Return of Funky Town
Like Frankensteins monster,funk can never die.
Like Frankenstein’s monster,funk can never die. Suggest otherwise,even teasingly,to Charles de Boisseguin,frontman of French electro-funk outfit L’Imperatrice,and he turns vehement. “No way is funk
irrelevant,” he states. This contention is supported by the packed house at Alliance Francaise when the band played on Wednesday,the first of a seven-city tour that will also take them to the old French bastion of Pondicherry.
L’Imperatrice’s music roots spread over the ’70s to the ’90s,combining funk,disco,electronic and,at times,even horror film soundtracks into a smooth pastiche of sound. Cult horror film director and composer John Carpenter,Italian composer Ennio Morricone and fellow French electro bands Air and Daft Punk form their strongest influences.
Their debut performance in Delhi saw them playing for a little less than an hour,performing self-composed tracks such as 1988,Manege Express and Sonate Pacifique,the last of which is their second EP to be released. The tracks were all instrumental,with the synthesizers acting as the voice of the songs. The laptop-produced beats,and the guitar provided a brilliant base for the bass guitar,which simply purred. This is L’Imperatrice’s first visit to India,while it is de Boisseguin’s second.
Comprising five members,the band is an evolution of de Boisseguin’s solo project,L’Imperatrice,which means “Empress” in French. To him,the Empress is a figment of imagination,a muse who inspires the way he both creates and listens to music. “She can be the darkness inside you,the way you perceive things,anything you want her to be,” he says.
The band,which played its first gig in May,formed gradually,member by member. “Our bassist and keyboardist were originally violinists who picked up the instruments just for fun. Then our manager said he’d take care of our beats,” said de Boisseguin,who is the lead keyboardist and has been playing the instrument,self-taught,since the age of six.
L’Imperatrice normally plays on vintage Moog and Juno synthesizers but had to leave the delicate instruments in France. Instead they made do with laptops and Korgs,a respectable instrument but hardly the same pedigree as the Moog. “We are basically trying to replicate our sound on these modern instruments,” says de Boisseguin.
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