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Van Raveschot is the name of the black bird that calls you into an underworld. Slowly, in search of the sound, you find that colour is draining away and suddenly it is night. Streets become chiaroscuros of electric light and otherworldly blacks. Nevertheless, you go on, and finally the call brings you to a bar, and you enter at your own risk. Lost and beguiled, you find yourself watching the band. A little cabaret, a little punk. The sound of lost creatures gathering.
The singer. her name is Amelie, and if you knew her, you would know that she too was called from Paris by the sound of Van Raveschot, to be here, breaking the backs of songs for the black bird. She sings of the mysteries and the paradox of love and of the city in a wine-cool voice. Fashion is only one clue. The intoxication of European discovery, gratification and disillusion and emotional choices are other hints.
The pulse and firework attention-span of the rhythm section makes the air heavy with foreboding, and thrum of untold thrills The diamond-sparkling riffs of the guitar cut and soar through the post-modern malaise and reflect off of the glasses on the bar, in the hands of strangers. The drinks turn into ghosts. This, then, is what it has come to. The sound of lost nights, the promise of something otherworldly, the scent of sleaze and style, of lovers threatening never to let you go, of romances promising to bring you to life, of the seduction of cities and the heartbeat of dance, defiance and pleasure.
You stand in the shadows and you watch and wait. You wait for it all to come true. Somewhere else, your home disappears from view and all you are left with are songs. Cool, cool songs.
Buck Theorem
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There is no use to talk about influences when one band stays on it’s own feet as well as Van Raveschot. Of course Punk and Cold Wave are not new in 2009, but they are fashionable. Still, fashion can be tricky. Van Raveschot is not a fashionable band; they could sing in 1981 as well as they sing today and that wouldn’t bother anybody.
Their sound is bold and classical without useless auditive „fireworks“. Lead singer Amelies voice is powerful and „rrriot“-isch though sexy and one can not ignore the particularity of her beautiful French accent.
The album „Eden East“ is homogenous and smart sounding, without excesses of existencialism, as it’s to be expected from usual cold wave productions. Au contraire, there is a song lead by a beautiful excess of good vibes: „H2O2“ is addictive, the kind of song to listen in loop on a sunny day.
On the other side is „The B-City”, an hymn to Berlin. The beat and the minimal verses recreate the recent history and the powerful energy of this unique city where everything is so different.
Steve Morell
Concerts:
30/10/07 Kita with Dead Sexy and Pravda -22/05/08 Intersoup
-23/05/08 Mikz -29/05/08 Acud -20/06/08 Knaack -13/06/08 White Trash -03/07/08 Dunker Club -04/07/08 Supamolly -11/07/08 Artliners -12/07/08 White Trash -02/08/08 Hangar -26/09/08 Intersoup
-31/10/08 Le petit Laboratoire-24/01/09 Roadrunner's Neon Raider 23/06/09 Kesselhaus - support for Tito & Tarantula-19/07/09 Acud-23/07/09 Dunker Club-19/11/09 SO36 Berlin Insane Festival-14/03/10 Junction bar -30/03/10 Werstatt der kulturen19/06/10 The Establishment.01/07/10 Dunker Club.09/07/10 West Germany.11/07/10 Stattbad Wedding.19/11/10 SO36.
ORDER " Eden East "CD ON Itunes, Amazon, Napster. on the "Believe player" down here or on Pale Music international.
