Night Riders
The righteous return of Night Riders from the shadows of the Parisian streets; press photo courtesy of the band.
We reported on Parisian group Night Riders’ debut album Future Noir from Svn Sns Rcrds nearly two years to the date & today we announce their double album Meta available now from PV & we proudly present the world premiere for the Aymeric Messari & the group’s Charlotte Leclerc video for “Via Crucis”. The now trio of Charlotte, Anthony Gauchy, Jean-Baptiste Larché & friends take us on an evening drive & late evening run through the narrow street-ways, sidewalks, foot-bridges of Paris while giving us a treat to their latest new developed economies of electronic beats & midnight moods of uninhibited adventurous where the luminous city becomes their oyster.
Night Riders take their audience along for the ride in the city driving & wandering visuals for “Via Crucis”. Charlotte, Anthony, & Jean-Baptiste are first seen discussing the best cheese shop in Paris while driving about the evening streets debating the establishment’s name as their humorous & spirited argument gets the party started. “Via Crucis” follows Charlotte & her fellow Night Riders rolling & strolling about the evening environments of Paris as the city lights & street scenes become the backdrop for their missions soundtracked by their minimalist yet maudlin chic succinct synth beats the punctuates the entire episode. Night Riders provide you with a Parisian tour that the out-of-towners don’t normally get to see where formagge opps & pursuits of perpetuated entertainment & endeavors of possible infinite enamourment. Read our following interview with Night Riders’ own Charlotte Leclerc.
We evolved, there’s no doubt. We also get new synths, new drum machines, new sequencers. We were hanging in space and it brought us back on Earth. Future Noir was a phantasmagorical journey in which we tried to give life while Meta is closer to a sublimated reality. We always oscillate. Wandering in space and discover a new planet, or being dazed and confused and find a new street late at night in which there’s light at the end seems to be the same.
We always try to think the music in a new way. For example, Meta is denser because it’s more focused on a sequenced core but we added a lot of subtle organic arrangements on it.
To be sincere, our goal is to go further and further, try a lot of ways to do it, grow old together and design over and over this self-styled future.
Describe the making of the wild Parisian night driving & evening embracing video for “Via Crucis”.
It was a wild night ! We had a built idea in mind but i hadn’t sleep for days, made a dj set in a bar and my friend behind the camera just followed me until the end of it. So we did it with a lot of improvisation. The driver, Mark, a friend, was driving cos i couldn’t walk anymore. He wasn’t supposed to be in the first place but he made us a surprise and there it is. Actually, all the good nights are made of improvisation and kindness. I kept some of the dialogues because it put you right in the mood!
Riding high with Night Riders; photographed by Melchior Tersen.
What’s good in Paris right now?
Until the last week-end there was this incredible huge site built on a disused coal station, La Station—Gare des Mines. But it was the closing and now it’s done. There’s a lot of good places in Paris. But actually, I assumed it’s like anywhere else : when you are with the good ones, you could be anywhere. It’s what you’re doing of it, how you’re living it that makes the place cool or not.
What have you been listening to, reading, and/or watching a lot of?
I can say it out loud : we are huge fans of Sci-Fi movies. From the terrible to the very good ones. We pay interest to many things so we also watch documentaries. After a late rehearsal, JB and i watched something about maths, especially the golden ratio and the pyramids. I know for certain that the two guys i’m stucked with had their video games times with such things as GTA, the Last of Us. So, they sometimes have their reminiscences of it ! It’s obvious that we’re influenced by the music of the 70’s/80’s TV series. At the beginning Night Riders was kind of a tribute of it.
For my part, I’m deep in the books. Read mostly poetry, ancient and contemporary. But i developed a passion these past years for Jack London. Maybe because it’s always about journeys. And maybe because the translations are better than the old ones. But all like the words and when it’s well writened, you can read everything, from essays about the pleasure tyranny to articles about music.
The cover for Night Riders’ PV double LP Meta.
Now the music ! I recently noticed that we mostly fond of english music; drum n bass, reggae, classic garage, etc. Maybe it’s geographical thing haha Can’t do a list, would be infinite! Next time we’ll talk about the link between Throbbing Gristle, Eno, Delia Derbyshire and Broadcast.
But we listen a lot of rap, music. The guys are fond of Future right now and all the new scene.
We also love jazz, from the beginning to the last : Mingus, Sun Ra, Hancock, Erroll Garner, Coltrane and more recently Kamasi Washington and James Zoo.
We look East these days, and listened to the experimental boogie japanese and the oriental disco things : Yellow Magic Orchestra, Ruychi Sakamoto, Phew, Akiko Yano, Bebidol, Ziad Rahbani. I’m going crazy because I’m trying to make it short but i can’t!
No need to say we come from punk hardcore!
2017 projections & passions for Night Riders?
Our album will be released November 22 on PV. but we recorded it more than one year ago so we planned to record a new one this winter. No idea of what’s it going to be. We’ll certainly want to push the boundaries even further.
We rehearse a lot so play seems to be a plan!
Night Riders’ new double album Meta is available now from PV.
