One day a cassette arrived in the offices of the French label Catalogue (home to Telepopmusik)... it was an amazing demo by a project entitled Avia. Just a short time later that same demo was released as a four track single and Pierre Avia's story began to build: the new self-titled single became the 'Single of the Week' in the UK press ('Brilliant' - Muzik, 'Yes please' - ID, '****' DJ Mag) and was raved about by the French media (6/6, Magic, Trax and Les Inrockuptibles). Very quickly, DJ's such as Gilles Peterson, Richard Dorfmeister and Laurent Garnier were looking to get their hands on the Avia single. It wasn't just internationally famous DJs that wanted copies, thousands of e-mails were rolling in from Los Angeles to Perth. Soon the entire first edition of the single was completely sold out and Avia was becoming one of the future stars of electronic music in France.
For the next three years Avia retreated to the studio to write new tracks and work on dozens of remixes. It was during this intensive studio period that Avia stumbled across a new album called 'The Last Legend' by Raz O'Hara (Kitty-Yo). Avia felt it contained one of the most beautiful voices heard in recent years. Prepared to record at any available opportunity, Avia hastily arranged a meeting two days later in Paris with Raz. From this collaboration was born one of the first fully formed pieces of the new album, 'Love & Rise'.
Driven by the success of this new collaboration, Avia then left for Sommerset to meet up with Alpha (Melankolik) in their Bristol studio. Isolated in the West English countryside, the French-English team added additional production for the new album.
The finished album,'I See That Now', offers a panoramic view of the electronic odyssey: the foot that taps (Warm, Miles Golden Sands, The Persuader), the heart that beats (Love & Rise, Why Should I Cry), and the soul that wanders (Westernize). This album proves once more that electronic music has a life beyond cliches and restrictive classifications.
The first single from the album, 'Why Should I Cry ' has an accompanying video by award winning short film director Cesar Vayssie. Pierre Avia appears in this comedic and charming video alongside his half-brother, also named Pierre (no, this is not a typo).
Since finishing the album, Pierre Avia also contributed the original music to the critically acclaimed and Quebec box-office smash 'Les Invasions Barbares' which saw director Denys Arcand win the 'Prix du meilleur scenario' (best screenplay) and lead actor Marie-Jose Croze win 'Prix d'interpretation feminine a Cannes' (best actress) at the prestigious 2003 Cannes Film Festival.
'I See That Now' will be released in North America and the UK on Nutone June 17, 2003. |
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