Swiss instrumental outfit L’eclair has built its fanbase exponentially since its maiden North American tour last summer, and ahead of a new round of live shows in the region beginning Friday (July 14) in Brooklyn, N.Y., the group has signed a new worldwide label deal with the Los Angeles-based Innovative Leisure.
Best known as the home of genre-bending jazz group BADBADNOTGOOD, Innovative Leisure previously worked with L’eclair on the 2021 album Souvenir, on which the quintet backed French composer/producer Frank Maston. Group member Stef Lilov tells SPIN L’eclair is hoping to record its debut for the label in Los Angeles in the fall and release it next spring or early summer. It will be the follow-up to 2021’s Confusions, which made inroads in the U.S. in part thanks to a well-received pandemic-era live session for Seattle radio station KEXP.
In tandem with some musical friends and family, the group is also finalizing a deal with a major international distribution partner for its own imprint, Stone Pixels, which Lilov says will “showcase talents from Geneva and around the world” beyond L’eclair. In the meantime, Geneva-based label Bongo Joe will continue to distribute Confusions as well as earlier albums such as L’eclair’s 2017 debut, Cruise Control.
And although L’eclair’s groove-dominant, high-energy, and vocal-free sound owes its fair share to classic funk, disco, psychedelic rock, and fusion, Lilov says the group’s newest material “is clearly escaping from the ’70s more and more. We’ve been really motivated to include some surprises on the next record — something we haven’t shown yet in our music that we’ve only felt comfortable doing when we collaborate with other people. It’s really exciting to write and still keep the roots of what L’eclair has been since the beginning. We’re trying to make the end product easier to listen to, but we’re not giving away the sound and all the things people like about our music.”
To that end, L’eclair will continue to polish unreleased songs on the upcoming tour, which runs through July 29 in St. Paul, Mn. “It’s the best thing to try out your songs that are a bit more uptempo before going into the studio, because you may end up with a new unexpected jam,” Lilov says. adding that one new untitled track reminds him of “Tom Cruise in Jamaica, Chemical Brothers, and Beastie Boys. We’ve been really overwhelmed by people in the U.S. who genuinely were touched by our music. We’ve had every age audience possible. Even some parents came because their kids listen to us but were too young to get into the show themselves.”
“Maybe it’s just because we came all the way from Switzerland, but there’s this real love for bands in the States,” he continues. “On the tour last year, we actually felt like we had fans, which is still weird for us to interpret. Even on some nights, like when there were only about 40 people at our show in Denver, everybody was dancing, and it really helps spread the word. We’re all just friends from college making psychedelic music. What we do has so many roots in the U.S., so it was pretty insane to see people here get the groove.”
Following the North American run, L’eclair will play a host of shows in the U.K. and Switzerland in September before returning across the Atlantic for a Sept. 28 appearance at the fifth annual Same Same But Different festival in Lake Perris, Ca.
Here are L’eclair’s North American tour dates:
July 14: Brooklyn, N.Y. (Brooklyn Made)
July 15: Philadelphia (Silk City Diner)
July 16: Baltimore, Md. (Metro Gallery)
July 18: Troy, N.Y. (No Fun)
July 19: Brattleboro, Vt. (Stone Church)
July 20: Burlington, Vt. (Monkey House)
July 21: Montreal (L’Escogriffe Bar Spectacle)
July 22: Baie-Saint-Paul, Quebec (Le Festif!)
July 24: Toronto (Monarch Tavern)
July 25: Detroit (UFO Factory)
July 26: Indianapolis (Square Cat Vinyl)
July 27: Chicago (Empty Bottle)
July 28: Milwaukee (Cactus Club)
July 29: St. Paul, Minn. (Turf Club)
Sept. 28: Lake Perris, Ca. (Same Same But Different Festival)
