It was Thursday November 30th 2022. We took to the stage at the Komedia in Bath, our first UK tour since Dingwalls in 2017. We had our ever-patient compadre Rob Reed and his troupe of cheerful professionals in tow and not only did they have a load of top-of-the-range cameras with them, they had the talent and expertise to make us look presentable. We were determined to succeed and well…we only went and bloody did it, didn’t we? What we have here is that very film, on a glorious Blu-ray, and I hope you enjoy it as much as we did making it.
The Legendary Pink Dots are an influential, staggeringly prolific group led by enigmatic frontman Edward Ka-Spel. Emerging from the early-'80s post-punk underground and sometimes categorized as industrial due to associations with bands like Skinny Puppy, the group's music is nearly impossible to pin down, drawing from Krautrock, ambient, folk, synth pop, and numerous other styles.
With his new Société des Arpenteurs (Surveyors' Club), Denis Colin seems to be at ease just as much in the groovy titles as on more sombre, often haunting pieces. The group has just been on tour where they played with guest artists Jacques Schwarz-Bart and Philippe Sellam, amongst others. Denis Colin has also brought other serious artists into this new group, including Benjamin Moussay on Fender Rhodes, Julien Ormé, a terrific brass section… The Société taps into the groove of great black music to offer compositions that blow across the French jazz scene like a diabolically stirring wind. A unifying project and a superb album that retraces the best moments recorded live during the tour.