Exsonvaldes

History

The four founding members (Simon, Antoine, Guillaume et Martin) met at the university in Paris. The name of the band, inspired by the infamous Exxon Valdez disaster, was chosen only for its sound, and modified to be unique.

The band's first album, Time we spent together was released in May 2004. The band then toured extensively in France and Europe, notably with Girls in Hawaii.

The band's second album, Near the Edge of Something Beautiful, produced by Alex Firla (known for his work on Phoenix's first album United), was released in March 2009. While touring for this album in France, Spain and Germany, the band experimented with House shows, and eventually performed more than 50 shows in living-rooms across Europe. The band released the acoustic album There's no place like homes in January 2010 (including covers of Take on me and As tears go by) as testimony of this experiment.

In 2012, Guillaume Gratel left the band and was replaced by Cyrille Nobilet.

In March 2013, Exsonvaldes released its third album, Lights, to great reviews. Again produced by Alex Firla, the album features songs sung in French (for the first time in the band's history), especially the single L'aérotrain. The video for this song, direct by Naël Marandin, features previously unreleased archive footage of the French Aérotrain. The video for the first single, Days, shot in sequence using only Apple devices, received praise from Jonathan Ive himself.

Members