Aquaserge

French collective Aquaserge crafts an avant-rock sound that pulls from chanson, free jazz, soundtrack music, and progressive styles, especially the Canterbury scene and the Rock in Opposition movement. Their recordings range from intricate, extended ten-minute suites to breezier pop tracks nodding toward the Beach Boys. The project originated in early 2005 in Toulouse as a side venture from the French pop band Hyperclean when Benjamin Glibert, Julien Barbagallo, and Julien Gasc began exploring more experimental directions. Over the years the lineup expanded to include Manon Glibert and Audrey Ginestet, a frequent collaborator with Acid Mothers Temple. Several participants from the Aquaserge and Hyperclean circle also played in Ueh, which issued two albums on the Acid Mothers Temple label, one of them featuring a joint effort with founder Makoto Kawabata. The founding members have additionally performed with Stereolab (Gasc), Tame Impala (Barbagallo), and Melody's Echo Chamber (Glibert). Aquaserge joined April March for a self-titled album in 2013 and honored multiple twentieth-century composers on the 2021 release The Possibility of a New Work for Aquaserge. La Fin de l'Économie, framed as an ecological poem, surfaced in 2024.

The group tracked its first release, the album Un, shortly after forming. Later that year they recorded the Tahiti Coco EP, which Manimal Vinyl issued in 2008. Their debut CD, Un & Deux, followed in 2009. Manimal Vinyl put out the full-length Ce Très Cher Serge in 2010, featuring guitar from Kawabata, trumpet by experimental artist Sébastien Cirotteau, and violin by DAAU co-founder Buni Lenski. The April March collaboration appeared on Freaksville in early 2013. In 2014 Chambre404 released the full-length A l'Amitié along with the 12-inch EP Tout Arrive, whose tracks later served as bonuses on the CD edition. Aquaserge moved to the Belgian experimental imprint Crammed Discs in 2016, issuing the Guerre EP and contributing to 16 Visions of Ex-Futur, a set of reworked pieces drawn from Véronique Vincent and Aksak Maboul’s Ex-Futur Album. Their first album for the label, Laisse ça être, arrived in 2017, followed by the live recording Déjà-Vous? in 2018. The 2021 set The Possibility of a New Work for Aquaserge contained readings of works by Edgard Varèse and Morton Feldman together with homages to Györgi Ligeti and Giacinto Scelsi. La Fin de l'Économie, a rock record shaped by Dada and free jazz, appeared in 2024.