9 AVENUE B
"9 Avenue B’s music and poetry are an anthology of captivating spoken words and sounds that soothe our torments.
This enchanting duo transports us to somewhere else, beyond the senses. A new order to confront a world in chaos, a subtle thread between a moment and a place, as fleeting as a parenthesis.
In a sanctuary of ephemeral joy in the heart of this obscene world, the magic of sharing another vision of music. It is an invitation to hope for the dawn of a new day."
Guillaume MAHE radio journalist
Brand New
Brand New
Clock A Clay
Meeting with an electronic troubadour, Emmanuel Reverdi.
From Millénium Prophetie to 9 Avenue B...
But the deal was that Manu, Erik’s sound engineer (who was going to become my future husband but I didn't know that yet), and who did electro productions, (really, really good stuff), made Erik some slightly more constructed pieces, and that was how we would approach our Erik’s project in New York City, for concerts. At the time Erik played acoustic pieces, accompanied on the accordion by Eric Signor, and performed once or twice a week in a small club in Paris, at the Bastille “Ailleurs”. It was full every evening, it must be said that I invited a lot of people to make it known and that I left a few coins there.
And then we left for New York, Maité and I at first, (Maité Guétaf co-managed Erik with me, she was and still is an amazing person and friend, and also did some vocals on our three albums to come) and so, we started sending the demos to clubs and concert halls, and everyone said “YES, we want it, immediately!!!! »
It’s true that his voice was unique and his character too, so disturbing…And then the “counter tenor” voices are not commonplace.
When Erik arrived in New York, for the first series of concerts, in winter, we had not prepared a stage, and quickly we had to put together a formula "Millenium Prophety" with Manu the electro composer, who in the meantime had become my husband, barely 2 months after our first meeting in Paris. (He arrived ten days after me in New York and we rushed to the City Hall in China Town like two crazy people to get married, just like that, because we really wanted to. Besides, it was a great wedding, we bought small silver wedding rings with three soldered rings in the street, on St Marx Place, just in front of the “Bistro Jules”, then we went to the bridal boutiques of the lower east Puerto Rican to dress up but we had found nothing, so we went further up, to the “second hand stores in Greenwhich” and came out, dressed up like real stars, and in the evening after downing a few bottles of champagne at the “Hôtel Pierre” on the 5th; Avenue, we saw “Les Paul” in concert who had just celebrated his 90th birthday I think.
In the meantime, I had recorded vocals with “Spoken Word” on Manu's compositions, and for the concerts, Erik sang part of his repertoire with Manu playing saxophone and piano, instead of Signor's accordion, and the new electro pieces with my voices intertwining with his.
And we did the same with our poems, Millenium Prophety, was a mixture of poetic words of his ( Erik’s) and of mine, of sounds, of past lives, of sighs, of memories, of novelties, of new things in this three-way relationship, whom with this marriage, strengthened our friendship with Erik, but also distanced me from him in this long intimate journey of our previous lives. And this rather atomic fusion between Manu and me, both in terms of our relationship and our creations, imbued with the magic of our meeting, which seemed to us more like a reunion, of an overflowing, captivating and mystical sensuality, imprints also of our New York wanderings entwined and welded as a single body, day and night, of our waking dreams, of this release of sensations, of breathing, and the unmistakable projection of our forever intertwined lives.
(It must be said that the guy I quickly married was a fabulous, utterly unique and great talented French composer, Emmanuel Reverdi, who had composed his first classical opera at 16, and played all the instruments, although the saxophone was his great specialty, he went from classical to jazz, only to deviate towards electro after hearing “Music for the Babies”, by Howie B, (the father of English electro (whom the latter actually married one of my best friends, Bea Brunet, today her stage name is “Demi Mondaine” and she is the leader of Jean-Paul Gaultier's musical show.My Béa who is and will become the biggest rock star in France of all times.)
In short, we had a real hit in theaters in New York, and then one of the most magical places in New York for voices like Erik's wanted to program it in the spring, the Trinity Church. We had already started canvassing again, but here, with a model of Millénium Prophety, and Erik left for Paris. Beth Bongar, my clown friend, then found an ad in the paper from Cirque du Soleil looking for a “counter tenor voice”, and I sent the demo, but they wanted Erik to come back and audition immediately, and that wasn't feasible, so they offered to audition Erik in Amsterdam in April, just before he returned to New York for the spring concerts.
In the meantime, and just after our nuclear wedding, I became pregnant with twins, and we all had to return to Paris.
So, 4 months pregnant (times two), that is to say 8 months, I went with Erik and Manu to Amsterdam for the Cirque du Soleil audition, and Erik’s voice and character made them utterly crazy... They were all in a trance, really, but still it wasn't funny at all.
One of the directors took me aside and asked me a lot of questions about him, about his life, his way of life, his faults, his qualities, his possible addictions, and I gave all the right answers.
It was the chance of a lifetime, and he couldn't miss the boat.
In the meantime, Manu and I continued to make songs, and finished our first “Trip-hop & spoken words’s album” In Paris this time, where we had to go back, because of my pregnancy. The name of the band was “9 avenue B” which was our address in the lower East side of Manhattan. The name of the album was “Access” because it was our favorite piece, and it meant our accession to a new transition and stage of our lives, as we were becoming parents. The album was mainly Trip-hop music with “Spoken Words” (spoken poetry, because life is way more beautiful with poetry). 9 Avenue B has so much meaning to us, as it was also the address where we made the two most beautiful and brilliant babies on earth, Justin-Duncan and Valentin-Shay.The babies were treasures of our lives, sent from heaven to us, lucky, blessed and happy people. 27 years later, we still feel the same and they still are our most precious blessing.
The Trinity Church concert was coming up and Erik begged me to go with him, but I was huge and I couldn't even lie down to sleep. I didn't want to, but he threatened me not to go without me, so I left, to tell the truth we all left, Manu, Eric Signor and his girlfriend, and Alice, Erik's new conquest who was a very talented actress. We all went to stay with Beth, my dearest friend, clown and fire-eater, who had a huge loft in Tribecca, above Beth Midler's loft, and where we could even do our rehearsals as it was so amazingly huge. So, we prepared the concerts, we also played previously at the “Spiral”, the “Bagott’in”, at “Rose’s turn”, and other strategic clubs, then finally, to the famous Trinity church. On the way back, I focused on my delivery which was fast approaching, and it was time.
Paris before becoming a mum…
Just before giving birth, we did one last absolutely magical concert with Manu and Jeff Bien (the great Canadian poet) at the Shakespeare Library, on the quays. Such an unique memory…
MELODIE, BMG AND OUR FIRST ALBUM « ACCESS
With our first album “Access”, we had what we call a masterful “success of esteem” in the press, concerts in big Parisian venues. It was said of us that we were the pioneers in France of Spoken Word Poetry, and that is also why Gilbert Castro, the President of our record label “Mélodie”, signed us, he who never signed no one, except when he discovered real talents.
Gilbert Castro, who signed us in distribution, suggested that we do a few dates in Paris. I was a little terrified because of my pregnancy weight. We did several concerts at: La Flêche d’or, the Batofar, the Glazzart. The venues were full, the newspapers talked a lot about us, they loved the album.
We also made a clip for Access, shot by Manu's best friend, Yann Mercier. The clip was very offbeat in the spirit of 9 avenue B and it was programmed for a few months on M6, on “graine de stars” ‘s show...Some tracks were also programmed on RFI, and we had obtained quite a few interviews on other radio stations.
Sales were not impressive, and Gilbert Castro thought we needed a publisher. He introduced us to Jean Davoust, the king of French publishing. Jean Davoust said he loved the album and signed us with Famous Music France and BMG, while also adding us to his personal catalog, “Musiquenligne”—a huge favor since his selective catalog only featured well-known celebrities.
BRAND NEW, OUR SECOND ALBUM
Meanwhile, Manu and I were living in the Parisian suburbs, in a setting very different from Manhattan. Not only were we in the countryside, but in a rather large house, trying to learn how to become the best parents we could to our two beautiful baby boys, Justin and Valentin. Manu was working hard every day in Paris, producing music for various singers, while I stayed home to take care of the twins. Life was quite expensive for us at the time with the babies, and Manu had no choice but to work. I was thrilled to spend all my time with the boys, even though I was often exhausted. In the evenings, once the babies were asleep, we would head to our home studio in the garden and work on new songs together. It was reminiscent of our time in New York, but this felt right for us.
The truth was, though, that it was difficult to balance a music career and raising children. I was adamantly against going on tour—it was unthinkable and impossible for me to sacrifice the well-being and stability of our children, despite my nomadic roots. Manu was quite frustrated with me because of this, and we began arguing about it. We started growing apart, not just because of the touring issue but also due to the typical stresses of new parents—disagreements over parenting, constant fatigue, and differing opinions on many things.
But Brand New, our second album, was finished, and it was brilliant. We were very happy with the outcome and received great feedback from our record label as well as our publisher. This time, the album had more of a Parisian vibe, maybe a bit more mature and realistic, but still filled with love, hope, and poetry.
The album was released, but... 9 Avenue B slowly faded away, just like our relationship, deteriorating the unique bond that had sparked this explosion of musical creativity and brought us the priceless gift of our sons, bestowed upon us by the universe.
