Opera Multi Steel

The hidden cassette archives of France's most singular coldwave act, finally unearthed. Opera Multi Steel was founded during the winter of 1982-83 in Bourges by brothers Franck Lopez and Patrick L. Robin alongside Catherine Marie, and from the start they pursued a vision unlike anything else in the European electronic underground: a fusion of minimal synth and darkwave with medieval and renaissance elements, drawing on the gothic architecture and ancient poetry of their hometown as much as on the sounds of DAF or Bauhaus.

While their official discography - the landmark 1985 album Cathédrale, dedicated to the great gothic cathedral of Bourges - established them as essential figures in the French coldwave scene, Opera Multi Steel simultaneously maintained a parallel existence in the cassette underground. Between 1983 and 1987, the band recorded a series of K7 tapes in severely limited quantities (between 100 and 300 copies each): Autres Appels (1985), Eternelle Tourmente (1986), OMS/Modern Art (1987), Je Regarde la Pluie (1987), and Regret Qui S'écaille (1987). Home-duplicated and traded through the international tape network, these releases contained demos, experiments, and alternate versions that would later be rearranged for official albums - as well as tracks that have never appeared elsewhere.

This triple LP box set anthologizes 36 tracks from these impossibly rare tapes, all recorded to 2-track reel at the band's Isorcades Studio. From the earliest 1983 demo sessions through the refined productions of 1987, the collection traces the evolution of one of coldwave's most distinctive voices. The 12-page booklet includes liner notes, photos, and a complete OMS discography. Limited edition of 600 hand-numbered copies. An essential document for devotees of French coldwave, minimal synth, and the 1980s European cassette underground.