Following the release of their debut self-titled album in June on Raphaël Fragil’s record label Femacosmé, we caught up with the Parisian production duo composed of Désiré Bonaventure and Zach to discover more about the makings of their enchanting collaboration as Rue des Garderies.
Performed and recorded in one take at a liminal space in Paris, Rue Des Garderies captures a fragile state of collaborative improvisation permeated into a psychedelic journey through seven dream-state ballads. Presented as a triple vinyl gatefold edition, Rue des Garderies contains majestic and hauntingly textural music, reminiscent of William Basinski, Huerco S. and Wolfgang Voigt as GAS.
Played on repeat throughout the summer, Rue Des Garderies has wormed itself into ears like a fever-dream, provoking deep states of inner reflection and yearning fascination. Accompanied with a sublime music video blending tropical vistas with lysergic Ai trickery, Rue des Garderies is one of the most mystical and beautiful albums that we have encountered this year. With so much intrigue on my mind, I just had to reach out and invite Désiré, Zach, Gambette and Raphaël to each open up about the project and shed light into Rue des Garderies.
Interview by Tom Durston
"Rue Des Garderies is a pure improvisation; only us jamming and vibing in peace, riding the moment, following our instincts and emotions, guided by love."
Hello Felix and Zach, thank you for taking the time to speak to us about your stunning debut collaborative album Rue des Garderies. First up, please introduce yourselves and tell us how/when you first met and what provoked you to experiment and create music together?
(Felix) : We first met in 2018 in a Kebab at Cmptrmtmtcs, a series of events run by my adoptive Mom City Dragon at Stalingrad, Paris 19, where we were doing a Teenage God performance and a live with Eylül Deniz as Hydrolik. We lost track for a bit but met again back in the summer of 2020 in some shit hole in Paris (M-E-R-D-E) bars, but thankfully we were squatting in buildings and Zach came into our pirate tribe and started to play us his music and stuff he likes.
(Zach): I came up for the show, and he was performing Teenage God live with his machines. We had some talk, good times, and kept in touch! Then we met again at events.
Felix introduced me to an alternative community life that inspired me; places of freedom and respect, where I met a lot of creative people. There were nice sound systems, mixing desks, and a lot of space; I got invited to deejay a few times. It showed me other perspectives, new ways, and I got fresh ideas. So I brought some machines to jam and experiment together.
You have each been involved in various musical projects and scenes before this current formation? Please tell us about your musical heritage – if you are both classical trained, self-taught and what/who has helped shape your musical direction over the past 15 years?
(Felix): Friends Ov Family Love, Train, Dub, Techno, AFX, Drone, Acid, Industrial, Bass, Hip-Hop, Dance, Rablawave, Magick, Party, Squats, Wu, Groove, School of life, PattiSmith, Daft Punk, ElyE+ECrampton, SpiralTribe, Così e Così, WinterFamily, Folklore & MSS, Jah Shaka (RIP), Detroit and Chicago, Ambient Hardcore (Jungle?), Dubstep, DMZ, Tang, Trap, Tape, LSD, Huxley, Ecstasy, Roland, Elektron, Mackie, Pink Floyd, Shulgin, K, Planet Mu, Hyperdub, Warp, Tectonic, Total Freedom, Coil, TG, PTV, C&C…
(Zach) : El Sereno Records, based in Los Angeles, released my first project album on tape. I also made a soundtrack for a fashion show in London and composed music for friends in film. At a young age I learnt to play the piano and Solfège but I quickly forgot the theory. It all started age 12 when I got addicted to making music using eJay software. A bit later I discovered a few DAWs and synthesizers, playing between samples and Omnisphere VST with an M-Audio midi keyboard, for a while.
Progressively improving my technique and equipment, from software I moved to hardware getting a few analog drum machines, synths, samplers, analog processors, tape recorder… I’ve also been developing my own compact modular system. At the same time, all this creative background awakened my quest for a beautiful sound.
I was learning more about pro recording, mixing techniques, acoustics and mastering, which really fascinated me; studying by myself, searching info on my own, discussing with other engineers. It took me a few years to develop my own control room dedicated to mastering, working on other artists’ music. Nature, Love, Life, my family and friends helped me a lot! I’ve always been very sensitive to music, lulled by Ennio Morricone, 2pac, Nirvana, Air, Goldie, Prince.
What is the concept behind Rue des Garderies?
(Felix): We have adopted each other and we mutually help and learn from one another.
(Z): Rue Des Garderies is the audio recording of lovers/passionate souls living and feeling, dreamers looking for something different.
"I decided to go for a voyage through a magical dream, to let the viewer feel like diving in a surrealistic and deranged nature."
The music in the album is both majestically beautiful and hauntingly textural – to me it sounds like a combination of William Basinksi, Wolfgang Voigt’s output as GAS and Huerco S – what did you feel when you performed the music and whilst listening back to the recording?
(Felix) : Thxxx!!! Like an automatic pilot to outer space!
(Zach) : (Lovely artists, thank you!) I felt alive, surrounded by love, united to the present, linked to something divine, visiting the light through the sound…it was a spiritual journey. Now, I feel each play is a surprise.
Rue des Garderies was performed live in one take in Paris at a performance at “a former local hotspot of other-music Rue des Gardes”. Please tell us about your connection with the location and how that live performance came about and when it all took place?
(Felix) : It was a flat at La Goutte D’or Paris 18, which worked a bit like a squat, continuously hosting artists on tour, crazy jams, poetry weekends, after parties and good music. They are the ones behind the website musiqueapproximative.net and many other things.
(Zach) : I heard friends talking about this very special location in Paris, named Rue Des Gardes; it grew on me as a velvety fantasy tainted with purple and blue, orange and yellow, pink and red. Then I finally got introduced to this place and I instantly connected with the vibe and the lovely residents. One warm summer evening, we were jamming with Felix inside this sanctuary and recorded Rue Des Garderies.
Had you already pre-conceived and arranged Rue des Garderies before the performance took place, or is it the result of a totally improvised performance?
(Felix) : We were on a mission to calm down the ambiance of the flat because a baby (Suzanne) was due to arrive in the morning, so we started to jam the shit down and that’s it.
(Zach) : Rue Des Garderies is a pure improvisation; only us jamming and vibing in peace, riding the moment, following our instincts and emotions, guided by love.
The album features a smorgasbord of sounds ranging from soaring synths, field recording (the sound of crows), violins, cassette playback and much more – what methods and instruments were employed to produce the music and how was it translated into a live performance?
(Felix) : I was using the Octatrack my old friend since 10 years, so it became a bit like an extension of my body haha, the samples used are coming from a pitched down version of ‘Rain‘ by Tones On Tail, always a few 808 Dylan and few 606 Marley a few Perc and a good old Amen Break.
(Zach) : That night, I used my compact modular system paired with my 12 bit delay pedal directly plugged via a stereo cable inside Rue Des Gardes analog mixing desk linked to Max’s computer recording Ableton session.
We’re delighted to be stocking the triple vinyl gatefold edition of ‘Rue des Garderies’ at Inverted Audio Record Store in London. The artwork is stunning, vividly organic, tropical and tantalisingly psychedelic. Let’s shift focus on the symbolism of the music video for Gürum Nation – it features a hyper-colour array of Ai skewered tropical vistas, hydroponic plants, coral reefs, meteorites and amorphous cell structures, the music video fits the music spectacularly. Tell us more about it?
(Femacosmé) : Thanks for your kind words! We worked with our close friend and artist Gambette who conceived the video, images of the record are directly coming from the video clip. The layout of the vinyl was then put together by our graphic designer friend, Plasticbionic. All together, we wanted something impalpable, ethereal; a distorted reality, images fading away as in a dream.
(Gambette) : Wow! I’m glad to hear this enthusiastic feedback, thank you! I was asked by my dearest friends of the Femacosmé team to create a video for this first release. I decided to go for a voyage through a magical dream, to let the viewer feel like diving in a surrealistic and deranged nature. I’m constantly collecting videos of nature, water ripples and other beauties it can give, so I decided to use them and to experiment Ai to twist those footage and give this special look and a little bit disturbing feeling. And this collaboration is promising more celestial voyage to come so stay tuned.
"I heard friends talking about this very special location in Paris, named Rue Des Gardes; it grew on me as a velvety fantasy tainted with purple and blue, orange and yellow, pink and red. Then I finally got introduced to this place and I instantly connected with the vibe."
Rue des Garderies was performed live in one take in Paris at a performance at “a former local hotspot of other-music Rue des Gardes”. Please tell us about your connection with the location and how that live performance came about and when it all took place?
(Felix) : It was a flat at La Goutte D’or Paris 18, which worked a bit like a squat, continuously hosting artists on tour, crazy jams, poetry weekends, after parties and good music. They are the ones behind the website musiqueapproximative.net and many other things.
(Zach) : I heard friends talking about this very special location in Paris, named Rue Des Gardes; it grew on me as a velvety fantasy tainted with purple and blue, orange and yellow, pink and red. Then I finally got introduced to this place and I instantly connected with the vibe and the lovely residents. One warm summer evening, we were jamming with Felix inside this sanctuary and recorded Rue Des Garderies.
Had you already pre-conceived and arranged Rue des Garderies before the performance took place, or is it the result of a totally improvised performance?
(Felix) : We were on a mission to calm down the ambiance of the flat because a baby (Suzanne) was due to arrive in the morning, so we started to jam the shit down and that’s it.
(Zach) : Rue Des Garderies is a pure improvisation; only us jamming and vibing in peace, riding the moment, following our instincts and emotions, guided by love.
The release of this album marks the beginnings of Raphael Fragil’s new imprint Femacosmé, how did you first encounter Raphael and when did the idea for the label come to fruition?
(Felix) : We met first in a squat called Barigaldi in Montreuil, Raphael was checking out some of my records and said looks like a good selector. He asked me if I made music too and I said yes.
(Raphael): It was a few years ago already, after Felix shared with me some of the music he had made over the past years, came the time of his first residencies at my place in the countryside, La Chapelle-du-Bois-des-Faulx in Normandy. Felix was making new music, sharing past jams…he visited a few times for a few sessions, we got to know each other, became friends and it was clear then that we wanted to work together on what I called at the time the romantic part of his creativity.
I was listening to a lot of music he was making here or there with different artists and friends that are around him, great stuff, lots of things that we even think to release in the future but when he came with the recording of Rue des Garderies he made with Zach it was for me an evidence that we had to start with that. Felix introduced me to Zach, they came together at La Chapelle-du-Bois-des-Faulx several times, the idea of creating Femacosmé came during these music sessions. Both of them are now really close friends to me, like family, it’s a musical journey full of love.
(Zach): We met with Raphael at the free party “Hardcueil” in Arcueil (Paris south side), taking place during the Fête de la Musique (Solstice 2023). A few words, great smiles, stars in the eyes… I felt we would meet again! Shortly after, Raphael invited Felix and I to his Normand sanctuary where we would share memorable moments together… chilling and discussing music, talking about love, adventure and dreams. The start of our beautiful family friendship.
Do you have more music planned for the label in the near future?
(Raphael): A lot! Really there is a lot of beautiful music to release. We have a very exciting agenda ahead of us. In the near future I can tell you that the next release is another full improvisation recorded by Felix and his friend Helene, a 30 minute journey that we decided to call Everest. You can imagine why!
Digital release, we didn’t want to cut the track In half for now as for sound reasons it’s not the best to press over 20 minutes on vinyl. This is also going to be released under the name of Rue des Garderies as the guys decided that it will become a moving orchestra. It should be out in a month or so and then we will release an ambient album from Zach, very pure and celestial sounds, we are now working on the artworks and details.
Are there plans to take Rue des Garderies on the road and perform it live elsewhere?
(Raphael): We had our first live performance of Rue des Garderies in Paris at the Femacosmé party in June. The next shows are scheduled in Nantes (December 2024), Bordeaux (February 2025) and we will be organising a Femacosmé event in London for Spring 2025.
Rue des Garderies is out now via Femacosmé. Order a vinyl copy from Inverted Audio Record Store.
TRACKLIST
A. Deus Custoviat
B. Soulseekerz
C. Suzanne
D. Gürum Nation
E. Salon Volant
F1. Velvet Blue
F2. Sanctuaire Fragil
