Tracklist
1 | La Corse, Le Debut | 3:19 | |
2 | La Tempête | 6:49 | |
3 | Vieille Bruce Lee | 3:32 | |
4 | Bound Together | 2:59 | |
5 | Licenciee En Tarot | 3:19 | |
6 | Bras De Sorcière | 2:52 | |
7 | Le Cri Du Barbu | 8:01 | |
8 | AIP (2025 Bonus Track) | 2:11 |
The strength of Fan Club Orchestra's (FCO) trajectory lies in their nebulous, collaborative, and experimental nature, always with Laurent Baudoux at the centre. With its roots in the DIY impulses of the Brussels art and music scene of the late nineties, Baudoux rallied together a revolving cast of players with an unconventional ensemble of instruments to explore melancholic psychedelia that touched on drone and minimalism as readily as it carved minor pop hits from cracked electronics. Performances were often highly improvisational, aided by the barely controlled chaos that guest collaborators—such as American artist Mike Kelley—would inject into an appearance.
FCO self-released two albums in the early 2000s before finding a home with Sonig, where they released several more records up until their last with the label in 2013. This was a fitting frame as Sonig, like FCO, channelled the fervour and formalism of the experimental music history of the Rhineland, which includes Kraftwerk, krautrock, and key early electronic music studios.
The recordings for 2013s »An Insane Portrait« were originally commissioned in 2009 for Fabrizio Terranova's film »Josée Andrei, An Insane Portrait« about the truly remarkable figure Josée Andrei. Shot in San Francisco, the film is an intimate portrait of Andre. Blind from birth, she is a witch, painter, photographer, tarot reader, and psychology and modern literature graduate.
»An Insane Portrait« captures a stripped-back FCO, with Baudoux working solely with original FCO member Ann Appermans. The configuration of Baudoux's electronics and Appermans' bass guitar yield a tender and preciously melodic suite of instrumentals.