When two violins steeped in trance noise experimentation collide with a drum kit navigating between fantasized doom and electroacoustic future, they drift together like a freewheeling pulsar, chanting madcap litanies for a ceremony without god or master. RAVAGE creates furiously free music resonating with its own raw rage, and it’s time to share it with the world.
Comprising Anthony Laguerre (Batterie), Bastien Pelenc (Violon), and Mathieu Werchowski (Violon), RAVAGE are eager sound explorers who devour vibrant spaces and work as composers-improvisers across all genres.
Their musical journey spans large-scale productions with Cirque Trottola and Johan le Guillerm to intimate settings where theater and dance coexist. They seamlessly move between bands like FILIAMOTSA and BEDMAKERS, radio creation, solo productions, and Urbex territories blending contemporary art and imaginary tourism.
RAVAGE’s distinctive sound emerges from their extended drum gear, a few effects, and their plugged-in violins. They aim to momentarily liberate the unconscious, evoking the image of two Paganinis in ecstasy, leaning toward the contemporary extremes of John Cale or Warren Ellis. Their music is a ferociously free sonic experience, inviting listeners on a multidimensional journey.
Their first music video for the track “Demon Lover” was captured during a residency at La Fonderie du Mans in May 2023 by Pierre Veyzer. The video encapsulates the raw and unfiltered energy of their improvisational process, reflecting the band’s commitment to creating real-time compositions.
RAVAGE is set to perform at several festivals in France during the summer of 2024, including Jazz à Luz on July 7, Baignade Sauvage on August 24, and in Bayonne on August 25. These performances will showcase their talent for striking a balance between improvisation, minimalist music, and dramatic contrasts in timbre and intensity, creating expansive musical landscapes.
In our recent interview, the members of RAVAGE shared their inspirations and approach to music, discussed their backgrounds in performing arts, their creative process, and a lot more.
What inspired you to take this approach regarding your musical setup? The use of violins, which really crank up the intensity of the music, creates a truly eerie vibe. Tell us more about it.
The idea behind our set-up is that of a power trio, heir to rock’n’roll, evolving in a universe of tension with enormous dynamics of genre and sound (ranging from acoustic contemporary to noise, from repetitive minimal to wild lyricism). The distinctive feature of our atypical trio is the presence of 2 violins/mirrors, paving the way for the continuous, sustained sounds characteristic of trance music, in the wake of the radicalism of Tony Conrad or John Cale. 2 violin heroes who rub shoulders with Anthony’s precise, massive drumming, sometimes with the addition of a Revox tape recorder, adding a field of possibilities with splits, speeds and grains that blur perception.
Could you share more about the band’s background and history? How have you been operating up until now?
The three of us have a long history of working with the performing arts, especially circus (Cirque Tortilla, Johann Le Guillerm). What unites us is a taste for sound and the idea that sound is the basis of music and not the other way around (Anthony is also a sound engineer). What interests us is creating landscapes in which we ourselves evolve sonically, and providing listeners with emotions that are both powerful and subtle.
The group is brand new, having been in existence for just 1 year, creating a repertoire based on improvisations and specific proposals, through several working residencies in France (Le Mans, Nancy, Drôme, Avignon). We’ll be going into the studio in Liège in November to record the whole thing.
Is this track part of a larger release?
The track “Demon lover”, was composed during our first residency in Le Mans and sets the rock tone for our sound. The track emerged from our improvisations, and we still play it as if we were composing it in real time, i.e. with raw energy and no fuss. Our friend Pierre Veyzer made a video recording with this same idea in mind.
What’s on the horizon for you in the coming months?
This summer, concerts on 11/07 at Jazz à Luzz, a great festival perched in the Pyrenees, and on 24/08 at Baignade Sauvage in the Tarn, another not-to-be-missed event for deviant music, and on 08/25 in Bayonne. In short, a first in the South Ouest of France.
Lastly, if can you talk about your inspirations, it would be fantastic if you could give a few examples of other experimental bands that blend unexpected instruments.
In terms of influences, we love the massive sound of Swans, the rhythm of Can, as much as the uncompromising writing of composers like Scelsi or Feldman, the art of development of Necks or the electronic mixed with rock of This Heat.
Nevertheless, our music is free and free of references, insofar as almost everything emerges from improvisations that are not anchored in connotations.
