01 Avant [not Shy Society At The Bird Parade] (5:24)
02 Tache En L’oeil (5:00)
03 Colonies (8:38)
04 Le Femme Au Travail (3:40)
05 Son Essentiel (9:37)
06 Asaphum (:58)
07 Trente Mille Fois (7:32)
08 Idol (1:03)
09 Trois Expériences de Survie (8:08)
10 I Cuento Blumen (9:30)
Live recording, Paris, Maison des Métallos, April 26th, 2008
Total time: 59:30
La S.T.P.O. (Société Des Timides à la Parade des Oiseaux = Shy Society at the Bird Parade) was created 1984 in Rennes, western France, their first 7” issued 2 years later on Illusion Production (it included the song ‘Idol’, also part of this live recording). They play a very elaborate version of zeuhl music (Magma) with roots in Rock In Opposition, think Etron Fou Leloublan. Apart from french, they sometimes sing in an invented language, or even plain armenian, thanks to lead singer Pascal Godjikian’s armenian roots. Anyhow, their lyrics are usually puzzling but very poetic, and refer to 20th c. avantgarde, from Dada to surrealism. The band’s lineup today is composed of 5 members: Jim B: guitar, Patrice Babin: drums, Benoit Delaune: bass & cello, Christophe Gautheur: synth, clarinet & saxophone, Pascal Godjikian: vocals, + Johann Mazé: trumpet. This live recording gather their classics (Le Femme au Travail, Trois Expériences de Survie, Idol) as well as songs from the entire history of the group until their last album to date (the beautiful rendition of ‘I Cuento Blumen’, from 2006 Tranches de Temps Jeté on Beta-Lactam). Their technique is very impressive throughout the show.
Continuo's weblog 
Great post!
Thank you a lot!
Made with the same magic minidisc? :=))
ciao
Minidisc, indeed. Enjoy!
I remember seeing them live at Mimi Festival in France in mid 90’s. Good to hear they’re still active. Merci bien, continuo!
thanks…. this band is amazing
Bonjour,
i’m Pascal Godjikian the singer of La Stpo (au fait, tu es peut-être français ? j’écris en anglais parce que c’est la langue que tu as utilisée…).
about the line-up : we were six on stage. The missing member is Johann Mazé : trumpet
about the tracks : the first one is not titled “Shy …” but “Avant”. the third track is cut at the half in your recording.
Should we have been allowed to play the encore, we would have played the track called “Shy …” as well as “Underground Woman”.
Pascal
Thx Hab and Thanatoloop for commenting.
Pascal, thanks for the info. A pity, indeed, you were not allowed to encore due to the cram-packed, 5-band-festival schedule! Maybe ‘Underground Woman’ should be included during the set, next time?
Well, Continuo, i do hope there will be another time soon, as it is always a pleasure to play in Paris. Unfortunately, the technical condition were not good on this april festival, the feedback monitors had a very disturbing sound.
About ‘underground woman’ : well, sometimes we have it in the set, sometimes for the encore.
Pascal
thanks, great live :)
You’re welcome, Oleg. Interesting website you have over there at http://thesound.ru/.
It’s great to hear this recording. I saw the band last Saturday in the Nødutgang festival in Norway and they were fantastic. Thanks very much for this.
Great! From the concert I saw in Paris, I assume their show was terrific in Norway as well. Thanks for writing, Alan.
Bonjour Pascal,
Je ne trouve pas le lien dans le blog qui me permettrait
d’écouter des extraits du groupe.
A bientôt
Fabienne
Fabienne, le lien est sur le mot “Download” et il permet de télécharger le fichir compressé du concert en entier. Il faut WinZip (ou autre) pour le décompresser une fois téléchargé, et obtenir ainsi les 10 mp3 du concert.
Si problème:
teepeesfrp [at] yahoo [point] fr
What about the other bands that played that same night ?
Palo Alto, for instance ?
I guess other bloggers will take care of that. I can’t archive everything. Besides, Palo Alto didn’t play that night. Thx for dropping by.
I’ve not had the opportunity to see La STPO, but I have six of their releases, a superb combo. On another blog, Pascal mentioned that the out of print ones were soon to be reissued. Everyone should hear Les Explositionnistes, an album which appears to have been inspired by various visual artists and art movements, and an era of the band which featured exquisite interplay between plucked bass guitar harmonic patterns and arco contrabass. The BLRR compilation Le Combat Occulté includes some alternate versions of material from the above.
Anyway, thanks for this. I’m looking forward to hearing it. Tranches was a strong return for the group.