Minimal Wave Records

Polyp­honic Size is a Be­lgian New Wave band foun­ded in 1979 in Brus­sels by Roger-Marc Vande Voor­de. Mix­ing electric guitars and syn­thesiz­ers with French and En­glish lyrics (and some­times Ger­man or Japanese lyrics), most of Polyp­honic Size re­cords were pro­duced by Jean-Jacques Bur­nel, from The Strangl­ers. His­to­ry edit: 1979-1984 edit: The first Polyp­honic Size re­cord, Al­gor­hythmic EP, was re­leased in De­cemb­er 1979, on Sandwich Re­cords, a new in­depen­dent re­cord label foun­ded by Mic­hel Lam­bot. After a second EP (Prag­matic Songs), Roger-Marc got in touch with Jean-Jacques Bur­nel, who of­fered to pro­duce the next single, Nagasaki Mon Amour. This first mus­ical col­labora­tion was fol­lowed by many oth­ers, in­clud­ing an out­rage­ous and robotic cover of the Roll­ing Stones’ clas­sic, Mot­her’s Lit­tle Help­er. After sever­al line-up chan­ges, the band fin­al­ly con­sis­ted of Roger-Marc Vande Voor­de (voc­als, guitar, keyboards, electronics), Kloot Per W (bass, voc­als), Mar­tine Bourlée (voc­als, per­cuss­ions) and Fran­ce Lher­mitte (voc­als, per­cuss­ions). Dominique Buxin wrote near­ly all the lyrics, but never ap­peared live on stage or on any re­cord sleeve. Al­though Polyp­honic Size and JJ Bur­nel were very close to each other, the band al­ways kept his own per­sonal­ity, less dark, more European, than the Strangl­ers. On April 3, 1981 Polyp­honic Size gave their very first con­cert at the First Be­lgian Rhy­thm Box Con­test, in Brus­sels. Polyp­honic Size’s debut album, Live For Each Mo­ment / Vivre Pour Chaque In­stant, was re­leased in Sep­temb­er 1982. Still pro­duced by JJ Bur­nel, it is wide­ly con­sidered as their best work, in­clud­ing two of their fin­est tracks ever : Winston & Julia (based on Or­well’s 1984) and Je T’ai Toujours Aimée (re­cor­ded in 2 hours, with JJ Bur­nel on voc­als and bass). In Novemb­er 82 the band star­ted their first European tour, in­clud­ing a stop at the fam­ous Paris club “Les Bains Douc­hes”. The whole con­cert was broad­cast on Fran­ce Inter (popular French radio sta­tion). Polyp­honic Size second album, Walk­ing Every­where, was re­leased in Janua­ry 1984 on Vir­gin Re­cords. Pro­duced in Lon­don by JJ, it is more centred on syn­thesiz­ers sounds. It also in­cludes the band new single, Walk­ing Class Hero, as well as sever­al guest musicians, like Daniel B (Front 242) and Dave Green­field (The Strangl­ers). A new European tour fol­lowed, with­out Fran­ce Lher­mitte, who was now re­placed by AnnVW. 1985-1991 edit: The second half of the 80’s was not so easy for Polyp­honic Size, de­al­ing with pro­blems and con­flicts con­cern­ing their re­cord contra­ct. Many demos were re­cor­ded in those days, but the bulk of them still re­main un­released. The band line up chan­ged many times, but al­ways featured Roger-Marc Vande Voor­de and Mar­tine Bourlée. In 1987, Polyp­honic Size played in Mos­cow, Ir­kutsk and Be­ij­ing, as part of a cul­tur­al ex­chan­ge bet­ween Be­lgium, USSR and China, turn­ing the Trans-Siberian train into an ar­tistic re­sid­ence. On June 24, 1988, the group played at the fam­ous Mar­quee Club in Lon­don. On April 6, 1989, they ap­peared at the Prin­temps de Bour­ges Fes­tiv­al, op­en­ing for JJ Bur­nel, as part of his second solo album tour, Un Jour Par­fait, for which Dominique Buxin wrote some lyrics. The next single was re­leased in 1986 : L’amour / Every­body Needs Your Sex, fol­lowed two years later by a new album, The Over­night Day. Pro­duced by Nigel Gray, it has a more pop sound, and in­cludes a cover of Mic­hel Pol­nareff, Tout Tout Pour Ma Chérie. New studio sess­ions began in En­gland in June 1989, with the help of Daniel Darc (from the French band Taxi Girl), who wrote sever­al lyrics. These sess­ions ap­peared in 1991 on The Prime Story, first Polyp­honic Size’s com­pila­tion CD. But the 80’s were over, the magic was gone, and in Novemb­er 1991, the P Size Info Ser­vice an­noun­ced the (tem­pora­ry) death of the band. Polyp­honic Size 2 edit: In 2009, VOD Re­cords re­leased a 4 vinyl re­cords box­set (plus a 10” bonus), featur­ing the com­plete Polyp­honic Size 1979-1982 re­cord­ings along with two hours of un­released tracks, demos and out­takes. The group re­for­med in April 2010, with Roger-Marc, Fran­ce and Kloot Per W, plus Mar­tine and Roger-Marc’s daught­ers : Mandy (keyboards) and Alice (guitar). Togeth­er, they gave two con­certs in Brus­sels on April 30 and May 5, with JJ Bur­nel as speci­al guest, sing­ing Je T’ai Toujours Aimée on stage for the very first time. In Sep­temb­er, they play at the Botanique, for the Nuits Du Soir Fes­tiv­al. Early 2011, Kloot Per W quits PS, and is re­placed by Mika Nagazaki, Ghin­zu bass play­er. In July 2011, Polyp­honic Size line-up chan­ges again, with Jill and Géral­dine (from the Be­lgian band Les Vedet­tes) re­plac­ing Fran­ce Lher­mitte on voc­als.

Sour­ce: Wikipedia

Text from this bi­og­ra­phy li­cen­sed under creative com­mons li­cen­se.