this is quite an interesting band and album. an obscure french duo formed by catastrophic tragedies, gemini forque and claudine coule met during a holiday pilgrimage to lourdes, in france. while they were there, claudine's mother died of a lung disease and gemini mother got killed in a car accident that put her father on a wheelchair.
they went through this terrible moments together and making music. after two critically acclaimed albums and shows around europe, they disappeared in north africa in 1984 while visiting algiers, where gemini lived til the age of five. a series of theories have been around since then: some say they were murdered, other say that it was a planned disappearance. the only clue they left was a enygmatic letter saying that they were heading to india on a spiritual quest.
this would be a terribly sad story if it wasn't made up. deux filles is simon fisher turner, former child star/teen idol and future soundtrack composer and colin lloyd tucker. they were members of the the but in 1981 they left the group to go into a diferent musical direction. for the album cover, they posed as drags and even performed a few times live dressed as women without the audience realizing that the duo of tragic french girls were guys from south london.
this is their first release on their label 'papier mache'. it is filled with watery piano, ghostly vocals (but most of the songs are instrumental), synths, processed guitars and minimal percussion post-eno ambient music. the songs range from rhytmic exercises to calm piano meditations.
sometimes ambient pop. sometimes experimental and folky. enigmatic. strange. hauting. dreamy as cocteau twins and playful as brian eno.
01. the letter
02. l'intrigue
03. drinking at a stream
04. oakwood green
05. children of clay
06. sur la plage
07. her masters voice
08. the draw in room
09. she slides
10. fleurs doll
11. mortuary
12. the city sleeps
13. birds
14. silence and wisdom
15. festival
intriguing selection.
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