HERATIUS

Heratius biography
Active in the mid-to-late 1970s, Heratius were a French krautrock band based in Montpellier. The group were formerly known as the Heratius Corporation and a composite of the bands Heratius and Eos, with the latter's Armand Miralles (guitars/vocals/keyboards) and Kristof Temple (bass/guitar) eventually joining founders Florence Leroy (vocals/piano/effects) and Robert Diaz (vocals/clarinets/tapes).

Heratius' freewheeling Dadaist weirdness featured unhinged, dynamic French male vocals ranging from softly-spoken to sweetly-sung to falsetto wailing, delivered atop a disjointed foundation of acid-guitar/horn duels, warped blues interpretations, acoustic guitars both tuned and otherwise stummed with stoned abandon, studio experiments in musique concrète and free jazz caterwauls lost in space. Thus, Heratius unsurprisingly found themselves included in the first edition of Nurse With Wound's legendary list, issued with their debut LP. In fact, Heratius' only album, Gwendolyne, was recorded and released (sans Temple) the year before Steven Stapleton's in 1978, issued jointly through Miralles' label Frigico Records and vinyl-manufacturing collective F.L.V.M. (the French equivalent of D.I.Y., literally standing for "Faites Le Vous-Même").

Heratius' music received renewed focus with the 2014 Fractal Records CD compilation Pataphysic Power: The Underground Retrospective, which collected remastered versions of Gwendolyne and its unreleased 1979 sophomore Les Boniments as well as the discography of Miralles' new wavey synth-pop project Armand Frigico; the Heratius material was later released separately via Staubgold on limited edition vinyl in 2021. A handful of private-press cassettes were issued prior to Gwendolyne, but none saw the light of day until 2022, when their 1976 debut, À ciel ouvert, was uploaded to YouTube by musician/historian Alan Freeman of Alto Stratus/Endgame.

Heratius' fever-dream avant-prog has been compared to ZNR, Etron Fou Leloublan, Albert Marcoeur, Fille Qui Mousse and Patrick Vian's Red Noise, and additionally described by Henry Cow's Chris Cutler as the "French Faust."


- Gordy, June 2024