Didier Orain was Monsieur de Forsaings. Sometimes writtenMonsieur De Forsaings, Mr De Foursaings, Monsieur de Foursaings, M. de Foursaings, Monsieur De Foursaing, Mr. De Foursaings, Mr. De Foursaing or Mr.De Forsang.
Mostly active in the 90s, the French project appeared on many compilations and released a few records. As I had been going through the 1990 “Heol Daou” (Katiho 02) tape compilation, checking all the bands, I find that Monsieur de Foursaings appears with “Mes Maris”. But let’s see what else, what other songs he released.
From what I see that was his first song released, maybe there were other demos on other tapes, but Discogs has that one as the earliest. Then came “Pourquoi Je Ne Plais Pas”, the track that appears on “Teeny Poppers” the superb comp tape that Fabien Garcia released on his Anorak Records (SHOUBIDOUWA 01) in 1992. That same year the song “Le Blue D’Annie” appeared on “Whoops!” a French tape comp released by Houpla where bands from around the world contributed songs including Even as We Speak, The Tables, Die Fünf Freunde or Secret Shine among others.
In 1993 we see the same song, “Le Blue D’Annie”, appear on a CD comp by the French label Rosebud called “The Great Collection V°2”. And again, in 93, the same song, now titled “Annie”, appears on the cassette compilation “Ces Chères Têtes Blondes” released by Cindie (CIN 01). This tape came with a 32 page booklet that I’d love to see one day. Many bands here to discover too. And looking at this release on Discogs I am surprised that this website hides the cover art, thinking it is 18 years and older material! Odd!
In 1994 the band finally releases its first record. It is a 7″ on Ad Libitum Pop!? (Ad Lib 5). It is called “Souvenir de Ma Soeur” and included 3 tracks, “Dolly Parton” and “La Plage est Vide” on the A side and “Ces Heures de Loire” on the B side. On this record we see that the great Phillippe Katerine played bass and guitar, Anthony Ka drums and Anne Blanchard did vocals, same as Mr. de Foursaings. The engineer for the recordings was Pascal Douillard.
1996 sees the band start its collaboration with Escalator Records from Japan. First with the song “Ma Demoiselle Habile” on the CD compilation “New One” (ESCD001). And then the next year with a split 7″ with Fugu. This 7″ (ESINGLE006) would have Mr. de Foursaings song “(Tout Va Bien) Sous Le Soleil Mexicain”, which is such a great track!
Quattro Records from Japan would do an Escalator Records compilation called “Escalator Records Presents Premier CD for Nagoya Parco South” (QTCN-1105) in 1998. On this compilation the band appears with the track “Les Couples Modernes”.
This same year, 1998, the band releases its first and only album, “Voulez-Vous Me Faire la Cour?” on Escalator Records (ESCD005). On this CD, recorded at the Garage Hermétique in the suburb of Rezé, in Nantes, Mr. de Foursaings collaborates with many musicians: Gaëtan Chataignier on bass, Jérôme Marchand on cello, Olivier Angebeault on trumpet, Phillippe Allaire on grand piano, Etienne Tabourier on viola and violin, Gaëlle Claquin on violin, Nicolas Moreau on synths, Anne Blanchard again on vocals, Anthony Ka again on drums, Stéphane Louvain from the Little Rabits (and many other bands like La Secte Humaine or French Cowboy) on guitar, Stéphanie Hugli on vibraphone and organ, Simon Mary on contrabass, Jean-Marc Gestin on drums, Philippe Eveno on electric guitar and Stanislas Gielara on percussion. Nicolas Moreau was the person who recorded the tracks too.
The album had 15 songs. these were: “Prélude de la Mariée”, “Annie”, “L’Automne D’Alice”, “Faut-il Mentir?”, “Around Alice”, “Chanson À S”, “La Mariée, Même”, “Voulez-vous Me Faire La Cour ?”, “Les Rendez-vous Manqués”, “Les Couples Modernes”, “Noël À Campbon”, “Ces Heures de Loire”, “(Tout Va Bien) Sous Le Soleil Mexicain” and “Final du Marié”.
It is also worth mentioning that the Monsieur played many instruments too including the horn, bells, celesta, organ, piano, vibraphone as well as singing.
“Faut-il Mentir” would be selected to appear on the Polydor Japan compilation “Allo La France?… Moshi Moshi? – Une Sélection Par Katerine” (POCP 1702) in 1999.
The next year, 2000, the track “(Tout Va Bien) Sous Le Soleil Mexicain” appears on “Escalator Collection”, a new CD comp released by Escalator (ESCD013).
There is an undated 3″ CD compilation called “New New No” that Escalator released (ESC 008). This one had a live version of “Mademoireselle Habile (Live)”. I wonder if that was a misspelling?
Some years after, possibly after the project was no more, the song “T’épouser” appears on the CD “Chantier N°7 Slow” that came out on Travaux Publics (TP00007). It is also worth noting that some mixes were released in 2005. The DJ “Masashi Naka” remixed the song “Around Alice” for the compilation “We are Escalator Records Part 5” (ESCD048) and the DJ TGMX would do the same for the song “Les Couples Modernes” for “We are Escalator Records Part 6” (ESCD053).
When you search for Monsieur de Foursaings you mostly get results in Japanese. But there is barely any info on the band. But searching for Didier I see he is a visual artist now, and his art looks really good to me. Wish I own one of his paintings!
He had graduated in plastic arts from the University of Haute Bretagne in Rennes and has been a painter and also a designer, working with acrylic, ink and on surfaces like wood and cardboard. You can see his pieces here.
For those who read French there is a very nice article from 2021 by Renaud Sachet on Section 26 where he talks a bit about Monsieur de Foursaings. There are not many important details here, but still it is a very nice read.
That’s really all I could find. Wondering about gigs for example. Did he play many? Or none at all? Were there demo tapes recorded? Was it a proper band at any time? He was part of the Nantes scene, right?
Anyways, any information readers can share would be great!
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Listen
Monsieur de Foursaings – (Tout Va Bien) Sous Le Soleil Mexicain
