PHILHARMONIE is a French trio (that become a quartet in September 1993 when the drummer Jean-Louis Boutin joined in) formed in 1988 by Fr?d?ric L'Ep?e, the guitarist of SHYLOCK fame. Between the foundation of PHILHARMONIE and disbanding of SHYLOCK he attended conservatory where he studied harmony, fugue, counterpoint and composition. The other two guitarists in the band are jazz/fusion influenced Laurent Chalef and Bernard Ros who also plays Chapman Stick (on later albums playing it exclusively). Boutin, who attended Nice conservatory joined the group just before their third album, "North".
As evident from the SHYLOCK days - and hence, in PHILHARMONIE, L'Ep?e and his bandmates are heavily influenced with all things KING CRIMSON related; KC, Fripp, and Mr. Fripp's LEAGUE OF CRAFTY GUITARISTS. However, the French combo are far from being copycats, and development of their own expression could be thoroghly observated throgh thie albums:
On the debut album, 1990's "Beau Soleil" (self-released), the music could be described as introvert and introspective, but on the second album ("Les ?l?phants Carillonneurs") onwards, the band started being more furious, pointilistic, on their third the drummer joined the line-up (needless to say, broadening the musical scope), on their fourth the evolving continued with thir multiple textures, and just when it seemed the band is in their creative peak, they disbanded in October of 1997. However, they had written & rehearsed all the material for a new release, and after the crew from their label (all of their albums are on Cuneiform records except for the self-released debut) had heard the demos, they suggested PHILHARMONIE to do their swan song, appropriately titled "The Last Word", full of twisting, amazing interplays and intriguing structures.
Needless to say, if you're into music that is sharing similar structural experimentations as the music of KING CRIMSON, then PHILHARMONIE is highly recommended.