Going back to the context of the era (1985), it took some nerve to form a trio around a sampler. The Young Gods were never afraid of anything. By creating a novel musical grammar that owes to rock, industrial music, classical music, baroque, ambient or electronic, the Swiss band formed by Franz Treichler is still rarely pertinent and impressively consistent twenty two years on.
Super Ready / Fragmenté, their dazzling new album, allies power and subtlety in an unprecedented manner, confirming that The Young Gods are more than ever before in phase with its times.
Adventurers, pioneers or mad scientists, The Young Gods are still an essential reference in today’s music. Mike Patton, The Chemical Brothers, Maynard James Keenan (Tool) or still, The Edge (U2), all claim the heritage of the young Helvetian gods.
But don’t repeat what you heard to Franz Treichler, Al Comet or Bernard Trontin. The Young Gods always considered that humility and inventiveness walked hand in hand.
The Young Gods constantly reinvent, whether it be by revolutionizing samplers in their first albums (The Young Gods and Red Water/l’Eau Rouge), transcending Kurt Weill (Play Kurt Weill), signing their telluric masterpiece (TV Sky), moving away from guitars (Only Heaven), plunging into nineties electronic (Second Nature), ambient and labels such as Warp (Heaven Deconstruction), or releasing an album influenced by Brian Eno’s generative music (Music for Artificial Clouds). Avoiding routine. Bouncing back. Starting new challenges, projects. Feeding their souls and continuing the exploration of new territories.
These past few years The Young Gods have played with a symphonic orchestra to celebrate their 20 years; re-written the score of the film Woodstock then played it live in Geneva on the Fête de la Musique; collaborated with anthropologist Jeremy Narby (sonic conference entitled Amazonia Ambient Project); worked with the Musée des Sciences de Genève for the Aquanaute project; and have played some acoustic gigs.
All of these numerous collaborations and projects allow the Young Gods to hold on to this jubilatory freshness that we find on the very rock and organic Super Ready / Fragmenté. The cover suggests a gun, which is already a clue as to the Young God’s position in today’s world. Treichler, Trontin, and Comet denounce the way in which violence has become a feature of everyday life.