Jean-Christophe d’Arnell remembers..

Jean-Christophe d’Arnell / Collection d’Arnell -Andrea

Collection d’Arnell-Andrea albums are often the result of chance, encounters and images. As if each record adds to cohesion - bond - between different events and people.

I particularly remember the genesis of our album Villers-aux-Vents.

It all started in an antique shop when finding and acquiring a series of stereoscopic photographs on glass plates, realised ‘sur le vif ‘ by a 1914-1918 war soldier. The three dimensional images conferred a particularly poignant realism to the documents of the time. The emotional force of these photographs naturally guided my inspiration, and the concept of our next album became obvious: the relationship between Man and Nature through the terrible context of the first World War.

Very soon after this finding and the start of my writing, CDAA had a concert in Liege, as part of the Black Celebration Festival; Samy Birnbach and The Breath of Life were also performing. At the end of the concert, the sound engineer accompanying the two other bands left us his contact details, saying he enjoyed our performance, and offered to collaborate with a producer should we wish to (until then we had always produced our own albums in a recording studio). We had just met Gilles Martin, producer of several legendary bands that we particularly loved, notably Minimal Compact! A few months later, we started recording our album Villers-aux-Vents , with the support of Gilles Martin. Paradoxically - considering the gravity of the album theme - the recording sessions took place in a particularly relaxed and joyful atmosphere.

During that recording, we were contacted by the organisers of the newly launched Wave Gothic Treffen festival based in Leipzig, at that time in its 2^nd year only! They knew about our 3 first albums, and especially one of our songs ‘Collection’, which appeared in a german compilation album that had had some commercial success (The myths of Avalon). This was our first concert of Collection d’Arnell-Andrea in Germany and was an intense experience, which remains a fantastic memory. Our album Villers-aux-Vents, released in 1994, was well publicised and benefited from global distribution. This record is still considered by many as a sort of “cult” album.

Time has passed, 5 new albums and many concerts have completed the story of our band; and this year, Collection d’Arnell-Andrea was on the program of the 23^rd edition of the now famous Wave Gothic Treffen.

Chance, encounters and images: 4 songs of our album Villers-aux-Vents were still on our concert playlist this year; Isabelle Dekeyser (The Breath of Life), now a friend, was in the audience, and… Europe commemorated the centenary of the Great War!