Penumbra

Penumbra may refer to: 1) A gothic metal band from Paris, France. 2) A name for Mark Warren's ambient project. 3) An alternative rock band from Japan. 1) Penumbra (gothic metal band) Formed in Paris, France in 1996. Their lyrics are themed toward love, angels, witches, death, and emotions. 1996 - Creation of the band The band was founded rather by chance, while visiting a concert one day in 1996 Dorian (guitars) met Jarlaath (vocals) and soon after they had known each other they found themselves philosophizing about metal in general and in particular.

1) A gothic metal band from Paris, France.
2) A name for Mark Warren's ambient project.
3) An alternative rock band from Japan.

1) Penumbra (gothic metal band)
Formed in Paris, France in 1996. Their lyrics are themed toward love, angels, witches, death, and emotions.

1996 - Creation of the band
The band was founded rather by chance, while visiting a concert one day in 1996 Dorian (guitars) met Jarlaath (vocals) and soon after they had known each other they found themselves philosophizing about metal in general and in particular. They realized that they had very much in common regarding their musical ideas.

Both of them took the view that there were too many bands around sounding all more or less the same but not enough of them using classical music influences.

So it happened that they arranged a rehearsal together with a soprano and a synthesizer. Jarlaath also played the oboe. This rehearsal went so outrageously fine that they decided without the slightest hesitation to leave their bands and to found Penumbra (at this point they called themselves "Imperatoria").

1997 - Recording of the first demo and Concert in Paris with Misanthrope
Around November 1996, Imperatoria split up and Jarlaath together with Dorian and Herr Rikk formed Penumbra with three other musicians.

Their first appearance was at the St. Denis University Festival where exclusively metal bands were playing. Audiences were unexpectedly enthusiastic about the "outsiders". A short time after this first live experience they got the offer to play with the French metal band Misanthrope.
Penumbra realized very soon that the visual aspect of their shows played a very important role. Therefore they completed theirs shows with theatrical effects like costumes, pyrotechnic stakes, etc.

They released their first demo, "Falling Into My Soul", in the same year, the demo sold very well.

1998 - Recording of debut album Emanate
Summer 1998, the recording of the album Emanate starts. Keyboardist Benedicte left the band and join Misanthrope, she was replaced by Zoltan. Two sopranos and a baritone took part at the recording: Medusa, Elise, and Aramis.

1999-2000 - Concerts in Paris, Pratteln, Leipzig
At the end of 1998, Nicolas left the band and joined Forest of Souls, he was temporarily replaced by Herr Rikk's brother: David. Scyllia, a soprano singer, joined the line-up. At the beginning of 1999, Herr Rikk became the drummer of Temple of Baal and gave up his role to Hekchen. A new bass-player, Aldric, joined the band at the same time. The band took part in some concerts: Boulogne, Paris, Orleans (France), Pratteln (Switzerland) and at the 9th Leipzig festival where Penumbra was the only French band represented.

2001 - Recording of the second album The Last Bewitchment
At the beginning of 2001, Scyllia decided to join another musical project and left Penumbra. Hekchen and Aldric left the formation too. April-May 2001, Garlic (drums) and Agone (bass guitar and backing vocals) joined the band and the recording of the album started. At the end of 2001, the recording of The Last Bewitchment ended. Medusa left the band for personal reasons.

2002
First quarter of 2002, Penumbra found a new singer, Krysten. The band, accompanied by Stephanie (a guest singer), participated in three concerts in Holland, Netherlands and in a Within Temptation's French tour.

2003 - Recording of the third album Seclusion
The band was ready to record Seclusion, Anita Covelli who sang on The Last Bewitchment was chosen for this album and Garlic was replaced by Arathelis. After the recording, Dorian decided to leave Penumbra and Anita had a baby so it was impossible for her to tour with the band. Seclusion was released at the end of 2003.

2004-2005
After a few months, guitarist Loïc joined the band with singer Lyrissa to promote Seclusion. The band was ready to have a big tour. Penumbra played throughout Europe with bands like Apocalyptica, Moonspell, Epica, etc.

2006
Penumbra was still playing in France and Netherlands to promote Seclusion when Asphodel was chosen to replace Lyrissa as the main singer of the band.

2007
The band released three new demo songs (Avalon, Eerie Shelter, and Charon) at their MySpace page.

2008
The band is looking for a new record label and in contact with some labels to record the fourth studio album.

Official site: www.penumbra.fr

2) Penumbra (Mark Warren)
Penumbra is one half of :zoviet*france:. Penumbra have released one album on ZION TRAIN's label Universal Egg entitled "Anoraks". This will be followed by the release of the album "Skandinavien" on Iris Light and a further album to be released by :zoviet*france:'s own label, Charrm.

"Skandinavien" takes source recordings made in Skandinavia and twists them with minimal techno beats and ambient textures.

3) Penumbra (JAPAN) - Osaka-based alternative rock in the vein of Number Girl and Downy.