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Clair Obscur was founded in Creil in 1981 by Thierry Damerval (bass), Christophe Demarthe (vocals) and Nicolas Demarthe (guitar). Clair Obscur strived to nurture their musical creativity into atmospheres, rather than just dispel mere melodies. Their shows mixing music and visual performances were very quickly recognised, and became a reference to both the buying public and the up and coming French independant radio stations. In 1982 they were invited to play at the Cirque d’Hiver de Paris for the French magazine Actuel which spoke of «young cultured barbarians» and of « rock Artaud ». The first cassette of Clair Obscur was released the same year. Re-published on vinyl and on CD, nearly 7000 copies have been sold since then. In 1983 Clair Obscur were invited to play at the Ecole Nationale des Beaux Arts de Paris as well as to support Killing Joke at Le Palace in Paris. The stage was cluttered with furniture and domestic objects - between the drums and the amplifiers a couple lived their daily life. Their first single Santa Maria was released the same year. In 1984 Clair Obscur published the 12" single Dansez and created a show at the Théâtre du Forum des Halles in Paris. In a hall transformed into a forest the four musicians of the group became actors to tell a social fable, The Pilgrim's Progress. The recording of this concert was published by All the Madmen (England) in 1985. It was greeted in the British press by the New Musical Express and by Sounds. From 1986 on Clair Obscur decided to play more with their audience. Their shows proposed situations which could take place only if the spectators played the game. Thus at La Grange à Musique in Creil a pseudo-TV game took place with real candidates. The British label Cathexis Recordings published the 12" single Smurf in the Gulag which was a wink at disco music, the genuine industrial music. Each show of the group had to be a unique event always different from their previous show. Clair Obscur attempted to break the established sketches of the performance. In October 1986 the théâtre Déjazet in Paris, an Italian style theatre, became the pretext of a feigned bucolic decorum, featuring a chamber orchestra and replicas of famous impressionist paintings, which happened only to be destroyed immediately after. This gave birth to the LP In Out recorded thanks to the French national radio France Culture and published by V.i.S.A. (France) in 1988. |
In 1989 Thierry left Clair Obscur. Christophe composed a piece of music for a drama performance of Sophocles’ Antigone. In 1990 new musicians coming from rock, jazz and classical music joined the group. Clair Obscur were invited to play at L'Etat du Rock in Montpellier. They proposed a show which was a reflection on the show. Noise, silence, paintings and advertisements, interval and cocktail, there was no hall and no stage any more. In 1991 Clair Obscur were invited to play in Austria at the Wiener Festwochen/Töne und Gegentöne together with French artists like Louis Sclavis and Elisabeth Chojnacka. In 1992 the CD Sans titre was published by V.i.S.A. In 1993 Clair Obscur decided to make concerts only. In 1994, thirteen years after their birth, Clair Obscur were invited to play at the festival du Printemps de Bourges as a… discovery. The album Rock, which had been started four years before but remained unpublished for financial reasons, was finally published thanks to the new German label Apocalyptic Vision which also re-released the past productions of Clair Obscur. Clair Obscur played at the Wave Treffen in Leipzig, they supported The Nits at La Cigale in Paris... In 1999 the group published the album Nulle Aide under the name CO2, period of hibernation of Clair Obscur… After an absence of seven years, Clair Obscur have formed up again in November 2004. They have been invited to play at the Heaven's Gate festival in Strasbourg, the Kab de l'Usine in Geneva, the Emo Son festival in Bourges, La Locomotive in Paris, Le Botanique in Brussels... Today Clair Obscur are Christophe Demarthe (vocals) and Nicolas Demarthe (guitars). Clair Obscur is helped by the Conseil Régional de Picardie and the Conseil Général de l'Oise. + infos : http://blumen.free.fr/ |