Ravage: French Experimental Trio Unleashes New Video “Demon Lover”

Experimental French trio RAVAGE shares new video for track “Demon Lover” and announce a first series of shows this summer.

The ensemble consists of violinists Mathieu Werchowski & Bastien Pelenc and percussionist Anthony Laguerre. The video was shot by Pierre Veyser in May 2023.

When two violins steeped in trance music and noise experimentation collide with a drum kit navigating between fantasized doom and electroacoustic future, they drift together like a freewheeling pulsar, chanting madcap litanies for a ceremony without god or master. Furiously free music resonating its own rage.

Eager sound explorers, the members of RAVAGE navigate between the wild and the vulnerable, devouring vibrant spaces and working as composers-improvisers in all genres. Whether they are performing in large-scale productions with CirqueTrottola and Johan le Guillerm, or in more intimate settings where theater and dance coexist (Espace Commun, Les Patries Imaginaires), bands (Filiamotsa, Laguerre/ G. W Sok, Bedmakers, Algecow…), radio creation (SCAM prize), or in solo sonic and scenic productions or in Urbex territories blending Comptemporary Art and imaginary tourism, Anthony, Mathieu, and Bastien logically gathered to work together with their favorite soil: sound matter in all its forms. 

With their extended drum gear, a few effects, and their plugged-in violins, these three nomads try momentarily to liberate the unconscious. Imagine two Paganinis in ecstasy, leaning toward the contemporary extremes of John Cale or Warren Ellis, crossing bows with a modern-day composer whose percussion instruments contain contact mics and loudspeakers that are purposefully left bare to allow their rage to reverberate. The outcome is RAVAGE, ferociously free music for a multidimensional journey.

RAVAGE is already slated for festivals in France this summer of 2024 (July 7 at Jazz à Luz, August 24 at Baignade Sauvage and August 25 in Bayonne), perfecting its talents and striking a balance between improvisation, minimalist music, and significant contrasts in timbre and intensity, creating huge spaces for music that is played then, now, and then.

RAVAGE is Bastien Pelenc and Mathieu Werchowski (Violins + Electricity) and Anthony Laguerre (Extended Drums).