Robots in Paradia

Roland Bocquet - Djerba

Bocquet isn't exactly what you would call hidden treasure now that he already resurfaced on several blogs, mainly with his double Robot bleu / Robot rose. But I already noticed how much some of our followers occasionally don't mind a subsequent post overviewing or summarizing one of their heroes' course. And the comeback of the mighty Henriette Coulouvrat on stage, thanks to the blatant monastical efforts of Musikmekanikcircus, gives me a good opportunity to talk a bit about the one she describes as her favorite composer.




Catharsis - Christophe

Starting as a decisive member of the french prog band Catharsis, Bocquet's career firstly follows the band's impressive discography. Keyboardist, he brings a highly specific Farfisa touch that made the band's sound distinctive, as you can notice on that b-side packed under a delicate artwork. Following the Catharsis' cessation of activity, he released the Paradia solo LP, followed by Robot rose (including songs from Paradia) and the brand new Robot bleu on the library label RCA media. His perreyesque Marche des canards as well as songs Le flipper amoureux and Le repondeur automatique rightly titillated the label enough to give him a 7" exposure outside of the library field.



Across the 80's, he cumulated commercial works, layering his arpegiators on a massive amount of highly dispensable french tv anthems (X-or, Mask, les Petites canailles) or soundtracks (La Balance). Even a single for Marie Dauphin (Y'en a qui).




Henriette Coulouvrat - Rockin on the red book

Now get ready and spread the word: the syldavesque madame Henriette, for whom Bocquet composed killer hits, is back. And her last month's live appearance in Paris announces more events to come. We all know how much this kind of comeback on stage is risky and rarely works for people with such a fabled profile: this is why we got struck to almost surprisingly shiver and dance on a performance that brilliantly honoured all together the sound (no shitty remixes but pure vintage backing tracks), the voice and the crazyness. We clapped, she laughed. Ha ha ha hi hi.