[Paris] Les Nuits Immenses festival : three nights dedicated to dark, noise, and extreme music
Exclusive live performances, familiar faces, and a handful of French live premieres are awaited at the new festival launched by Bad to the Bone, taking place over three consecutive Fridays in January at the Anti-Club, the soundproofed space of Cirque Électrique (Paris 20th)
Bad to the Bone: a manifesto for countercultures
“Proudly chaotic” is the unmissable slogan of Paris-based multi and transdisciplinary platform Bad to the Bone. Rooted in a radical approach inspired by fanzines, social movements, and the DIY ethic, Bad to the Bone blurs the lines between artistic disciplines and conventions. Through book publishing, fanzines, print and digital publications, and events organization, the media unites a curious and engaged community.
Bad to the Bone also curates No God Rituals club nights, which spotlight contemporary electronic music, and produces Équinoxe events, a concept created by Manon Schaefle, which celebrates radical and free expressions through noise or punk concerts intertwined with textual performances. Beyond events, the platform also shares dedicated podcasts such as Blank , available on SoundCloud.
“ICI, LA NUIT EST IMMENSE”
Launched in 2023, “ICI, LA NUIT EST IMMENSE” is a typology of events offering experiences centered around live music, giving a fresh voice to obscure music that delve into the most avant-garde realms of sound creation. A vision where chaos evokes emotion, surprise, and discomfort, stimulating unprecedented aesthetic and sonic experiences. Each event is an intense immersion where artists and spectators are exposed to raw, unsettling, and often extreme emotions, oscillating between intimacy and vulnerability.
The visual environment is part of the experience: artists perform in the middle of the audience in near-total darkness, interrupted by a series of strobe lights provoking sudden jolts and bursts of syncopated light, maintaining a sense of intimacy and mystery. Thick smoke fills the space, transforming it into a vessel outside of any known time and space: not everything is revealed, and each person is free to experience the moment in their own way.
It’s when you step off the beaten track and take risks that you reach something powerful. It’s not simple or obvious, it doesn’t work every time, but the fact of trying is beautiful and sometimes it flirts with the divine.
HERVÉ COUTIN, FONDATEUR DE BAD TO THE BONE
Over the 9 nights since the launch of the “ICI LA NUIT EST IMMENSE” events, numerous experimental, noise, and improvised music artists have performed, offering the audience a raw and wild sonic experience with each concert. With Parisian nights held at The Sample and Fawa, Hervé Coutin, founder of Bad to The Bone, will settle in at the Anti-Club of Cirque Electrique for the Nuits Immenses festival, a venue already perfectly tuned to the concept of his events.
Anti-Club perfectly in tune with his vision of the experimental and radical music scene he supports : “The welcome, the acoustics, and the sound system at Anti Club are among the best, if not the best, in Paris. Every time, it’s a huge impact on the audience, and the artists truly enjoy performing in these conditions. Moreover, I have total freedom there. These are crucial factors for creating high-quality events”.
For Hervé Coutin, the importance of confronting the audience with intense and sometimes unsettling emotions is the cornerstone of the experience that these nights aim to offer. “It’s at that moment that something profound is created, something that will stay in people’s memories. A moment that leaves a lasting impression. It’s when we step off the beaten path and take risks that we touch something powerful. That’s the essence of experience and experimentation; it’s neither simple nor obvious, it doesn’t work every time, but the act of trying is beautiful, and sometimes it flirts with the divine.”
Les Nuits Immenses festival : a powerful entity that becomes a political act
On January 17, 24 and 31, over three consecutive Fridays, 15 artists will perform around a highly committed and multidisciplinary concept, inviting the audience to experience this powerful entity, which naturally becomes a political act.
Each event will feature 4 live performances and the screening of an experimental film, along with provocative, committed, and poetic texts by contemporary writers, which will be freely distributed at each event. These visual and literary elements enrich the audience’s experience and complement the radical and experimental spirit of these nights: “This is in line with what I’ve always tried to create with Bad to the Bone” continues Hervé Coutin. “That means a consistent whole. I think that this transdisciplinary aspect is as important as it is interesting, because it allows us to propose a real entity that becomes a political act. Ideas blend with images, which are added to sound, it’s three-dimensional and circular. It’s an autonomous and radical system because the messages conveyed (whether through images, texts, or by the musicians) are strong and leave no room for compromise. If it’s not radical, there’s no point in doing it.”
Festival lineup
A series of 12 live music artists + 3 video artists will perform at the festival. The organization of three consecutive dates will not only expand the program, but also strengthen the identity of the evenings developed with Bad to the Bone over the past two years.
The performances—ranging from noise, industrial, ambient, and extreme music—will include unique creations, with some international artists performing in France for the first time.
Friday, January 17
PROPHÄN (live) : https://urlz.fr/sb4S
BRIDE (live – 1ère en France) : https://urlz.fr/soN0
SUBSTENCIA (live) : https://urlz.fr/sb4V
KNIFEDOUTOFEXISTENCE (live – 1ère en France) : https://urlz.fr/sb4O
OHII KATYA (vidéo BALIA) : https://urlz.fr/soMY
Presales & infos : https://urlz.fr/spDD
Friday, January 24
若潭 RUÒ TÁN (live) : https://urlz.fr/soMX
SOPOORIFIC (live) : https://urlz.fr/sb5d
FLAGORNE (live) : https://urlz.fr/sb5g
SECOND SPECTRE (live) : https://urlz.fr/tu6Z
ANDRES KOMATSU (vidéo AKT – with Méryll Ampe videoclip) : https://urlz.fr/soN8
Presales & infos: https://urlz.fr/spEV
Friday, January 31
AGE OF HATE (live) : https://urlz.fr/sb5z
TALPAH (live) : https://urlz.fr/sb5J
GERTIE ADELAIDO (live – 1ère en France) : https://urlz.fr/sgLv
THE UNDERTAKER’S TAPES (live) : https://urlz.fr/soN4
LAURA GOZLAN (vidéo – Now you’re inside me, it doesn’t mean we’ll collegially agree on all topics) : https://urlz.fr/spFP
Presales & infos : https://urlz.fr/spFX