01	Hydromel -- Envol Triangles [1985]						04:50
	02	Balivernes -- Envol Triangles [1985]						07:03
	03	Envol Triangles -- Envol Triangles [1985]						05:04
	04	Dans Le Doute -- Envol Triangles [1985]						07:09
	05	Ronde -- Envol Triangles [1985]						09:32
	06	Pour Le Temps Present -- Les Saisons Marines [1987]						04:28
	07	Zappata ! -- Les Saisons Marines [1987]						04:41
	08	Lequel De Nous... -- Les Saisons Marines [1987]						01:59
	09	La Tour Haute -- Les Saisons Marines [1987]						10:02
	10	Les Saisons Marines -- Les Saisons Marines [1987]						04:21
	11	A Bien Des Egards -- Les Saisons Marines [1987]						06:48
	12	Retour Au Domaine -- Les Saisons Marines [1987]						05:24

Tracks 1-5 from Envol Triangles - 1985
Tracks 6-12 from Les Saisons Marines - 1987




Vital Life
a biography

In 1983, the twin brothers, Thierry (keyboards) and Jean-Luc Payssan (guitars), decided to create the band Concept. Having already written a lot of music, they started searching for additional musicians interested in their musical project. Eventually, they met Eric Rebeyrol (actually a guitar player who switched to bass to play with Concept), Antoine Fillon (a young jazz-trained drum player) and Anne Colas (flute).

In 84, Concept won a rock contest with this line-up. The prize was some studio time so the musicians entered the studio to record the sessions that eventually became "Envol Triangles" and were released as a debut cassette, in 85, under the new name of Minimum Vital.

Wanting to play with many bands at the same time and interested in developing a career as a session drummer, Antoine soon decided to leave and Jean-Christophe Godet replaced him after the release of the cassette, in the summer 85.

It's in 86, a year of intense playing, that Minimum Vital first met Musea, the french progressive rock label which had just been created. They had listened to the tape and were ethousiastic enough to propose a collaboration to produce Minimum Vital's first LP, "Les Saisons Marines", recorded during the summer 87, in Bordeaux.

Not really satisfied with the sound of "Les Saisons Marines", the band decided to record their next album in a new studio, near Perigueux, during the summer 89. With "Sarabandes", released in 90 as a CD on the Musea label, Minimum Vital brilliantly entered the digital age. Thierry admits that, at this time, the atmosphere in the band was very good and the feeling between the musicians at its highest. They really enjoyed working on this album.

With the new CD, "La Source", the Payssan brothers wanted their music to take a new direction, putting the emphasis on a special spiritual feeling. The musicians started to work on the album in 91 and completed it in 92. Many concerts were played to promote the CD but, as the band couldn't perform the vocal parts onstage, some songs were rearranged to be completely played as instrumentals.

In 93, the band worked with their friend Philippe Cauvin (singer - composer - guitar player in the band Uppsala) in order to have a singer onstage. They did a few gigs with him but finally decided to part company. At the beginning of 94, a feeling of boredom began to grow inside the band. Consequently, the musicians decided to put Minimum Vital to sleep for an undetermined period of time.

Nevertheless, Jean-Luc and Thierry wrote new music, decided to go further in the musical direction followed in "La Source". Eric Rebeyrol, in a way the third Payssan brother, was glad to rejoin the band and welcome two new members: Charly Berna on drums and Sonia Nedelec on vocals. Charly and Sonia gave a new enthusiasm to the band, as they came with ideas and styles that fitted very well with the new music.



In addition, as the band began to have a certain reputation in the world of "prog" and outside France, Minimum Vital was invited to play at the "ProgFest" festival of Los Angeles, in November 1994. The event was a success, and for everyone in the band, those ten days spent in California were wonderful and amazing.

Back in France, Minimum Vital decided to embark on a video project, as the band was not yet ready to begin work on a new album, but wanted to present the new " team ", and new versions of some songs. The tape was recorded live during two days in a theatre, at the end of December 1994, with very little video equipment and a 24 track recorder. The result was actually very nice thanks to the work of two talented friends : Gilles Pialat and Myer, but also sound engineer Bertrand Amable, who had often worked with the band since 1986, but became a real member of the band on the occasion of the ProgFest of Los Angeles. The video tape "Les Mondes De ... Minimum Vital" was released in 1995, produced by Musea, and presented the band on stage with ideal sound & image conditions.

During that year, new material was written for the next album, with the idea of exploring a musical sphere containing positive feeling and lyrical melodies, supported by a groovy rhythm section. As the songs were written for two voices (male and female), Thierry and Jean Luc asked Sonia to find someone who could sing the tenor parts, and singer Jean Baptiste Ferracci was then invited to work on the new songs for the recording of the album, wich began in January 1996.

In September 1996, Minimum Vital was invited to play in Brazil, for the Rio Art Rock festival, while the mix of the album was still being worked on. As the voice of Jean Baptiste had become essential, he was asked to be part of the band and finally came to Rio.

Charly couln't go there as his girlfriend was about to give birth, so he was momentarily replaced by young and talented drummer Didier Ottaviani. The festival, organized by the very likeable Leonardo Nahoum, takes place in the biggest concert hall in Rio, and is followed on the next evening with a concert in the little town of Macae, where the Brazilian public surprised the band with by their enthsiasm and kindness!

The mix of the new album "Esprit d'Amor" was completed at the beginning of 1997, and the CD released in April 1997. As the aim was to make a very homogeneous album clearly showing a new musical direction based on rich vocal parts and sophisticated arrangements, the instrumental track "Le Dernier Appel De La Guerre" was not included on the record.

In August 1997, through the impetus of sound engineer Bertrand, the idea came to work on the project of a special concert wich would take place in Bordeaux, in October, of wich a live album would be released. Finally, the band got the opportunity of working for one week into the concert hall of "Le Vigean" near Bordeaux, to install sophisticated sound and light equipment featuring :

8 sound " towers " set all around the public (like a stone circle) for multi-dimensional effects
2 frount-of-house monitors delivering huge bass and high frequencies
several suspended monitors isolating vocal and lead keyboard sounds
moving lights surrounding the scene, the whole being controlled by computer and a programmable mixing console.
The concert was recorded on the 4th October 1997, so as to produce a very well produced live album. Dancer Laure Mitou also presented a choregraphy on the piece " St Petersbourg ", with Thierry on keys.

After this event, in spite of sharing many musical views and excellent relationships with the other members, Charly Berna decided to leave the band. Above all, this was because of having too much work with other bands as a professional musician, and also the need to spend more time with his family (including 2 little boys !). So Didier Ottaviani was asked to replace Charly, and became an " official " member !

From the end of 1997 to the summer of 1998, the band gave many concerts, including some in France but also in the Nederlands, Mexico (for the festival Baja Prog 98 in Mexicali, sharing the stage with the members of the band XII Alfonso from Bordeaux, who became very good friends), Poland and Belgium.

During this time, several projects began to come about, including :

a solo album by Jean Luc, as a "Vital Troubadour", featuring the other members on some pieces.
creation of an acoustic-based duo with Thierry & Jean Luc named Vital Duo.
The Jean Luc solo album has never been finished due to lack of studio time but it will certainly be made one day.

Vital Duo became very important from 1999 to 2001, but the recording of a new album of Minimum Vital will begin at the end of 2001. The first album of Vital Duo, after many month of recording little by little, will be released at the end of avril 2001.



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Last modified : 16-04-01