Video: Automne – “Pendant Que Les Champs Brûlent”

Single out now on ATPD Records.

Niagara’s “Pendant Que Les Champs Brûlent” was a big single in France in 1990. The duo were offered an American deal, but they refused to record English-language versions of their songs so they never got signed over here. (Note: This is not the same Niagara who sang with Detroit’s Destroy All Monsters.)

Automne’s cover is more upbeat and seems to bring out a bit of playful sixties yé-yé that’s missing from the moodier synthpop original. Can’t you imagine girls in mini dresses frugging to this?

While the fields burn
I am waiting for my tears to come,
And when the field dances
May nothing ever reach me.

The video was shot on an island in the Marne River, southeast of Paris, where the band rehearses. Guitarist Perry Leopard tells me, “The island has no bridges, so we have to take a row boat any time we’re packing up gear to play out of town!”

If you’re curious about that little push-button synth contraption, it’s a Pocket Piano built by Critter and Guitari but no longer available. This is the company that designed the Septavox synthesizer specifically for Third Man Records.

Automne: web, facebook, youtube, amazon, apple, spotify, wiki.

Video: Niagara – “Pendant Que Les Champs Brûlent”

From Religion (Polydor, 1990).