Nos Allures Sages

Nos allures sages – Elli et Jacno

Maybe the least synth-heavy song they did as Elli et Jacno. It’s there, but it is just a pad in the background to punctuate the chord changes. No leads, no melody lines, no punchy one-note solos. Regardless, this is one of my favourite songs of theirs. I don’t know what that says about me. There is this strangeness about it. How everything is muted, nothing dynamic, nothing climatic, and when something almost happens it retreats to that opening guitar line again, and again.

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Dans Tes Bras

Dans tes bras – Elli et Jacno

Ahem. Elli Medeiros and Jacno (born Denis Quilliard) were both in Stinky Toys, and (i don’t know why this is any of our business) were also together romantically. That band having ended, and after a fateful personal encounter with Kraftwerk (how many people has this happened to?) and a subsequent amassing of synthesizer gear, Jacno worked on and then released an incredible self-titled EP in 1979. On one song, Anne Cherchait L’Amour, the only song with vocals on the record, he was joined again by Elli and it was this seed that would form their working relationship for the next five years. They called themselves Elli et Jacno. They were the greatest band to ever have existed.

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T’Oublier

T’oublier – Elli et Jacno

R.I.P. Jacno. You are my guitar god. You will forever be my guitar god. Yesterday, playing along to your album, pretending to be you – an uglier, less talented, non-smoking you – missing notes, playing wrong chords, hitting two or three strings when i mean to hit one, my amp on a completely incorrect and inappropriate setting because i can’t figure that thing out – it was one of the more wonderfully transportative, transcendental moments of my dull, dull life. I adore you. I want to be you. I will take inspiration from you in delivering myself from this dull, dull life. There’s an Elli for me in the next room.

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