“France absolutely engage the body but the spectacle is one for your mind, especially as you start to wonder how much of what you’re hearing is really there.” The Quietus

The legendary hurdy-gurdy-powered kraut/psych/folk/drone band France have announced a new album ‘Destino Scifosi’ - a collaboration between French underground stalwarts Standard In-Fi and Belgian label a1000p.

Half a dozen years ago, sound maestro Mim from the a1000p label promised the band France a taste of his latest cuvée if they visited his sound studio after a show in Bruxelles. After listening to the wide array of in-house productions he proposed a future recording session to the band… who promptly declined any studio work. Both parties then coined the idea of bringing all the studio gear to a concert out in the woods somewhere... someday.

In 2022, Mim partnered with the newly formed Rituale Festival, asking them to set up a France concert close to where his vineyards were situated, namely an outdoor amphitheatre in a valley in St.Roman de Codières (south of France) This would enable him to set up his well-thought-through recording process for the night of the show. From carefully selected mics in front of amps to heavy sound systems deep in the valley, passing through ambient mics ranging at hundreds of meters from the stage, Mim's astounding sound recording is only matched by his brilliant final mix of the sources.

The result, Destino Scifosi, is to date the only high quality sound recording the band has ever produced, by a long shot. Mind you, if you notch that volume button to where the drums sound like they're in the room, you'll have a pretty good idea what the band sounds like live. With the band heavily inebriated, suffocating heatwave weather, Gourdon playing in speedos, amps falling face flat on the ground a couple of times and mic stands pushed around by a rowdy audience, Destino Scifosi comes out as a somewhat miraculous document of that evening.

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