Laurent Pernice

After being a bass player in various groups, Pernice launched out some experiments on a four-track-cassette-tape and a computer. Thus, almost unconsciously, his first solo album was born; Détails, a very personal release, came out in 1989. New music? Industrial music? Two choreographers were interested in his work and used it in their show.

​

Industrial Rock Period

Pernice was introduced to Nox, a band looking for a percussionist for a tour. Overdriven guitars with humming percussions appealed to him. A series of concerts in Europe and a record in 1989, Killing Drive Power, resulted from this. However, Pernice felt the need to give his personal point of view. His second record, Axident, much influenced by his participation in the band, came out in 1991.

Techno Groove Period

The tempo of the concerts with Nox slowed down, each member of the group being occupied by personal projects. Pernice seized this opportunity to direct himself towards his third disc, Exit to the City, out in 1993. He tried out a new way, always unclassable, mixing his impressions of trip to Moscow, the non-European music and a groove near to On-U-Sound bands. The critics were very positive. He started to draw near to the techno.

Ambient Period

In 1994, a meeting with a German band, POL, whose music were full of nuances – close to Pernice's own – lead to collaboration with one of its members, Marcus Schmickler. This resulted, one year later, in Sept Autres Créatures. It was resolutely directed ambient techno, the loops of synthesizers were pre-eminent there, compared to the samples. The complex atmospheres were very varied, the beat fluctuant.

Back to the Roots

In 1998, Pernice wanted to explore new inspirational paths. He felt the need to speed up the tempo, to turn over to a more direct vision of music. Thus he worked out Tambo. Always in a techno vein, but with more samples; he looked for rapidity and simplicity, while keeping the richness of atmospheres, i.e. the baroque dimension, of his preceding album. Some of the pieces on Tambo would be used on a split CD (with 99 mg from the band Ulan Bator), Ligne Latérale.

Electronica Furiosa

The new millennium involved Pernice in electronic experiments, increasingly more unslung: Yppah, a multifaceted album, dedicated to the American poet Walt Whitman. Jazz mixed with funk, ambient amalgamated with industrial music… The big cauldron of computer allowed everything…

Electro-jazz

First release: Infrajazz in 2003. It wasn’t jazz, but this album was supported by an ambient jazz feeling. Second release: Drosophiles et Doryphores, with the science-fiction writer and saxophonist Jacques Barbéri, in 2004. This was jazz, but electronically enhanced. The CD explored subtle, ambient electro-jazz. A new sound.

More Explorative Experimental Projects…

In 2008, La Chasse au Snark - a re-interpretation of the famous Lewis Caroll poem - was released. The only witness of this borderline performance was a video circulating on YouTube and other internet platforms.

In 2010, Ab-rupt: came out - again a completely different album where improvisation meets immobile music. Laurent explored all possibilities of an electric bass guitar, the sounds of which were distorted by a computer.

In 2013, Pernice reunited with Laurent Perrier (from the band Nox). This resulted in Play piano and sounds, an ambient electro-jazzy album.

Two years later the electronic oratorio L’apocalypse des oiseaux, composed in collab with Jacques Barbéri, was put out. The album’s dry sound, similar to improvised music, was very far from their first common, more electro-jazz-like project.

In 2016, Pernice worked with the band Palo Alto, resulting in a split LP, Phantom Cosmonauts. He was on electronics, bass guitar, zither and double bass…

Currently, Pernice collaborates with the band Nataraj XT, that composed the music (and played on stage) of the shows by the company Cie Artonik. Last year, Pernice and Nataraj XT released a dance / electro CD, Color of Sound, inspired by the music from the show The Color of Time by Cie Artonik.

Last year, The Sublunar Society, Atypeek Music and Pernice signed a record deal. An interesting, experimental electronic CD and digital, A World Too Late, was dropped earlier this year.

releases