Costes
Costes is the stage name of Jean-Louis Costes, a French musician, performer, writer and actor born in Paris in 1954. Since the 1980s he has self-released a large body of tapes and CDs built on synthesizers, looped beats and overmodulated vocals, and he is known for confrontational stage shows that he calls porno-social operas. Costes grew up in Croissy-sur-Seine and studied architecture before turning to music. He performed in Suckdog with Lisa Crystal Carver, to whom he was married.
Nêgre Blanc
On Nègre blanc, Jean-Louis Costes turns a label’s “make a jazz record” brief into a feral cut‑up: Quentin Rollet’s solo sax improvisations are diced, looped and smeared under Costes’ confrontational vocals, flipping free jazz into a trash‑opera about…
The Cassette Mythos Audio Alchemy CD/K7
1991 release ** "A great deal of the newest music is found only on cassettes or computer discs that are freely exchanged through the mail or available through word-of-mouth contacts and small publications soliciting contributions. (One might be remin…
La Vie Tue
Costes practices the scorched earth policy. Everything you can listen to after it is made paltry and lighter than air. This is also what we recognize important records. They are not necessarily fun but replace all the others. The killed life is a maj…
Pas Encore Mort
Costes has caused me so much trouble. Even today, 25 years after the last time I performed with him, I still have a hard time booking shows because he has not mellowed as I have and the venues are afraid, because of my past association with him, t…
Plastic&Magic
Bisou records (Isabelle Magnon and Quentin Rollet) asked Jean-Louis Costes to do a book for children. This guy is mostly known for his extreme adult performances.Here he tells us the story of Plastic & Magic with drawings and a (free) CD of songs for…