(Progressive/Avant-prog) YOLK - Yolk (die dritte) - 1997, FLAC (image+.cue) lossless

Yolk hatched in the beginning of 1995 at secondary school. We didn't know what to play but Delphine Delegorgue (actual singer), Florence (ex bass player), Fabrice Broskiewicz(actual drummer) and Jennifer Lenoir (first show singer) were normal teenagers with weird but almost different taste (and still do). Shortly after, we became secondary school stars (first show in front of 600 spectators) because we were playing grunge, trip hop (Portishead), noise experimental (Sonic Youth) covers and weird embryonic composition, as we were also Zappa, Primus, Residents, Tom Waits fans etc ...
After Jennifer Lenoir left, Delphine became the singer and then Adrien Michel (actual sax) join the band in 1996. 1996 was an important year for Yolk because we saw Gong playing live in Béthunes; it changed our way of thinking and playing the music. It was a wonderful performance.
At this time we had a perfect line up to play our space and jazz-rock material.
Our first studio recording is characteristic of this jazz-rock-psychedelic material (one 12 minutes tunes on a local band sampler CD), abnormal time signatures, no words but really crazy shouts with a lot of delay, oriental and atonal guitar riffs, tribal and break beat drums, deep bass and aerial sax.
In 1999, Florence decided to quit, with Antonin Carette (bass) and Emilien Leroy (violin) joining the band. It was like creating a new band, so at this point we were reconsidering what to play. We were knowledgeable about electronica music (jungle, dub, etc), and very experimental improvisations, so we tried those ways. It was a quite floating period and all of us were studying or working in different towns, so it was hard to upgrade our music (we figure in 2001 in another compilation (Paolo Cesar project) and we self produced our first album).
In 2001, Delphine and Valentin (inside Rock and roll Charity Hospital collective) decide to organize "Mon Inouie Symphonie" festival in Dunkerque. They invite Fred Frith (between other like four walls, etc) for a solo performance but particularly for a workshop where all Yolks participated. It was another evolution/revolution for yolk, because Fred taught us very different and interesting ways to improvise and still ranks as one of the highest inspirations for the band: particularly Skeleton Crew, Art Bears, Keep the God and Aksak Maboul.
Yolk became a mutant entity with very strange and dark noisy improv, Balkans and oriental influences, jungle dub and waltz and sometimes thrash and space jazz rock riffs, it was chaos on stage (and for the audience too!)
There is some residue throughout the period of our second self produced album in 2004. Between 2001 and 2005, we were often all very busy by jobs and study, but we staged many shows, particularly in France and Belgium, and participate in workshops with Elliot Sharp, John Butcher, Kevin Blechdom, Jacopo Andreini and Albert Marcoeur (the French Zappa?). After a dreadful show and with a general lassitude, the end of 2004 saw Yolk decided to split for a while.
In the middle of June 2006, Yolk decided to reform because they would ready to release an official album and perform on tour. Valentin had at this time a lot of tightly composed new material to propose, which were perfectly modelled by the band. Those new tunes reflected a healthy rebirth, as they are more powerful, exciting and competently composed to play Rock in opposition, Canterbury scene and 70's jazz-rock, alongside a clear taste for brutal prog (Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, Guapo, etc) and weird mixed metal (Mr Bungle, Fantomas, Secret Chiefs 3, etc).
A time after this reformation the French label "Le Cluricaun" discover us and released their "first" non-self produced album and then linked this success, booking a maximum quoter of live shows. So since the end of 2006 we have made two UK tours (London, Bristol, Southampton, Cardiff, etc), 1 French tour, gigs in Belgium and Holland etc.
Over the years, Yolks are also involved in other bands:
idiot saint crazy (Valentin's solo project), Death tube (Delphine and Valentin duo), Scathodick Surfers (Antonin, Fabrice et Valentin), Lardons (Fabrice et Valentin) which have more differences than similarities with Yolk.

(http://www.progarchives.com)

Rèmy Strauli - vocals, violin, keyboards, drums
Willi Riechsteiner - guitar
Beat Burkard - bass
Lars Bjork - clarinet
Stefan Hugi - sax
Danu Erismann - trumpet