Band Apart

French/American duo Band Apart operated at the outermost edges of the already obscure no wave movement during the opening years of the 1980s. The short-lived project consisted of New York City-based lyricist/vocalist Jayne Bliss and French multi-instrumentalist/vocalist/producer Medak Mader, who together issued only a single EP and one studio album of otherworldly synth and skronk before ending the collaboration in 1983.

Formed as an international act near the start of 1981, the pair soon joined the roster of the eclectic Belgian indie imprint Crammed Discs. Their eerie, atmospheric textures pulled from the jagged post-punk and no wave currents then surfacing in the early ’80s while also incorporating more experimental, textural methods of rock construction. Guitar effects and synthesizers shaped an otherworldly strain of pop whose ingredients would later define the foundations of shoegaze, dream pop, chillwave, and related styles. Bliss and Mader’s initial Band Apart recording arrived as a self-titled four-song EP in 1981. The duo played live sporadically and, after the EP, delivered their lone full-length album, Marseille, in 1983. They disbanded shortly following that release, yet remained a cult favorite in subsequent decades. In 2019 Crammed Discs assembled selected tracks from the group’s studio recordings for a remastered, self-titled reissue.