Les Avions

Active from 1980 to 1992, Les Avions is part of the Parisian scene that emerged from the French new wave of the early 1980s, with a core formed around Jean-Pierre Morgand and Jean Nakache. The band initially develops a nervous, angular pop, fed by synthpop, light post-punk and funk accents, spotted on the Rose Bonbon and Gibus stages. A first album, Les Avions, appears in 1982, followed by a more assertive shift toward sophisticated pop songwriting that takes shape with the single Nuit sauvage in 1986, then the album Fanfare in 1987. Les Avions establish a style in which direct melodies cross with more colorful arrangements, keyboards that are very present, and a taste for contrasts between dance energy and melancholic tonality. The band continues with Loin in 1989, with a broader sound, and 4 in 1992, a more varied album that coexists rock, funk and ballads. Over the course of its trajectory, Les Avions also worked for cinema, notably around Olivier Assayas' Désordre. Remaining associated with a French pop of the 1980s that blends synthetic refrains, New Wave tension and melodic exploration, Les Avions resumed performing on stage periodically, notably in Paris in 2024.