Les Visiteurs Du Soir Interview: ‘Basic electronic music, a fairly raw sound, and lyrics of dark realism’
Les Visiteurs Du Soir
Les Visiteurs Du Soir is a French duo featuring Pascal-André Fauchard and Jean-Christophe D’Arnell. The band’s name Les Visiteurs Du Soir is a direct reference—an explicit homage—to Marcel Carné’s film, a true masterpiece of poetic realism. The film offers an aesthetic the duo could not help but embrace at the time: black and white imagery, sharp contrasts (good/evil, eternity/death, truth/lies, etc.), mystery, a political dimension, and a certain form of minimalism tinged with the fantastic. In other words, a poetic universe to which the duo felt it was legitimate to attach themselves—through their lyrics, their music (an assumed synthetic minimalism), and the visual identity they presented.
Finally, the duo format of Les Visiteurs Du Soir can also be interpreted as a final nod to the two minstrels in the film. The album “1984” features songs originally written in the 80s, when the band was active. Released by Meidosem Records and Infrastition, it sounds like pure old-school Electro-Wave and has been completely reworked, re-recorded, and remastered to achieve a fresh and exciting result. It is uncertain whether the duo will ever release new material, but I sincerely hope they will consider it. I spoke with Les Visiteurs Du Soir about 1984. (Courtesy by Inferno Sound Diaries)
Les Visiteurs Du Soir interview
Q: Les Visiteurs Du Soir is an old project, unknown or forgotten by many, that was active in the early 80s. Who was involved at the time, and what do you remember most vividly about its inception? What were your main influences and references back then?
Jean-Christophe: In fact, our Les Visiteurs Du Soir adventure began in Orléans in 1981 with the creation of the band D.Stop (3 members: vocals/guitar/synths) and two particularly fruitful years of ‘Tekno-Punk’ exploration; memorable concerts/performances, a deliberately provocative music video, and the recording of “Traitement De Choc” (45 RPM EP – 1982) and “Nouvelles Du Front” (33 RPM Mini LP – 1983). These two records have been reissued several times since, met with genuine enthusiasm by fanzines upon their release, and were widely played on independent radio stations.
Continuing our evolution, and now a duo, we decided in 1984 to abandon guitars and further explore the instruments that had, in fact, largely contributed to forging our musical identity—in other words, the ‘machines’! Three second-hand synthesizers, two very limited drum machines, a vintage echo chamber, and a whole bunch of effects pedals, originally intended for… guitars! It was in this minimalist and cold setup that we first took to the stage as Les Visiteurs Du Soir. We offered basic Electronic music, a fairly raw sound, and lyrics of dark realism, embodied by Pascal-André, a completely captivating and charismatic singer. A kind of energetic and bizarre ‘Electro-Pop’ that often flirted with the Avant-Garde of our compatriots Taxi Girl, Kas Product, or other groups like Suicide, DAF, Fad Gadget, Front 242, and Depeche Mode. After a few concerts and only two tracks released on the compilation “Le Cimetière Des Passions” (New Wave Records – 1985), our project Les Visiteurs Du Soir came to an end after a final concert opening for Rita Mitsouko on June 13th, 1985. Ultimately, Les Visiteurs Du Soir only lasted a year, which is quite short!
Q: The Les Visiteurs Du Soir album “1984”essentially brings the group back to life, forty years later. How did this idea come about, and what was it like to rediscover these songs after so many decades—reworking, re-recording, mixing, mastering, and finally releasing them?
Jean-Christophe: While the idea of finalizing this ‘youthful project’ as a proper album took some time to mature (to say the least…), it all started in 2006 with the kind offer from the Born Bad label to include our track “Je T’écris D’un Pays” on their compilation BIPPP French Synth-Wave 1979/85. At the same time, a few covers (including the astonishing version by Norwegian DJ Rikslyd on her 2011 album “Music For Headphone Dancers”) began to appear here and there, demonstrating a continued interest in this track, which was, however, released ‘last century’, for the first and only time, on the famous compilation “Le Cimetière Des Passions” (New Wave Records).
But the real turning point came during a major clean-up of my ‘sound archives’! I rediscovered an audio cassette, the only audio record of this very short period of Les Visiteurs Du Soir’s existence. It was the recording of our very last concert (June 13, 1985) opening for Rita Mitsouko. While the sound quality rendered the recording practically unusable, the emotion was still there, and the potential of certain tracks seemed obvious to me, hence the decision to finally make this album that we were never able to do at the time!
Q: Can you tell us more about the songs on this Les Visiteurs Du Soir album? Are they exclusively older tracks, or are there also later—or even new—songs to discover? What stages did you go through to revive this material, and what were the main difficulties or challenges along the way?
Jean-Christophe: The tracks on the album truly date from that era (1984/1985), as they were part of our setlist at Les Visiteurs Du Soir’s very last concert! Only “Shock Therapy” is slightly earlier (1982), since it’s a new version of “Traitement De Choc,” one of the emblematic tracks from our D.Stop project.
There was indeed talk at one point of composing a new track (based on unpublished and current lyrics), but we ultimately abandoned the idea for the sake of conceptual consistency.
We started by selecting tracks from this audio cassette, transcribing the lyrics (a particularly difficult task given the poor quality of this live recording!), and then began rewriting the songs: programming the rhythms, searching for the original sounds, working on the arrangements, textures, and so on. Next, we held a few rehearsals to define several things together: the vocal intentions, the final tempos, the song structures, etc. Finally, we went back into the studio to record all the tracks, using our original synthesizers as much as possible: Korg MS-20, Yamaha CS-01, Roland SH-101, Korg KR-55 drum machines, and Yamaha MR-10. Ultimately, the main challenge during the recording was to remain as faithful as possible to the ‘sound’ we had at the time (that is to say, quite ‘cheap’ but effective) without compromising the principle (and the comfort, regarding recording techniques). and mixing!) of a certain ‘modernity’.
Q: How did collaboration work back then and did you introduce any new elements when reworking the songs?
Jean-Christophe: Pascal-André wrote all the lyrics (except for “Une Statue De Marbre”… the sole exception!), sang, and also played a few lines (bass and/or accompaniment) during concerts, on a monophonic synthesizer he carried slung over his shoulder like a guitar!
On stage, I handled the music (synths/drum machines/effects pedals) and also sang a lot of backing vocals.
As we’ve already mentioned, our synthesizers were really cheap and didn’t allow us to compose very elaborate music. One of the keyboards, the Farfisa Synthorchestra, constantly went out of tune under the heat of the stage lights, the tempo of the drum machines was set using only imprecise markers (simple drawn lines), and… we weren’t exactly great instrumentalists!
But all these constraints ultimately allowed us to develop a very personal musical universe, a kind of ‘Synth-Wave’ before its time; which probably explains the continued interest shown in our music over the past few years (“Je T’écris D’un Pays” on the BIPPP compilation in 2005).
The only recording we had made at the time was for the two tracks on the compilation “Le Cimetière Des Passions”; our instruments weren’t equipped with MIDI connections, each note was played live, some sound effects came from an audio cassette, the number of tracks was very limited (8 in total!), and the time allotted for recording and mixing was tight. In short, the recording conditions were quite restrictive and added difficulty and pressure to our relative lack of experience.
But for the recording of “1984,” the conditions were very different this time! First, Pascal-André and I both gained experience: P.A. through regular and demanding vocal practice, and myself through substantial recording studio experience (12 Collection D’arnell-Andrea albums and numerous one-off sessions for remixes, covers, etc.). The recording and mixing process therefore took a little over a year, which allowed us to take the time to define the sound we wanted, to experiment, make additions, and arrive at a mix that suited us perfectly. Of course, we sometimes modified the structures of certain tracks and added instrumental lines; Pascal-André even reworked some of his lyrics. Fortunately, we were able to benefit from the expertise and involvement of Pierre-Emmanuel Mériaud (sound engineer and producer for Collection D’arnell-Andrea) to achieve the right balance between the original, very 80s instrument sounds, which were essential to preserve, and those that a certain ‘modernity’ demanded for this project. For example, we took the time to sample each of the rhythmic elements of the KR 55 so that we could mix them with other sounds and thus reprogram the original rhythmic structures. In short, the adventure was exciting, and we are completely satisfied with how we finally produced our ‘from another century’ compositions in 2024!
Q: The lyrics were clearly important and addressed serious themes, functioning as a form of social reflection on the world you were living in. What were your main concerns at the time, and how do you recognize—or reassess—those concerns in today’s world?
Pascal-André:What reinforced our decision to re-record these tracks was, in particular, their timelessness. They are still relevant, I would even say, unfortunately! These various vignettes of daily life, these 20th-century news items, are for the most part transposable to current events in the 21st century. We were missing fragments of lyrics in several of the tracks, which were difficult to find on the only original cassette. I had no trouble getting back into it today, even going the extra mile to improve certain turns of phrase or replace some words that would be difficult to pronounce in 2026…
After our provocative and rebellious Post-Punk D.Stop period, the time had come to reflect on more measured, more subtle, more melodic lyrics… I already had a strong affinity in the 80s for everything related to the history of everyday life in the West. This rich material offered an inexhaustible source of inspiration for expressing our disagreements, frustrations, regrets, and disapproval within the society in which we lived. All of this could have seemed a bit ‘heavy’, but I always tried to inject a touch of irony, almost humor! The second level of interpretation was, and remains, important for Les Visiteurs Du Soir… And as Jean-Christophe mentioned earlier, the expressionism of the visual arts (cinema, photography, painting) had become the driving force behind my inspiration.
Especially since it had to be done effectively on stage during concerts. The duo or trio format, as we have today, was, and still is, a risky undertaking!
Q: A great deal has changed over the past forty years—particularly in terms of instruments, recording technologies, production techniques, music distribution, and, of course, the way music is consumed. How do you view this evolution, and how do you see it developing further in a world where artificial intelligence is becoming indispensable, including within music itself?
Jean-Christophe:First, there’s all this technological evolution I mentioned earlier (regarding the instruments we used in the early 80s and recording techniques), which has allowed for a great liberation of desires and the heyday of DIY! Today, anyone can easily and cheaply record, produce, and distribute their own music. Similarly, it’s so much simpler, faster, and more reliable today to send photos, an entire album, a video, or even a simple interview to Side-Line in Belgium, for example!
But I also note all the paradoxes that accompany these developments:
- the digital distribution of music, YET the continued strong interest in physical media (vinyl, CDs, even cassettes!)
- the sophistication of current synthesizers and recording techniques,YET the search for and presence in many current productions of very 80s sounds, often with a genuine quest for the ‘analog’ sound!
- an almost endless supply of musical projects, BUT a renewed interest in the ‘pioneering’ Electronic groups of the late 70s and early 80s.
Ultimately, our project perfectly embodies this paradoxical situation: we certainly wouldn’t have achieved the same result without the contributions of current technology, but “1984” wouldn’t exist either if our story and our ‘sound’ hadn’t been built in the early 80s with the rudimentary technology of the time!
And we’re delighted that the Les Visiteurs Du Soir album is not only available digitally, but also (nostalgia being what it is…) on vinyl (Meidosem Records), CD & cassette (Infrastition Records).
Finally, all these developments also facilitated the remix project (contacting musicians, sending stems, mastering) for our ‘flagship track’, “Je T’écris D’un Pays” (translated: I’m writing to you from a country). And frankly, the quality of these 7 remixes (Gilles Martin, Piers Volta, Martin Dupont, Laudanum, Opera Multi Steel, Slow Motion and Silently Down) confirms all the confidence we have in human creativity, and allows us, incidentally, to put into perspective the importance that AI could occupy in future musical creation.
Q: Are there any further plans for Les Visiteurs Du Soir, or will “1984” remain a standalone release? And are there other projects in the pipeline, such as a new album from Collection D’arnell-Andrea?
Jean-Christophe:The album release is still quite recent, as it’s our first return to the stage! Being very motivated to repeat the live experience, we are continuing to work on upcoming concerts.
Regarding Collection D’arnell-Andrea, we will have the pleasure of returning to Belgium on March 7th in Arlon (the last time was in Waregem for W-Fest in 2019). Following a kind suggestion from Martin Dupont, and as part of a cover album project, we recorded a cover of their song “Assez” by My Analyst. We have also committed to providing an original composition for the Soundtrack of an exhibition dedicated to the futuristic (and Orléans-based!) Aérotrain project. And we also need to seriously consider the vinyl reissue project of our album “les Marronniers” for the Meidosem label, a project that was planned for 2025, but which has given priority to the Les Visiteurs Du Soir project… So, quite a few activities but no new Collection D’arnell-Andrea album in preparation for the moment.
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