Laurent Garnier/ The Limiñanas « De Pelicula »

This is the story of a friendship started thanks to a ring tone and that’s now making waves through a one-of-a-kind project. Back in 2017, Lionel and Marie Limiñana, better known as The Limiñanas, the couple/duo that have gone on to release 6 albums since 2009, were invited by Laurent Garnier to perform at the Yeah festival, where the ring tone seminal moment happened. The sound of the signature riff from the Kingsmen song « Louie Louie » caught Laurent’s attention and kicked off a new adventure for the Perpignan natives and the Parisian artist now settled in the Provence. Four years on and the psychedelic garage duo and French techno pioneer DJ/producer have now produced together De Pelicula, a record that feels like a walk on the wild side, one straight out of a film noir that was spawned from the need to write music that tells a story and rattles all traditional patterns in a (super) sonic trance. A heated road-trip spent chasing Juliette and Saul, two teenage rascals straight out of a ‘60s classic – think “Breathless” (original title: A bout de Souffle) meets Sailor and Lula – balancing on the southern border with Spain, knocked out by the heat and cheap liquor. A true concept album that’s not afraid to stray and run free, or rather “an Italian anthology film” as Lionel Limiñana puts it, a great mumbo jumbo where it takes two, humour and melancholy, to tango. Squalid brothels, thirdrate dance clubs, ‘60s vintage caravans, smack, a preacher from The Night of the Hunter, Roger Harth and Donald Cardwell productions, distortions and fuzz-pedal sound effects, Gilles Deleuze philosophy and Professor X are some of the atmospheres and characters that inhabit the world of this dramainspire record.

De Pelicula started through a shared love for the German band Can, trance music, psychedelics, but also dancing and all those “genres of music that allow you to drift off” as Laurent Garnier puts it. In 2018, Laurent produced a remix of « Dimanche » taken from the Limiñanas album Shadow People. They get talking, a lot, and laugh, even more. It was in 2019 that Lionel suggested to Laurent to come and work with them on what would become « Steeplechase », a 6-minute 30-second / hair-raising maelstrom of psychedelic lava that has now become one of De Pelicula’s hypnotic feats. The compass was set and since every bad thing has its silver lining, the March 2020 lockdown meant a speedy production for an album that came together remotely, in the space of just 4 months of intensive creative back and forth. Garnier sums it up better « We sized each other up, and really liked what we were doing together, and from then on it all went very quickly, in a very organic and simple way.»
The result is neither a Limiñanas techno record nor a Laurent Garnier rock album. « We worked together as if we were shaping the same bit of clay » explains Lionel Limiñana. « Laurent’s contribution goes beyond the mere production of beats and samples. He’s much more involved in the whole production, contributing themes, additional production and his writing skills. It was a fully collaborative project.»

Having previously worked alongside Anton Newcombe from American band The Brian Jonestown Massacre and Emmanuelle Seigner on their common project L’épée in 2019, Laurent knows how to give everyone enough space to spread their wings. There’s only one condition that Laurent was strict about « I didn’t want to make a track with a techno beat, it really didn’t have its place on this album I thought.
Lionel had put a few in, I cleared all that out». Therefore, there’s no rigid elements holding De Pelicula together, the record constantly shifts and winds. « I wanted to stay within the Limiñanas world », adds Garnier, « rather than bring them crashing into technoland. To keep their signature feel, but with layers and structures that felt more like mine ».

But it took a few more than just 6 helping hands for De Pelicula to materialise. Bertrand Belin, a regular Limiñana sidekick, laid his vocals on « Au début, c’était le début » for which he also wrote the lyrics.
Same as Eduardo Henriquez, the heart and soul of Franco-Chilean rock bands Panico and Nova Materia with the track « Que Calor », while Ivan Telefunken, guitarist with Pascal Comelade’s Bel Canto Orchestra contributed extra guitar licks. And just in case you were wondering, it is indeed Laurent Garnier’s vocals you can hear on « Juliette dans la caravane » or even in « Tu tournes en boucle » behind that of Lionel and Marie’s.