One of
Stereolab's many spin-offs and side projects,
Monade (pronounced mon-ard) originally featured
Laetitia Sadier and
Pram's Rosie Cuckston. The duo began collaborating in the mid-'90s, and
Sadier recorded the first
Monade tracks in 1996 at
Pram's studio, with Cuckston playing and also helping to engineer the session. Some of these tracks were released by Duophonic as the Sunrise Telling and Witch Hazel/Ode to a Keyring singles.
Sadier continued to record at
Stereolab's own studio without Cuckston, and one of these tracks, "Cache Cache," ended up as a B-side on
Stereolab's Calimero single. In between her
Stereolab duties,
Sadier completed enough material for
Monade's debut album, Socialisme Ou Barbarie: The Bedroom Recordings, which was released by Duophonic in Europe and by Drag City in the U.S. in spring 2003. For
Monade's second album A Few Steps More, the band moved to Too Pure and expanded to include bassist/vocalist Marie Merlet, keyboardist Nicolas Etienne and drummer Xavier Chabellard. Monstre Cosmic arrived in 2008 and featured collaborations with the Bordeaux Conservatoire and the Toulousse-based group Momotte. ~ Heather Phares