RadioMentale is a DJ and sound artists duo founded by Jean-Yves Leloup & Eric Pajot. The band can be seen as a sound-system influencing on the airwaves, clubs, urban spaces, web & art venues.
They started their career in 1992, with their own radio show, playing experimental music, concrete music, ambient & electronic. During ten years, they produced this weekly and cult radio show in Paris for Radio FG (first french and independant electronic music station), national Swiss station Couleur 3 and Tokyo Shibuya FM. During this period, the also played in the first techno and rave parties organized in Paris.
From the mid-90’s, they started to work in the field of contemporary art, composing sountracks and soundpieces for exhibitions, and collaborating with video artists, writers, designers or film directors.
Since then, their work, their installations and performances, have been presented in various venues such as Palais de Tokyo in Paris, Centre Georges Pompidou, Kassel Documenta X, Luxembourg Mudam, Paris Cité de la musique, Cartier Foundation, and of course various clubs, music and cinema festivals over Europe, and more recently in Africa, Asia and central America.
Since 2000, they are known as the pioneers of « cinemix », an audiovisual performing practise quite popular in France. As Djs and sound artists, they create new soundtracks for silent and classic experimental films (by Griffith, Murnau, Keaton, Vertov, and dada and surrealist artists), but also for modern talking movies, such Antonioni’s Blow Up, Gus Van Sant’s Gerry, Brian De Palma’s Dressed To Kill or David Cronenberg’s Videodrome. Keeping the original dialogues of this movies, they create live, a new soundtrack to the movie, during their performance held in cinema theaters. In some way, they bring a new feeling to the movie, working on a deepest soundtrack, insisting on some gestures, working on the perception of time and space in a different way than the director.
Recently, they released as L-R & RadioMentale (with Jean-Philippe Renoult), the album entitled I Could Never Make That Music Again, for the belgian label Sub Rosa, awarded by a 2008 Qwartz Prize in France for best electronic artist.
Their latest soundpieces were commissioned by french national radio programs and stations such as France Culture’s ACR (creative radio workshop) and France Musique’s Tapage Nocturne.
