issue, and, so, many acts took it in their own hands. This is the background against which Marc Collin, French musician, film music composer and record producer (best known as the founder, with Olivier Libaux, of Nouvelle Vague) joined forces with Pascal Mayer (later to launch The Perfect Kiss label) to form cassette-label New Horizon, active between 1988 and 1990, with the goal of promoting this emerging local scene. Short-lived as it was, and with only four titles released, the label managed to become a cult imprint and is today a must if one is to delve into the French independent cold-wave. One of New Horizon most cherished releases, in great demand by connaisseurs, is the cassette-compilation Nos Années Folles (1990), featuring the most innovative and moment-defining bands in the milieu; with only 1,000 copies pressed, it is now an extremely hard to locate item. Represented acts are Lost Desert, Rosa Luxemburg (both unreleased at the time), Spleen Ideal (a project by Marc Collin and Xavier Jamaux), Pro Memoria, Formes Nouvelles and Clair Obscur, a band already with a long standing in the French independent field but admired by Collin and, so, asked in. Each band contributed two songs. Not long after the release of Nos Années Folles, New Horizon launched the album-cassette A Travers Le Miroir by Lost Desert.

Our Conversation split 6-track EP retrieves, 27 years on, the sonic legacy of this particular scene, local, spontaneous and rather DIY (probably out of necessity as much as ethos) and, as such, truly authentic and meaningful within its musical boundaries. We have selected two of the most outstanding bands, both present on the Nos Années Folles cassette: Spleen Ideal and Lost Desert, with 4 songs (2 by each band) originally released on the New Horizon compilation, plus 2 pieces from around the same time: “Encore Un Jour”, by Spleen Ideal, never released so far, and “Sunrise”, by Lost Desert, previously found on the cassette compilation Mea Pulpa (Dépendance Continue, 1990). The original master tapes have been used in all the tracks.