Eric ‘Ert’ Trochu
http://pagesperso-orange.fr/catert.trochu/
http://www.myspace.com/ertjogleor
http://www.myspace.com/endofdata
http://www.myspace.com/complotbronswick
http://www.myspace.com/jogleor
http://www.myspace.com/toriikami
http://www.myspace.com/connecticat/
http://www.myspace.com/pascallamour
http://www.myspace.com/fraktureband1
http://www.myspace.com/rroseselavylelabel
In 1982 the young music photographer Eric Trochu arrived to Rennes from Lorient (Brittany). Then, for some period he made photos of different bands in their rehearsals and performances. Some time later he met Patrick Chevalier, the singer of Warsaw Pact for that time, who invited him to one of their rehearsal. The band members gave him a microphone and let him take a part in their music. After that rehearsal Eric became the second band’s vocalist, and decided to abandon photography for the music. Warsaw Pact was inspired by Joy Division, Bauhaus, The Stranglers, The Cure and other bands which played that new music. “The musical atmosphere was very Joy Division (our reference), punk and coldwave”, – recalls Eric. Unfortunately, for the two years of its existence, the band gave just about ten performances (sharing the stage with such bands as Marquis de Sade, Les Nus, Ubik, Sax Pustuls and others), and released the K7. The band broke up on the summer of 1983 because the musicians hadn’t felt staying the same musical direction any more, and everyone had own ideas of creation the music. So the band members began to search for other ways: the bass player formed Prima Linea, Patrick Chevalier joined Complot Bronswik as the singer…. Eric was in search for his way too. He met AE, the guitar player of Geisha. They improvised together on the AE’s music for a concert; they repeated songs in the afternoon and played the same evening. After that he made for him met the Warsaw Pact ex-keyboardist Didier and they had created End of Data on the 12th of June in 1983. The original idea of the band, which was influenced by The Residents, Satie, Police, Can, Talking Heads and others, was creating electro new wave music with punk spirit. “At the end of the period, a new music thanked to the electronics, Bassline TB303, drumtracks TR303, TR909, synthesizers Juno 106, Sixtracks with the protocol MIDI, all this with the spirit and the energy of the Punk”, says Eric.
Eric, AE and Didier were the constant band’s line up, but during 1984 two musicians from Orchestre Rouge, Pascal Des A (bass) and Pascal Normal (battery) took a part in the project too.
Also since 1984 End of Data began to use plenty of choreographic elements in their shows. Since that time, the band had performances with the show of contemporary dance Quartz, and gave solo performances as well. But the most important achievement of the band in 1984 was finishing their first LP ‘Sarah’. The LP’s stuff shows that the band’s original idea was realized in the best way. Some of the songs, like ‘If I’m not a killer’ or ‘Trottodaf’ are very dynamic with the punk energy and cynicism. Some others, such as ‘Like a sucession 1’ or ‘Sarah’ are more calm, but filled with inside energy with soft and light vocals with a touch of romanticism, which can suddenly become infernally deep and cold. Just one year later, the second band’s LP ‘Dans votre monde’ was released. Actually, it’s difficult to say, had the music changed there, or not. The title track ‘Dans votre monde’, which, against all traditions, goes first, shows that it had changed. The music there became lighter and less ‘dirty’, so I can call it played in more new wave manner. But while listening to the album the same question appears. The LP is filled with echoes of ‘Sarah’; some of the tracks can be called the straight followers of some ‘Sarah’ songs. But once again, some time later the band members found themselves on different waves. They were tired financially and psychologically, and did not believe any more in the band. So the band broke up in 1986. After that AE joined ‘Charles de Goal’, and Eric was involved in more experimental music. The End of Data’s brake up was the end of very important and interesting period in Eric’s artistic activity. As he recalls to it, “It was the time, when a one who did not know how to play the music could begin in a band with musicians of any musical level. People were disenchanted with the system but had an explosive vital energy. We could improvise the same day or for the next day for performances or shows, maintaining it is more difficult, him a more legal and technical constraints in the European society. It is a paradox, more we have of technical means and finances less we can make of spontaneous things.”
So 22 years have passed since End of Data broke up. These 22 years were very strong period of Ert’s music activity. Foremost his projects became the expressions of his influences in electronic music. He expressed himself in plenty of aspects, such as composing, VDJing, mastering, mixage and others. All Eric’s projects have the same electro/experimental basis, but they all are very different. It can be a step to ‘around dub’ music, as we can see in his Torii Kami (the duo of Ert and the drummer Bertrand Henri), or more calm and a bit meditative space music, as we can see it in ConnectiCat, the project of Ert and his wife Cat (unfortunately, this project released just one CD, called ‘Of Mice and Clones’, and gave no concerts). Or it can be absolutely space experiment of Ert’s same-called main project, which was born in 1982. The single chapter of Ert’s music activity is his projects with Mourad Ait Abdelmalek, such as Jogleor (their duo project), Arkan (Pascal Lamour, Mourad Ait Abdelmalek, Adamix & Ert). It’s really hard to make some style characteristics and, especially, forecasts about the music of these projects. It can combine some echoes of the projects I mentioned before, and also a listener can hear absolutely unexpected music influences, such as eastern or Celtic motives. What I can foremost underline in Ert’s musical projects, is his absolutely amazing ability to work with pauses and musical speeds.
The other important step in Eric’s activity was joining the legendary band from Rennes ‘Complot’ in 1995. In my opinion, his joining broke plenty borderlines in Complot’s music and discovered new horizons for this wonderful band.
In June 2007 Ert joined one more legendary band Frakture as the keyboardist. This band began to play in 1977, even before that era which was called ‘coldwave era’ some time later. The renewed line-up finished and recorded six songs at the moment.
Also Ert with his projects took a part in different compilations, such as ‘Rrose Selavy’, the one dedicated to the legendary art actor Marcel Duchamp, or ‘Cycles’.
I didn’t mention many Ert’s projects, such as Ana Ata Kik (Laurent Guillemot (DJ) & Ert), the solo project Illtronik, Kakashi (Ert & Eko Sato), Poupia Colors (Laurent G.), Lamour, Anissa & Mars Drive (Francois Posseme, Anissa Derkaoui…)…. In these projects Eric uses different instruments, and when common instruments are not enough for him, he creates new ones. It also difficult to mention all the aspects of this wonderful artist’s activity, such as photography, works as producer, works for theater and many others.
Also I’m glad to say that Eric doesn’t feel himself tired of his activity and has the plan to stop it in 2058 (at the age of 100). So in this case I hope to be able to listen to plenty of Eric’s future projects.
Pall ‘Nattsol’ Zarutskiy
‘Grave Jibes Fanzine’
