ABOUT FRENCH BAND PALO ALTO

PALO ALTO is a French group formed in Paris (France) in 1989 by Jacques Barbéri, Denis Frajerman, Philippe Masson and Philippe Perreaudin. In their early interviews the group insisted on their musical filiation with Tuxedomoon, and on drawing their inspiration from Made to Measure, a Crammed Discs label. They would later make explicit their interest in bands such as Art Zoyd, The Legendary Pink Dots, Coil, The Residents, Can or Cabaret Voltaire. Science fiction in all its forms (literature, cinema, illustrations, etc.) is a leitmotiv in the group’s work.

THE 1990s

In 1990 Palo Alto released their cassette tape, Le clos, on the Italian label Old Europa Café. At the time their music was definitely written rather than improvised, consisting mainly of instrumentals with a stress on melody.
With the release of their first album, Grands succédanés (1992), improvisation made its appearance and would be the direction taken by the band in the years to come, as evidenced on the Trash et artères album (1994). It was not before 1997 and their Le disque dur album that they reverted to written music.
The year 1997 was a time of transition for the group: Philippe Masson (clarinet) left and there was a shift toward a ‘variable geometry group.’ Then Palo Alto went for a looser structure, allowing the three remaining members to work in small units, even to embark on solo ventures. From 1998 on their projects and collaborations (Laurent Pernice, Eric Roger / Gae Bolg, Rhys Chatham, etc.) increased in number.

THE 2000s

Palo Alto began the 2000s with an album of remixes (Norscq, Laurent Pernice, Phil Von, etc.). In 2003 the group founded Halte Aux Records !, a label devoted to releasing both their archives material and reissues of pioneers of the French experimental scene from the 1980s (Ptôse, Un Départment, The Grief). In June of the same year Palo Alto were back on stage in Toulouse, viewing the experience as a new departure. It was also their chance to see that their new electronic music direction worked well in a live context. The style changed, industrial music influences resurfaced and were fully accepted. The use of video projections became systematic on live dates and texts played a increasing role. It must be said that the group has always been very influenced by some writers, and references to Antoine Volodine, Thomas Pynchon, Philip K. Dick or J. G. Ballard are not rare within their discography. The texts of Jacques Barbéri—who is also a science fiction writer—are now an integral part of the band’s work.
Projects from 2004 and 2005 were carried out in 2006: a contribution to an album of covers of the English band Coil on Rotorelief, a Toulouse label; a CD-book about “Limite”, a literary group (published by La Volte); an album of Tuxedomoon covers produced by Philippe Perreaudin on the Optical Sound label (featuring Scanner, Ramuntcho Matta, Simon Fisher Turner, etc.); and the Fais voile vers le soleil show that premiered on November 2 at the Lieu Unique in Nantes.
In 2007 Palo Alto released Mondocane, an album co-written with Klimperei, on the US label AcidSoxx Musicks. The group played in Rennes and in Paris, where they hadn’t performed for a long time.
The year 2008 began with the release of Terminal sidéral, a live album coupled with a DVD collecting videos directed by Gilles Benejam.

On its day of release Palo Alto gave a concert in Brussels; in the fall they were invited to the L’Étrange Musique festival. The year ended with a contribution to the soundtrack of Louise Michel, a film by Benoît Delépine and Gustave Kervern, and in December, at the Lavoir Museum in Paris, the group introduced an early version of Slowing Apocalypse, a production dedicated to British writer J. G. Ballard. Invited to major science fiction festivals Palo Alto played Slowing Apocalypse in 2009 in Épinal, then in Nantes, before an end-of-the-year performance at the Carré d’Art in Nîmes.

THE 2010s

At the start of 2010 Cinq faux nids, six faux nez, an album recorded in 2004 with the band Déficit Des Années Antérieures, was released on Le Cluricaun. Still in 2010 the Infrastition label celebrated Palo Alto’s 20th anniversary by releasing an anthology titled Time Capsule: 1990–2010.
For its 2011 schedule, the Cube in Issy-les-Moulineaux commissioned a new work from Palo Alto. Given a free hand, the group chose to adapt Lewis Carroll’s Hunting of the Snark. Jacques Barbéri reprocessed the text, while Jérôme Lefdup shot a video of the eight ‘fits’ from the original poem. The first performance took place on May 26, 2011 at the Cube.
In 2012 Optical Sound released Objets noirs et choses carrées. Conceived by one member of the group (Philippe Perreaudin), the album is a tribute to French singer Nino Ferrer, featuring 15 cover versions (Étienne Charry, Bernard Szajner, J. G. Thirlwell, etc.).
In 2013 the band’s label joined Infrastition for a reissue of Ptôse’s last two albums, The Swoop (1984) and Face de crabe (1986).

An unreleased live album recorded in 1983 and reserved to subscribers accompanied this release. On July 2 Palo Alto performed outdoors in Gardanne, a town in southern France.
In 2014 a book adaptation of the Hunting of the Snark show was published.
The year 2015 was devoted to composing and recording several tracks for compilations celebrating a series of 30th anniversaries: the creation of the La nuit des sauriens radio broadcast (Sens, France), the release of Asylum by the Legendary Pink Dots and of a Spanish cassette tape, Le défilé des épaves. At the same time Philippe Perreaudin brought various musicians together to celebrate Half-Mute, the first Tuxedomoon album (Ralph Records, 1980). Palo Alto had the opportunity of recording a cover of Volo Vivace with Steven Brown on saxophone. All those projects came out in 2016.
In May 2016 La Volte published a new version of Jacques Barbéri’s Mondocane. The book came with a CD featuring the music that Palo Alto and Klimperei had recorded nine years earlier. On that occasion the album was completely remastered and three new songs were added. At the end of the year the group was back into the studio, working on their new opus, a split-album with Ptôse. The record, entitled Phantom Cosmonauts was released on the German label Psychofon Record in September 2017. In 2018, Palo Alto participates in a album designed by The Residents and has been working on a double LP project (a musical evocation of Gilles Deleuze) that should be out in 2020.

(to be continueted…)