"Des Lions Pour Des Lions was born about six years ago in Angers. And we could almost stop there for the biographical part. They are called Elisabeth Hérault on vocals and saxophone, Alain Lardeux (Boochon) on trombone, Freddy Boisliveau on guitar and Cédric Maurel (Momo) on drums.
No(s) Border is their second album, on the Angers label MaAula Records. Their music is the sum of their individualities, but not only. The band probably began to exist one day when the earth shook, when the compasses went crazy, when something slipped past it and surpassed it. Non-standard and off-piste band. Firstly, the formation is unusual: two brass instruments, a drum from Rajasthan, an electric guitar and vocals. And so, an alchemy of ethnic jazz and rock with songs? A little of all that, yes, and much more when everything connects and merges. That is to say from the first to the last second of this album.

Des Lions Pour Des Lions goes (or go) far, never stops moving forward. Their music has no name but it is nomadic. Around the dohl, this far-away peplum drum, the brass trumpet and throw zigzagging bridges between the shores of jazz, free or ethio. The guitar has sand and an epileptic scorpion between the strings, it crossed a thousand of deserts and as many oases before arriving there. The voice arises like light, the pulsation of a stroboscope or a promising dawn. On a few pieces of the album, the accordion of René Lacaille, musician vform La Réunion island comes to waltz the last certainties.
Perhaps what best defines their music is movement, in rhythm. In nervous jerks, in loose bursts, clearing its own path, Des Lions Pour Des Lions goes to the essential, to the primitive: the dance that liberates and heals, the trance. Always, his pieces intensify, emancipate, create their own crazy energy, inflate until the explosion. To “aim for the sky”, as Elisabeth sings. This music has always been there, in the streets, in the bush, in free-jazz, post-punk, techno or the rituals of ancient communities. The band goes to look for her then lets themselves be carried away in the turnings of modern shamanism.

"It's the twilight of the gods but we'll do better than them, together," sings Elisabeth. We have the gods we want. Everywhere the rock and the jazz are extinguished, but this band blows on the embers and the great bonfire starts up again, stronger and hotter than ever. Music of combat, of revolt, of dreams and of loops, of rebellion (for lions). You can hear if you want echoes of Captain Beefheart, Talking Heads, De Kift, The Ex, Sonic Youth, Sons Of Kemet, L'Orchestre Tout Puissant Marcel Duchamp or Rita Mitsouko for the cool frenzy. But references don't really matter.

This wild, intelligent and ambitious music is not intended for specialists, for record collectors. It speaks to the beast in each of us, who dreams of opening or devouring his cage to rediscover the taste for dancing and roaring freely. Magic potion for the souls, this music will help us a lot."

STEPHANE DESCHAMPS