SOUVENIRS - Voyage

Details

Description

Voyage was a French disco (1977--79) and pop-funk (1980--82) group, with the French musicians recording studio like André "Slim" Pezin (guitar/vocals), Marc Chantereau (keyboards/vocals), Pierre-Alain Dahan (drums/vocals) and Sauveur Mallia (bass), by the significant and important participation of the British lead vocalist Sylvia Mason-James during the first two albums in 1977 with Voyage and in 1978 with Let's Fly Away. Soon after, Pierre-Alain Dahan became the lead vocalist for the two last albums in 1980 with Voyage 3 and in 1982 with One Step Higher by a musical evolution, a gradual change from disco-pop to the funk-pop music, then taking the turn post-disco in 1980.

Before the discographic adventure of Voyage, the four members, Pezin, Chantereau, Dahan and Mallia worked together in a previous project, a band called V.I.P. Connection in 1975 with two disco songs: "Please Love Me Again" and "West Coast Drive", songs known by the collectors or/and the amateurs of the beginning of disco music.

It's the same pool of gifted musicians, already known as the best musicians in recording studios or in live performances in France, in particular by their works with the artists like: Manu Dibango, Cerrone, Alec R. Costandinos & the Synchophonic Orchestra, Michel Sardou for Slim Pezin; Michel Legrand, Jean Musy, Cerrone, Bernard Lavilliers for Sauveur Mallia; Michel Delpech, Léo Ferré, Guy Béart or Johnny Hallyday for Marc Chantereau; Nino Ferrer, Jean-Claude Petit, Stéphane Grappelli and more for Pierre-Alain Dahan. Between the end of '60s until the mid '70s, they have become experienced and requested musicians in France, Europe and worldwide, in all different style of musics, jazz with Grappelli, world music and jazz with Dibango, rock with Hallyday, french pop with Sardou and Delpech.

Their lone Billboard Hot 100 entry was "Souvenirs," which hit number forty-one in 1979. They had more success on the U.S. Hot Dance Club Play chart, where two of their albums, Voyage (1978) and Fly Away (1979), hit number one.

In the UK, the group had three chart singles. A double A-side, "From East To West"/"Scotch Machine" (the latter song retitled "Scots Machine" because the term "Scotch" is generally considered offensive in Scotland) reached number thirteen in 1978, while later that same year "Souvenirs" made number fifty-six. Their last impact on the charts came in 1979 when "Let's Fly Away" peaked at number thirty-eight.

In their origin country, France, it was a success in the nightclubs of Paris, with a wide broadcasting on the French radios and a reasonable presence on television to promote their songs, they ranked only three singles, "From East To West" peaked at #20 in may 26th 1978, then "Souvenirs" peaked at #53 in january 12th 1979 and "Tahiti - Tahiti" peaked at #43 in may 5th 1979. However, the four musicians have failed to create the same success in the United States in their french record sales. In spite of the quality of their albums, they have not ranked one of their songs, "I Don't Want To Fall In Love Again" in 1980 or "Let's Get Started" in 1982. The four musicians kept on to make albums with a sound more funky than disco, disco music fallen into disuse in the meantime, a musical production always well developed, musically well structured, giving up the concept of the beginning (1977-1978) with all the musics of different places in the world and while keeping the Shakespeare's language, which is the means of communication most effective in the world to express for the largest number of people their music during the last two albums, a French production similar with the best American musical production.

After the adventure of Voyage, all the members have continued to work discreetly as solo musicians recording studio in France for many French singers, Françoise Hardy, Alain Chamfort, Mylène Farmer, Guesch Patti, Jean-Louis Murat and more, always in different style of music or in the writing, the arrangements and the productions, for example Slim worked for the french movie soundtrack called Betty Blue in 1986 or he was the producer of a french hit "Caressé Mwen" sung by Marijosé Alie in 1987. Sauveur Mallia worked for several musics movies soundtracks like "Monstruck" with Cher in 1987, "Breakfast of Champion" with Bruce Willis in 1999 and many more projects, ditto for Chantereau and Dahan with several musical projects.