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Lost silent porn scored by Caravan Palace

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pops
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Lost silent porn scored by Caravan Palace Jun 26, 2022 22:14:54 GMT

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Post by pops on Jun 26, 2022 22:14:54 GMT

Caravan Palace (the OG electroswing group, now best known for their viral Lone Digger music video) are not shy about the fact that its 3 founding members first met while composing the score for a silent porn. This has been mentioned in several news articles about the band and confirmed by CP in a reddit AMA. The finished product hasn't been found, and the band has claimed to have a copy on a hard drive that they've misplaced

Here's what's known about the film:

Caravan Palace first started touring as a band in 2006, so the porn was produced before then
It was almost certainly produced in France, likely around Paris since that's their point of origin
The three people who worked on the score were Hugo Payen, Arnaud Vial, and Charles Delaporte
Numerous sources call it a silent porn
The music is likely jazz-inspired, and may sound broadly similar to their first album, but without the electronic influences

This is a big piece of the history of my favorite band of all time, so I really hope this being a NSFW topic doesn't get it buried. I'd love for some more attention to be brought to it and get a search started in earnest, since I can't find evidence of anyone really looking for it before

thedarkoneisrising
Junior Member

Posts: 53

Lost silent porn scored by Caravan Palace Jun 27, 2022 0:48:20 GMT pops likes this

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Post by thedarkoneisrising on Jun 27, 2022 0:48:20 GMT

Jun 26, 2022 22:14:54 GMT pops said:

Caravan Palace (the OG electroswing group, now best known for their viral Lone Digger music video) are not shy about the fact that its 3 founding members first met while composing the score for a silent porn. This has been mentioned in several news articles about the band and confirmed by CP in a reddit AMA. The finished product hasn't been found, and the band has claimed to have a copy on a hard drive that they've misplaced

Here's what's known about the film:

Caravan Palace first started touring as a band in 2006, so the porn was produced before then
It was almost certainly produced in France, likely around Paris since that's their point of origin
The three people who worked on the score were Hugo Payen, Arnaud Vial, and Charles Delaporte
Numerous sources call it a silent porn
The music is likely jazz-inspired, and may sound broadly similar to their first album, but without the electronic influences

This is a big piece of the history of my favorite band of all time, so I really hope this being a NSFW topic doesn't get it buried. I'd love for some more attention to be brought to it and get a search started in earnest, since I can't find evidence of anyone really looking for it before

Made some googles searches. There are a lot of conflicting infos on the articles. Some state the soundtrack was used for more then one movie, some for a single 1920's movie. One source cited 1930's era. Some sources stated that the movies were modern with a retro silent era technique style.
But found an interesting article with some snippet interview if you can check the validity of the citations. => mytaratata.com/artistes/caravan-palace

In 2005, Arnaud Vial, Hugues Payen and Charles Delaporte were asked to compose the soundtrack for a silent porn film from the 1920s.

Arnaud: “At the beginning, we were three friends who each made electronic music on their own. At the same time, the three of us were in a gypsy swing group with which we played in bars and private receptions. One day, we had an order for an X movie from the 1920s. The production wanted to bring up to date old movies that were illegal and banned at the time. They asked us to do something that is in the spirit of the times and at the same time is a bit modern. This is where the idea of mixing swing with electro music came from. As the result was quite nice, we thought we would continue and form a group. (gentside.com)

Charles: "The film didn't get made, but the people around us found the piece enjoyable. »

Arnaud: “But I don’t even know if we kept it! It was a bit cheap, a bit rushed. » (evene.fr, 2012)

In 2005, Arnaud Vial, Hugues Payen and Charles Delaporte were asked to compose the soundtrack for a silent porn film from the 1920s.

Arnaud: “At the beginning, we were three friends who each made electronic music on their own. At the same time, the three of us were in a gypsy swing group with which we played in bars and private receptions. One day, we had an order for an X movie from the 1920s. The production wanted to bring up to date old movies that were illegal and banned at the time. They asked us to do something that is in the spirit of the times and at the same time is a bit modern. This is where the idea of mixing swing with electro music came from. As the result was quite nice, we thought we would continue and form a group. (gentside.com)

Charles: "The film didn't get made, but the people around us found the piece enjoyable. »

Arnaud: “But I don’t even know if we kept it! It was a bit cheap, a bit rushed. » (evene.fr, 2012)

It seems the movie never made it to the public and was only a test run according to this source. This would explain why the AMA answer cites "a hardrive file" instead of linking to a movie that was publicly available.

pops
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Posts: 3

Lost silent porn scored by Caravan Palace Jun 27, 2022 19:58:56 GMT thedarkoneisrising likes this

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Post by pops on Jun 27, 2022 19:58:56 GMT

thedarkoneisrising Thanks for the quick research! I'm not too great at sorting through search results so I was mostly relying on a few sources and memory

The discrepancies in reporting might be partially translation errors, so getting a francophone to look through French-language articles could be a good next step

I did notice the hard drive comment, but figured there could be several explanations for that. Maybe it was released physically and never online, for instance, or maybe the company selling it shut down

Anyway, it sounds like the only avenues available are 1. try to contact the band and convince them to start seriously searching for it, 2. try and find the people producing it (I can't imagine there were too many Parisians trying to update banned 20's-era silent porn in the mid-aughts), and 3. try to raise awareness online to get noticed by either group

Regardless, hearing that it actually was proper electroswing is unexpected and very exciting, I assumed it would've been something more traditionally jazzy. So this isn't just historically significant for this one band, but for the genre as a whole!

thedarkoneisrising
Junior Member

Posts: 53

Lost silent porn scored by Caravan Palace Jun 27, 2022 22:14:24 GMT via mobile pops likes this

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Post by thedarkoneisrising on Jun 27, 2022 22:14:24 GMT

Jun 27, 2022 19:58:56 GMT pops said:

thedarkoneisrising Thanks for the quick research! I'm not too great at sorting through search results so I was mostly relying on a few sources and memory

The discrepancies in reporting might be partially translation errors, so getting a francophone to look through French-language articles could be a good next step

I did notice the hard drive comment, but figured there could be several explanations for that. Maybe it was released physically and never online, for instance, or maybe the company selling it shut down

Anyway, it sounds like the only avenues available are 1. try to contact the band and convince them to start seriously searching for it, 2. try and find the people producing it (I can't imagine there were too many Parisians trying to update banned 20's-era silent porn in the mid-aughts), and 3. try to raise awareness online to get noticed by either group

Regardless, hearing that it actually was proper electroswing is unexpected and very exciting, I assumed it would've been something more traditionally jazzy. So this isn't just historically significant for this one band, but for the genre as a whole!

I'm a French native speaker so it was easier for me to go through most of the articles available. The discrepancies had nothing to do with translation errors but most likely second and third hand reporting. That's why the interview citations seemed like the most trustworthy source to me.

pops
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Posts: 3

Lost silent porn scored by Caravan Palace Jul 1, 2022 0:34:20 GMT

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Post by pops on Jul 1, 2022 0:34:20 GMT

Ok, is there some kind of guide for how best to contact people in a lost media search? I'm gonna try and get in touch with the band, I just don't know how best to get it noticed and replied to

Actually thedarkoneisrising (or anyone else who would like to help with this) a French email might help too. I've never seen them have issues communicating in English, but it couldn't hurt

The only email I could find is on their facebook, which is olivier@grand-blanc.net (probably Olivier Linglet, who is involved with their Lone Diggers record label), but the band and several of its individual members also have various social media that could be tried

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