Chef Menteur

Chef Menteur is an experimental band from New Orleans, Louisiana in the United States with heavy leanings towards the styles of psychedelic and ambient music. It was formed in 1998 by Alec Vance and Jim Yonkus, both of whom were looking to explore new sounds from different music worlds: electronica, post-rock, experimental noise and drone, and improvisational jazz. The line-up since 2007 is Vance, Dan Haugh, and Brian Abbott.

All members play a variety of instruments from standard rock guitar, bass and drums to a variety of electronic instruments, folk and ethnic instruments, homemade noisemakers, and whatever's handy.

The original lineup comprised of Vance on Farfisa organ and Yonkus on bass, with both members of the duo also playing other synths, manipulating samples and drum machines. They also ran their own custom video projections at live shows from self-produced DV footage. The sound of the band has varied between more space rock sounding guitar-and-drums oriented music and sample-based, drum machine computer-synchronized beats. One constant is a heavy reliance on drone and improvisation.

Their 2005 album We Await Silent Tristero's Empire was released by the independent label Backporch Revolution to international critical acclaim.

The band reformed in New Orleans shortly after Hurricane Katrina. They released the album "The Answer's In Forgetting" a couple years after, then with Abbott began work on their epic double album, East of the Sun & West of Moon, which was finally released in 2012. Phil Rollins joined to support the band during the release of this album.

Discography:
* Vive La France! EP - released 2003 on Backporch Revolution
* We Await Silent Tristero's Empire (CD) - released 2005 on Backporch Revolution
* "Empires Sans Fronti?res" - track contributed to WTUL's Songs from the Basement 2 compilation, 2003
* "Oceanic No. 23" (with Alexandra Scott) - track contributed to WTUL's Songs from the Basement 4 compilation, 2006
* "Aquavitae" - track contributed to Proud To Swim Home: A Backporch Revolution Compilation for New Orleans, 2006
* "Charlie Don't Surf (pinkysqueak mix)" - track contributed to Proud To Swim Home: A Backporch Revolution Compilation for New Orleans, 2006
* The Answer's In Forgetting (CD) - released 2007 on Backporch Revolution
* East of the Sun & West of Moon (2xLP) - released 2012 on Backporch Revolution

http://www.chefmenteur.org/

- Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chef_Menteur_%28band%29)