Trisomie 21 – “This was not the last song…”
Posted by: Side-Line on Nov 23, 04 | 8:17 pm | Profile


“Happy Mystery Child” marks in stone the return of the French cold wave cult-band Trisomie 21 who had a very prolific discography on P.I.A.S. in the good old 80’s and early 90’s next to all the great names of the moment ranging from Front 242 to Neon Judgement, through Young Gods or yet a;GRUMH… The new album will please all fans of the band’s successful “Chapter IV” period, even if it reveals a more mature song-writing approach and more polished and refined melody works and strengthened choruses. The T21 gang opened us the doors of their studio while they were busy preparing their forthcoming tour. (By Séba Dolimont)

SL:7 years of silence… We had expected you to resurrect only 21 years later? What was the trigger to this unexpected comeback?

T: T21 never stopped really, but the communication with our label Pias was not very good, after “Gohohako” we decided to wait until our contract had ended. There had always been a passion around the group, and when the T21 machine restarted, we saw the future as being very exciting. We are in a full creative effervescence! To work on HMC was a real pleasure!

SL: What have you guys been doing during all this time? Anything music/art-related?

T: T21 seemed to have fallen asleep in the eyes of the public, but we nevertheless never ceased emitting. We took part in several compilations: “La planète bleue”, “Sensations pourpres” (Kenzo), “Ballades nocturnes” with the new "Youth called to edge" and we also made a remix of "Grand secret" for the band Indochine. It also took us a certain time to make Trisomie21 evolve soundwise, and also visually with the launching of our web site by Todd E Jones, a New York fan, at www.trisomie21.com We also had some line-up changes: we have worked with Bruno Objoie now who had already contributed guitars on the album “Works”. There is also a new member: Martin Blohorn who handles keyboards and programming. Working on “Happy Mystery Child” took almost 2 years of our life. It all started rather slowly, but then the arrival of Martin and our long-time friend Olivier Lechevestrier, who now cares for our management, accelerated the whole process!

SL: Technically, the computer evolution and all have drastically changed the landscape of electronic music writers. How much have these new technologies had any impact in your working methods when composing/recording new songs?

T: We used digital technology, especially Soundscape’s red system and also vintage machines because we wanted a clear hot sound. For us HMC is very special because keyboards, loops and guitars have all been played in real time, without the help of computers. The very important part of the work was to meet together, develop song structures while respecting the surrounding and keeping the “rock aspect” intact.

SL: Your CD also comes out as a limited edition with remixes… Is it a pure commercial approach or is there a real conceptual approach behind it?

T: For the very first time we have given our songs to 30 remixers or bands which we appreciate and gave them white card for their remix. We did not impose them to respect any structure or melody, we entirely trust them. It was interesting for us to reach new horizons in different music orientations, so the intention was more conceptual than commercial, although we got a few straight dance mixes.

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You can read this interview at the Side-Line website. - "T21 Interview - (Side-Line)"
To read the complete interview, be sure to buy Side-Line issue 49!