LES VALENTINS

LES VALENTINS

Since launching their career in the mid-80s, male/female duo Les Valentins have put out a string of critically-acclaimed albums and earned a cutting-edge reputation for their songwriting, arrangements and production work.

BIOGRAPHY
Edith Fambuena and Jean-Louis Pierot, the two musicians who make up Les Valentins, were both born in the 60s in the Aix-en-Provence region in the south of France. Edith, the daughter of local shopkeepers and Jean-Louis, whose parents were teachers, were both fired by a passion for music from an early age.
Edith and Jean-Louis met in their early teens. Discovering that they shared the same musical tastes, which at that time largely revolved around the Velvet Underground, they teamed up with Gérald Gardrinier (future French music star De Palmas) in 1985 and formed their own band, les Max Valentins. The group featured Edith on bass and Jean-Louis on keyboards.
The group's career took off in 1987 when France was in the grip of "Dahomania" and Etienne Daho, the king of French pop, visited Aix in the course of a national tour. Daho hooked up with Les Max Valentins in a local night-club post-concert and immediately hit if off with Edith and Jean-Louis. Indeed, Daho ended up signing Les Max Valentins to his label, Satori Song, and went on to put out the group's first singles, "les Maux-dits" and "Printemps parapluie".
Unfortunately, neither of these singles met with any commercial success. And, a few months later, Gérald, who had been experiencing major musical differences with Edith and Jean-Louis, left Les Max Valentins to pursue a solo career.

FROM THREE TO TWO
The trio thus disappeared from circulation in the summer of 1988. However, shortening their name to Les Valentins, Edith and Jean-Louis re-emerged as a duo in 1989. Meanwhile, the two musicians were both busy working with other people. Edith joined Etienne Daho in the studio to play guitar on his 1988 album "Pour nos vies martiennes" (for which, incidentally, she wrote the track "Caribbean Sea"). As for Jean-Louis, he was busy with his own collaborations, working with Daniel Darc (the ex-Taxi Girl) and UK musician Bill Pritchard.
Edith and Jean-Louis soon went into the studio on their own account, however, to work on their debut album, "le Café des deux mondes". Released in 1990, the duo's first album scored a big hit with French music critics, but failed to take off with the record-buying public. (This scenario has, in fact, been repeated many times throughout the Valentins' career).
In 1991 Edith and Jean-Louis went on to record part of the soundtrack for Francesca Comencini's film "Annabelle partagée" alongside Etienne Daho. The duo also embarked upon their first major national tour later the same year.
1992 found Les Valentins teaming up with Etienne Daho once again, joining the Rennes-born star in the studio to co-produce his new album "Paris ailleurs" (which, needless to say, turned out to be another best-seller). Later that year Edith and Jean-Louis also accompanied Daho when he embarked upon an extensive national and international tour to promote his new album. On their return, Les Valentins also collaborated on "Dans la lune", the solo album released by Nicola Sirkis (lead singer of cult French group Indochine).

SECOND ALBUM
During Daho's "Paris Ailleurs" tour Edith and Jean-Louis had locked themselves away in their room for much of the time to concentrate on writing material for a new album. And, once the tour was over, they went straight into the studio to begin work on their second album. Released in the summer of '93 and simply entitled "Les Valentins", the album presented the group as a fourpiece. The record cover featured a photo of Jean-Louis and Edith flanked by Daho's bass-player, Marcel Aubé, and UK drummer, Stephen Irvine. The group's second album also featured guest performances by Jacno and Christine Lidon.
Les Valentins turned their attention to the live scene later that year, playing in concert at Le Bataclan in December before embarking upon a major French tour.
By 1994 Edith and Jean-Louis were already caught up in a busy whirl of collaborations again. The pair were called in to produce a duet recorded by Etienne Daho and Jacques Dutronc (for a collective fund-raising album against AIDS masterminded by Daho). The following year Les Valentins went on to write two songs for Brigitte Fontaine and also joined Jacno in the studio to help out on his new album "Faux témoin".

EGO TRIP
Continuing their rhythm of putting out an album every three or four years, Edith and Jean-Louis returned to the studio to begin work on their third album in 1997. The atmosphere of the recording sessions was particularly strained, however, as Les Valentins experienced serious internal problems during this period and almost reached the point of splitting up. Edith and Jean-Louis managed to hold things together sufficiently to complete the album. And "Ego Ego", released in 1997, turned out to be a musical masterpiece featuring sumptuous string sections and vibrant brass orchestrations.
Les Valentins played a handful of concerts in November and December, putting in a memorable performance at the legendary "New Morning" in Paris. But it was their work on Alain Bashung's album, "Fantaisie militaire", which really boosted their career later that year. "Fantaisie militaire" proved to be a huge critical and commercial success and French music critics raved about Edith and Jean-Louis's arrangements on Bashung's album. Encouraged by this response to their work, the duo managed to sort out their earlier differences and strengthen their musical partnership.
In 1998 the duo went on to work on a solo album put out by the singer Doriand. And the following year their names also featured on the credits on Daho's new album, "Corps et armes" (recorded between London and Paris), Jacno's album, "la Part des anges", and Mercedes Audras' second album. (Increasingly renowned for their superb musical arrangements and production work, Les Valentins would even be invited to write material for Marianne Faithfull in 2001).
Taking a temporary break from her music career in 1999, Edith revealed her acting talent, appearing in Stéphane Giusti's film "Pourquoi pas nous?" Then she got back to work with Jean-Louis and the pair locked themselves away in the recording studio to work intensively on their new album.
Having written a dozen new tracks in the space of just a few weeks, the pair were ready to record their new opus in 2000. The recording sessions, which kicked off at the end of that summer, took place in Paris, London and New York. And Les Valentins' new album, "Juke Box", hit record stores on March 6th 2001. It proved to be another musical masterpiece thanks, among other things, to some sublime string arrangements by Will Malone (a musician renowned for his work with leading UK groups such as Massive Attack and The Verve).
After appearing at Le Nouveau Casino, in Paris, on 23, 24 & 25 October, the duo kicked off a major French tour in 2002, during which they played a series of dates supporting Irish rock band The Cranberries.
2003 saw the official demise of Les Valentins, but after splitting up both Edith Fambuena and Jean-Louis Pierot continued their music careers as individuals, collaborating with other artists.

LES VALENTINS (1993)
224 KBPS
1. Bastille day 6:00
2. J'ai triste 4:39
3. Sous le signe du serpent 5:41
4. Satisfy my soul 4:51
5. Les pieds dans la lune 4:29
6. Le paradis des menteurs 5:00
7. Les sans lendemains 5:20
8. No sex 1:50
9. La nuit de plein soleil 18:57
10. Qu'importe c'est l'été 4:52

password: NS83

EGO EGO (1997)
256 KBPS
1. On Le Sait 4:01
2. Fuera De Aqui 4:36
3. Février 3:56
4. It's Too Late 3:33
5. Teddy Bear 3:39
6. Comme Sharon 5:15
7. Vicissitudes 4:30
8. Louisiana 4:48
9. Telle Est La Question 4:50
10. Blood Red 4:32
11. Plein Air 5:51
12. Tohu-Bohu 6:22

password: NS84

JUKE BOX (2001)
256 KBPS
1. Entre elle et moi 4:30
2. Nos mères 5:15
3. Etretat 4:53
4. Le marchand de fleurs 3:59
5. C'est bien chez vous 3:57
6. Le derrière des portes 3:13
7. Je t'écris 5:10
8. Comme dans la vie 4:29
9. L'oeil sec 5:53
10. Sur la pente 5:04
11. Tambours battants 5:28

password: NS85