LA STPO (La Société des Timides à la Parade des Oiseaux)

La Société Timides à la Parade des Oiseaux (roughly translated to Shy Society at the Bird Parade) is a French band from Rennes, founded in 1984 by J (guitar), Jim B (guitar) and Pascal Godjikian (vocals). In 1985 Patrice Babin (drums, percussion) replaced the former bassist which agreed to record two tracks on the coming release (underground woman, vitellus).
In 1986 the band released an EP (a 45T, which will serve as its name) with 4 tracks through the Illusion Production label. The recording of those two mentioned above tracks were not in a recording studio, but in a bar with the noise of motorcycles from outside, practicing for a race. The recording had to be stopped each time the motorcycles came in too close. The band thought of only doing those two tracks, but the label was far more enthusiastic about those two tracks and told the band to add two more tracks and make this a EP. The two other tracks (idol, thousand days) were done with J playing the bass and guitar. The band was allowed to create its own cover art and Jim B did it.
Another release was in 1990. The tracks for this release were recorded during 1987-89. The reason was that the owner of the recording studio was also the sound engineer and he was only willing to give them so much of studio recording time. This period was a time when members left the band due to their desperation of the slow rate of advancing. And so when the recording was over, half the band was gone. There were 12 musicians in the lineup, which include in addition to the band members, a clarinet player, a saxophonist, a trumpet player, synthesizer player, a violoncello player and 3 bass players. For the track Asaphum, Pascal aimed to have a primitive feel to it (it talks about sacrificing animals in ancient times), and so they recorded it just outside of the studio, suffering from noise from cars and birds, and also rain which got them soaked and cold.
The lineup changed a couple of times and among others arrived Christophe Gautheur (saxophones, synthesizer). In 1993 the band released a concept mini-cd called Le Femme: Portrait. An additional musician, François Morel (bass) joins in and helps stabilize the lineup during that time.
In the following years they release 3 recordings: Les Explositionnistes in 1995, L'Enciversel Marsac in 1998 and Experiences de Survie in 1999. in 2001 Benoît Delaune replaces Morel on bass.
From this point on, there is a series of re-issues and compilations coming out. Their first 45T I re-issued on beta Lactam Records (USA) and two compilations are released: Le Combat Occulte in 2005 and 86-90 in 2006. This latter compilation is the 1986 EP and the 1990 album together.
The latest release is from 2006 - Tranches de Temps Jete (Slices of Thrown Time).

Music:
A nominally post-punk ensemble from Rennes in France, LA STPO (an acronym of La Société Timides à la Parade des Oiseaux) rally against every genre they are defined as in search of rock extremism - dadaism, avant-prog, punk, RIO, jazz, zeuhl and no-wave are referenced expertly but inevitably twisted into LA STPO's own vision, augmented by their unique surrealist pomp. They can be frequently violent, angry and noisy in their music, traditional structure has been discarded along with the idea of comfort zones.
A loose comparison can be drawn between LA STPO and the more involved side of avant-prog - chiefly HENRY COW - and the more daring krautrock bands, especially FAUST.

Bio by Laplace and Assaf Vestin (avestin)
[www.progarchives.com]

Album	Format	Label & Cat. Number	Description	Year	Price (incl. 19% VAT)
Le Combat Occulte	CD	Beta-Lactam Ring Records mt047b	collection of rare & live material of this great French Avant-Band, often compared to D.D.A.A, lim. 500	2005	€10.00
Le Combat Occulte	LP	Beta-Lactam Ring Records mt047a	collection of rare & live material of this great French Avant-band which has been often compared to D.D.A.A (their very first 7" appeared on Illusion Production in 1986), though they have much heavier & very expressive experimental Prog-Rock and "RIO" influences; lim. 200, 180gr. vinyl, back in !	2005	€16.00
Wir schwitzen Blumen / La STPO in Concerts	LP	KdB Records KDB004	impressive album with a collection of furious live recordings (2006-2009) by this wonderful and energetic art-rock/ 'avant-prog' / dada-punk ensemble with insane & expressive vocals from Rennes, France, now existing since almost 30 years! Perfect stuff for you if you like the 'wilder' bands on ReR Megacorp like HENRY COW, or FAUST, D.D.A.A., ETRON FOU LELOUBLAN; lim. 250 , 180 gr vinyl , download code	2013	€15.00
L'Imparfait multiple de Dieu	CD	Soleil Mutant SM 45	7th full length album, with a great epic and very melodic opening piece ("Un Dieu est un Passage dernier"), this French "unclassifiable" band continues to surprise with their mix of Avantgarde-Rock, Jazz, Prog, Ambient... they have been compared to (but nothing really matches): PTOSE, RESIDENTS, THIS HEAT, THE WORK, FAUST, PERE UBU, etc... powerful & expressive stuff, with many many changes, breaks, beautiful moments, crazy vocals..	2015	€13.00
L'Empreinte	CD	Azafran Media AP 1834	rare Mexico-import : a "lost" album that was supposed to appear already in 2012 on Beta-lactam Ring Records, but could never be realized.... 4 tracks, 60 min. playtime, 8 page booklet "..the promise of a dive into an inventive, delusional and poetic universe." [Obsküre Mag]	2018	€15.00
Les Explositionnistes	CD	Exklageto 14 CD	the second album by the unique 'surrealist attacks' performance group from Rennes (FR) was released in 1995, unavailable for long - all tracks are inspired by paintings(MAX ERNST, PICASSO, LYONEL FEININGER, etc..) - musically it's an almost unclassifiable experience between TAZARTES, DDAA and prog rock, like visiting a strange circus, but it's also very musical and greatly arranged... sometimes sad, sometimes mad, sometimes violent: RASEREI &ZÄRTLICHKEIT!	2018	€13.00
Les Explositionnistes	LP	E-Klageto Exklageto 14	the second album by the unique 'surrealist attacks' performance group from Rennes (FR) was released in 1995, unavailable for long - all tracks are inspired by paintings(MAX ERNST, PICASSO, LYONEL FEININGER, etc..) - musically it's an almost unclassifiable experience between TAZARTES, DDAA and prog rock, like visiting a strange circus, but it's also very musical and greatly arranged... sometimes sad, sometimes mad, sometimes violent; vinyl ed. lim. 379 copies w. insert	2018	€17.50
Romanciel	CD	ADN (Alma De Nieto) - DNN 032 C	the legendary Italian label ADN (very active in the cassette scene of the 80's / 90's) is back with a new studio album by the true "Avant" Rock band from Rennes, France, who often deal with dreams and neologisms in their lyrics, the surreal and the absurd...- "this music is beautiful, imaginative and free just like a successful picture or like the flight of the birds that paint the sky with their wonderful parade."- four epic + incredible expressive new studio tracks, + 8 page booklet	2022	€13.00