Les Dupont

Present on the scene before, during and after the French Touch, Les Dupont are an electronic duo created by Didier Blasco-Giavitto and Louis-Frédéric Apostoly at Nice's Fine Arts school.

The Polygram years

In 1995 they join forces with the Omnisonus/Polygram team and artists Dax Riders, Pacman, Roussia, Djul'z, Armand. Les Dupont are remarked for their highly acclaimed record production (Magic, Coda, Keyboards, Only for DJs…) and their live performances (le Rex, SIR. CUS Cybernaut, Festival de Wattrelos). They release their first LP, Miracle (1996), a first IDM album "à la française", somewhere between ambient, house and atmospheres verging on cinematic jazz. They also remix the single Sound of Mo by Frederick Rousseau (musician-programmer for Jean-Michel Jarre and Vangelis), striking for its originality and Asian sounds — opening the way to what would later be called ethno-lounge.

During these "major years" at Polygram, Les Dupont alternate between house and ambient productions. Influenced by Coil, SPK and Throbbing Gristle, they also record hardcore music, featuring on compilations such as Hardcore Fever Vol. I & II, Techno Trash Car and Hardcore Cybermix. They work with Liza N'Elias and Manu Le Malin on the maxi EP Hardcore Fever EP-Extreme Vinyl. Their single Cinetik Rex becomes a reference amongst hardcore DJs.

The independent label era

In 2000, Les Dupont create their own label Lysis and release their second opus Renaissance, an homage to the Palace, to house and new-beat. Creative and innovative, they bring melodic house, poetry and a philosophical sense to the fore, using inserts from Jean Cocteau and Verlaine. After a concert at the Technoparade, Les Dupont release the electroclash single I Feel in 2004. With a video clip on M6Music and MCM, I Feel reaches third place on Fréquence Spé.

The hardcore trilogy

In 2005, Les Dupont go back to their industrial inspiration and make three albums at Apocalypse Records — a hardcore trilogy expressing the violence that society pushes onto youth: Black Metal, In Nocturno and Hiroshima 10 Tracks. The label Multiplayer releases the maxi vinyls Cineteek Rexx and Der Geist/Phase II at the same time.

Tales From The Ambient House Vol.1

With Tales From The Ambient House Vol.1, the group recreates original polychromatic ambient house, gently mixing elegant electro-pop, voluptuous house and cinematic jazz. Using Verlaine's poetry, the title Élégie recalls Miracle, one of the group's first singles.

Transmission, The Best Of

In 2009, the group releases their first best-of compiled from their 7 previous studio albums — all remastered, respecting chronology. A witness to the pioneering 90s period, Anna Karina whispers in Miracle: "We live in the shadows of our metamorphosis…"

Return to hardcore & ambient

Cineteek Rexx opens with Hiroshima, a direct reference to Marguerite Duras. It integrates tunes by Prokofiev and Wagner, the voice of philosopher Deleuze, and Severn Cullis-Suzuki's 1992 Rio World Summit speech — permanently fluctuating between hardcore and dark-ambient.

Like a real cinema for ears, Film Music Theory is conceived as a sound background inspired by Erik Satie, John Cage, Fluxus and Marcel Duchamp.

Machine Symphony & the live albums

In 2011, Machine Symphony showcases the full range of Les Dupont's ambient music — from the medieval-sounding Magical Ring to the clubbish The Storm, including Arctic Gymnopédie, a "polar" orchestration of Erik Satie's composition. Two live albums followed: Live Technopol, with singer Nadège Leroy, and Live MPPM, a raw hardcore set recorded in Marseille.

Return to IDM

Skyline (2012) marked a return to IDM. In 2013, Arctic Gymnopédie — a rearrangement of Satie's first Gymnopédie, edited to Méliès' Conquering the Pole — won the Public Domain Remix competition and was released under a free license. The same year, 13 evolved as a sharper, more techno response to Skyline. In 2014, Les Dupont also developed audiovisual performances, including Someone Else's Dream / Crash, drawing on Deleuze, Prokofiev, Wagner and Hindenburg archival footage.

15th anniversary

In 2016, label Lysis turned 15 with DesignforDreaming — a journey into ambient-house tinged with jazz and dub, dotted with literary and film references, including Chantal Goya quoting Jean-Luc Godard: "Give us a TV and a car, but deliver us from liberty."

The Greek-inspired album

Athenæum (2017) takes the listener through Greek mythology — Ouranos, Kronos, Nyx — in a dreamy, supernatural mood, with the single Statues.

First cover album

In 2017, Les Dupont recorded a cover of ELO's I'm Alive for Brice Dellsperger's art film Body Double 35, and a remix of Grândola, Vila Morena for a Lisbon documentary. This led to the covers album Looking Through, featuring guitarist Vinícius K Macedo, singer Julien Loko and countertenor Andreas Scholl. The album and its singles topped the European iTunes charts.

Programmed Memories, the SF album

In 2018, Programmed Memories embraced a vintage-yet-avant-garde, synthetic and robotic style around themes of science fiction and man-machine transmutation. Les Dupont also composed for Rémi Lange's film L'œuf dure and Brice Dellsperger's video installations at Villa Arson.

Soundtrack, the modular album

Soundtrack redraws the mushroom music of the 70s into a contemporary, cosmic wonderland of ecstatic harmony — recorded with modular synthesis between Nice and Paris. One of the band's most experimental creations, its progressive single Elevation was noticed by Jean-Yves Leloup, who had reviewed Miracle years earlier.

Rainbow Days & Rainbow World

In 2020, Les Dupont returned with a more relaxed, assertive suite drawing on house, hip hop and contemporary electro. Rainbow World, a twin album, mixed in the colours of French touch and 90s new beat. The duo also released an electro-rock cover of Plastic Bertrand's Tout Petit La Planète, featuring retro-wave singer Madmoizel.

"We are children of the Plastic generation, punk guys who fell into electro," explains Didier Blasco-Giavitto. "We chose Madmoizel — his icy voice sits elegantly on the majestic harmonies of this song, one of the most beautiful French-speaking new wave tracks of the early 80s."

Return to ambient again

In 2021, Music For Ghosts grew from a theme originally written for France Culture's Une vie une œuvre / Derek Jarman broadcast into a full album — a return to industrial roots and a new meditative direction. Tales From The Ambient House Vol.2 followed in 2022, twelve years after its predecessor, recreating the ambient polychromy of the early days.

Cover albums with Jean-Luc Verna

In 2022, Les Dupont reunited with visual artist Jean-Luc Verna, a fellow Villa Arson alumnus, for Screwing Up Some Classics — drawing on Siouxsie & The Banshees, Bauhaus, Depeche Mode and jazz standards. Their first media appearance came with Nightclubbing on Radio Kanal Centre Pompidou and Hello, I Love You on France Culture. Screwing Up Some Classics II and two remix albums followed.

Lost & Found — unreleased recordings

Lost & Found gathered previously unreleased rehearsal room recordings made in Nice between 1990 and 2021 — an insight into a young band taking its first steps, before the seminal Miracle.

Sur L'eau — Sunny Crypt Reissue

In 2023, Sunny Crypt reissued Sur L'Eau, the sought-after debut EP originally released in 1994 on the Virtual… label — a blend of trippy aquatic-themed house, electronica and ambient. This fully licensed, remastered edition includes the bonus track Outremer.

Sound Of Mo — Oki Remixes

Fruit of their 2023 reunion with Frédérick Rousseau, Les Dupont added a final contemporary touch to Sound of Mo — the pioneering ethno-lounge track they had remixed back in 1995 — with three new remixes: Kimmei, Yamato and Mononobe.

Sacred Songs

In 2024, Les Dupont joined forces with vocal ensemble Beata Mvsica, specialists in 17th-century sacred works, for Sacred Songs — blending baroque chant with electronic beats into a sound universe that is both timeless and avant-garde.

30th anniversary

In 2025, to mark their 30th anniversary, Les Dupont released 30 Electronic Pictures, a landmark compilation tracing three decades of electronic creation, blending aesthetic brilliance, political irony and experimentation.

2026 & 26th album: an electronic and cinematic odyssey

With Trans i-D Reworks Vol.1, Les Dupont unveiled their twenty-sixth album, opening a new chapter while retaining the cinematic, contemplative atmospheres that define their sound — an immersive listening experience evoking the hypnotic momentum of trance and psy-trance. This release inaugurates a four-part series, continuing with Vol.2, out July 1, 2026.