Travel

Others

HISTORY

Rock in Opposition or "RIO" was a movement representing a collective of "progressive" bands in the late 1970s united
in their opposition to the music industry that refused to recognise their music. It was initiated by Henry Cow in March 1978
when they invited four European groups to come to London and perform in a festival called "Rock in Opposition"
The groups that performed in the inaugural event were:
Henry Cow (UK) , Stormy Six (Italy) , Samla Mammas Manna (Sweden) ,
Univers Zéro (Belgium) et Etron Fou Leloublan (France).
After the festival, RIO was formalised as an organisation with a charter whose aim was to represent and promote its members. Three more bands were also added to the collective: Art Bears (UK), Art Zoyd (France) and Aksak Maboul (Belgium), and further festivals were held later in France, Italy and Sweden. Chris Cutler of Henry Cow established the ReR (Recommended Records) label in the UK, as a model for a non-profit music company.
RIO as a movement did not last long, but its legacy still persists. While RIO never referred to a type of music
(the original RIO bands were quite diverse musically), it is still often used by listeners, musicians, and distributors
to classify bands (generally bands that appeared at the RIO festivals or bands related to or derived from the RIO bands).
Bands familiarized with the RIO movement and genre today include: Thinking Plague (USA), Present (Belgium),
Miriodor (Canada), Ahvak (Israel), Neblenest (France), 5uu's (USA), Guapo (UK) and U Totem (USA).
The term "RIO" today is almost synonymous with Avant-progressive rock or Experimental Rock.

From: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

During an encounter in Brussels in December 2005, Michel Besset and Roger Trigaux discussed their common desire to initiate
in France -and everywhere in the world, since that fight is of an interplanetary kind! – new dynamics around those musical
forms that have thrilled them since the early 70's.
For Roger, this desire is linked to the permanent commitment of a musician who always refused to compromise or to "adapt" his music to the mainstream taste of non-demanding audiences, and who always had to cope with the obstacles generated by such a radical approach.
For Michel, this is the willingness to come back to these musical streams that have shaped the identity of "Transparence", the association he founded in 1974, back in a period of deep musical innovation, when truly committed artists gave birth to numerous passionated initiatives that were often risky and far off the beaten tracks of commercial production.
In the meantime, both Michel and Roger have witnessed a worldwide flourishment of music Festivals dedicated to so-called « progressive » musical forms, but in fact mostly presenting artists who are redundantly recycling the recipes of the same old cult-bands.

The birth of that new musical event is in continuity with gigs that have been promoted for the last three decades by the association "Transparences" in Carmaux, Albi and other locations in Southern France (with such artists as Henry Cow, Art Zoyd, Léo Ferré, Univers Zero, Magma, Nucleus, Contrepoint, Present, …).

This event illustrates how this association has always been a committed partner to the most UNCOMPROMISING artists, AGAINST a commercial system that forces them to adapt their creativity to a demand created by the system itself and IN OPPOSITION to a system that seems to be inescapable and self-consuming.

Back in the 70's, artists had to fight to promote these so-called "radical" musical forms, and it's getting even more difficult nowadays. Just because that music is demanding – not that it requires an effort from the audience, but only because it appeals to his curiosity and his longing for new perspectives.
The complex language, the emotion and the depth, the real collective work that characterize musicians who dedicated themselves to that music, made their way through several decades and finally reached the new generations, tired of hearing cheap discourses and mainstream merchandised muzak.

In France, one band epitomizes that fight: Magma, whose lasting musical influence has become more and more obvious as years have passed. But outside France as well, such artists as Robert Wyatt, Soft Machine, Miles Davis and Jimi Hendrix have been important symbols for a whole generation.

Sometimes the music reaches its target… when it has one! Those musicians opened our minds and gave us enough strength to pursue that struggle, for ourselves, for the music and for the human condition in general. After more than three decades, we now realise how crucial that issue can be.
After having experienced other forms of music, we are now able to understand the significance of the music we defend today.