L'Orange '2 People in a Room' (CD)
Ambient electronica songs of love and experience.
Jewel case CD
TRACKS:
1. Ripples [1:25]
2. The Hour Before We Knew Each Other [5:07]
3. Gold Thread [4:57]
4. Eyes Wide Open [5:13]
5. The Taste Was [1:24]
6. The Garden [5:54]
7. Something Without a Name [4:46]
8. Facets [5:00]
9. Rhythms of Interference [5:02]
10. Nue (In the Nude) [3:03]
11. Where the Wild Things Are [7:09]
CREDITS:
Véronique ‘Orange’ Joly: vocals
Daniel Biro – all instruments
Additional vocals on ‘Rhythms of Interference’ by Adrian Potts
Cello on ‘Ripples’ and ‘Where the Wild Things Are’ by Howie Bevan
Photos by Patricia Curtis
Painting and design by Jac Depczyk
All music written performed and produced by L’Orange
Except ‘The Taste Was’, words by A.S. Byatt from ‘Elementals’ – Chatto & Windus, London 1998 – used by permission of the author
Engineered and mixed by Daniel Biro and Mike Willox
Original master by Nick Robbins (2002)
***
L’Orange started out as a French duo project together with singer/songwriter Véronique Joly (stage name: ‘Orange’) and ended up lasting over 10 years. I had known Véronique since my school days in Menton in the South of France. She was part of my circle of friends and shared many of my teen experiences. Building on her theatrical work and opera training, Véronique became a wonderful vocalist and performer as well as a prolific and original lyric writer, mixing literary and cultural references with playful word juggling. In the late 80s, with Véronique now living n Paris, we decided to work together, encouraged by some early attempts of setting her words to my music.
After an initial prolific period of demo recordings we self-produced the single ‘Si J’étais
Vous’ (later re-recorded with English lyrics as ‘If I Were You’) and approached the main French record companies. Nothing came of it and Véronique decided to relocate to London where I had already been living since 1985. She started writing lyrics in English and we put together a proper band with friend guitarist Steve Swift. The line up was an unusual one (voice, keyboards/drum machine, guitar and two saxophones) and we played quite a few good gigs in and around London.
L’Orange’s style was quintessentially French pop but the fact that we mixed languages allowed us to widen the range of the band’s appeal. We signed a couple publishing contracts with the promise of getting a good recording deal but, disappointingly, it was not to be. All the original demos have now been restored and released digitally (see the collections of English and French demos ‘A Fruitful Past’ Vol.1 & Vol. 2).
By then we had also moved on musically and without the other band members into more ‘grown up’ experimental territory. The emphasis was on sound exploration, languorous, watery moods and cinematic ambiences. The theme of the album was an intimate investigation of the multi- faceted emotional/sensual ties between two people. Love songs, but with darker ambiguities that make up the complexities of real relationships. Véronique’s soaring lyricism was complemented by my twilight sonic scenery.
Despite some critical success, shortly after that, we both got involved with other projects and L’Orange ceased to exist. The songs, though, remain.
© Daniel Biro 2020