A short story:
Founded by Frédéric L'Epée (formerly Shylock, Philharmonie) in 2002, Yang is an instrumental rock quartet which compositions mix guitar counterpoints with a powerful rock pulse.
Math Rock - Prog Rock - Art Rock, these words are usually used to describe our music but we prefer Electric Chamber Rock, mostly instrumental, even if on our two last albums, Designed for Disaster and Rejoice!, we added vocals on several songs.
Often compared to King Crimson, our work is of course more complex than basic rock, but it always sounds natural. We never search for complexity. These structures, rhythms, melodies are inspired by Rock and Progressive Rock, but also Center Asia/Eastern Europe sounds as well as contemporary new music.
Since its creation, Yang released five albums, A Complex Nature in 2004, Machines in 2010 The Failure of Words in 2017, Designed for Disaster in 2022 with the singer Ayşe Cansu Tanrıkulu performing on 5 songs, along with spoken harsh voices by the whole band, and Rejoice! in 2024, with Carla Kihlstedt, singer and violinist of the band Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, who sings on ten titles out of thirteen.
The rarity of our releases is mainly due to the fact that we leave far from each other, from the south of France to Germany.
Our last album "Rejoice!" has been released in July 2024 on Cuneiform Records.
Frédéric L’Épée : Founder of Yang, previously founder of bands Shylock (70’s– 2 releases CBS - Musea) and Philharmonie (90’s - 5 releases Cuneiform Records). Studied composition, orchestration, harmony and counterpoint at the Nice conservatory, awarded 1st price of composition (1988). He teaches guitar, harmony and composition in Paris and Berlin.
- guitar
Volodia Brice : Studied classical percussion instruments, then drums at Institut des Arts Rythmiques, Paris. As a drummer on the last Philharmonie line up he played on their last CD “The Last Word” on Cuneiform Records.
- drums
Nico Gomez : Studied bass at Berklee College of Music. Then settled in London where he plays and records with Björk, Roy Hargrove, Steve Williamson and Snowboy.
- bass
Laurent James : Studied guitar with Frédéric L’Épée, obtained a license of musicology at the Nice University then leaved to the Berklee College of Music. Back from Boston, he studied harmony, composition and orchestration at Nice conservatory.
- guitar