Mondkopf (born Paul Régimbeau, 1986 in

Toulouse Toulouse ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the prefecture of the French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger region of Occitania. The city is on the banks of the River Garonne, from the Mediterranean Sea, from the Atlantic Ocean and from Par ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

) is an

electronic music Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electroac ...

composer.

Career

Early years

His first album, ''Un été sur l'herbe'', recorded in 2005-2006, came out in 2007 under the French label Annexia Records, followed by ''Galaxy of Nowhere'' (2009) on Asphalt Duchess and ''Rising Doom'' (2011) on Fool House. During that time, he also released a certain number of EPs : ''(Declaration of) Principles'' (2008) on Fool House, ''Nuits sauvages'' (2009) on Citizen Records, ''Libera me'' (2009) and ''Deaf House'' (2010) on Asphalt Duchess, as well as a limited edition of ''Day of Anger'' (2011). At that point of his career, he had already performed live in several music festivals around Europe : Nuit Electro at the Grand Palais, Astropolis and Strøm (

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

) in 2009, Transardentes and

Solidays Solidays () is a French annual music festival that takes place at the Longchamp Racecourse in Paris at the end of June. Organized by Solidarité sida (a French HIV/AIDS awareness group for youth), the event brings together more than 150 artists a ...

in 2010,

The Great Escape Festival The Great Escape Festival is a three-day music festival held in Brighton and Hove, England every year in May. It is operated by MAMA Festivals and showcases new music from a variety of genres. The festival was founded in 2006 and roughly hosts ...

in May 2011,

Vieilles Charrues Festival The Vieilles Charrues Festival (french: Festival des Vieilles Charrues, ; br, Gouel an Erer Kozh, ; literally: Old Ploughs Festival) is held every year in mid-July in the city of Carhaix, located in western Brittany, France. This festival is the l ...

in July 2011, La Route du Rock in August 2011,

Pitchfork Music Festival The Pitchfork Music Festival is an annual summer music festival organized by ''Pitchfork Media'' and held in Union Park in Chicago, Illinois. Starting in 2011, the festival announced a branch staged in Paris at Grande halle de la Villette. The fe ...

in October 2011... His remixes were noticed by the specialized media, and also by musicians such as

Agoria (musician) Agoria, born Sébastien Devaud (born 16 January 1976) is a French electronic record producer, composer, and DJ. He has released four albums, including the soundtrack to the film ''Go Fast''. He is one of the founders of the record label InFin� ...

Busy P Pedro Winter (born Pierre Winter; 21 April 1975), also known by the stage name Busy P, is a French record producer, DJ, record label owner, and former artist manager. After being the manager of Daft Punk from 1996 to 2008,Boys Noize Alexander Ridha (born 22 August 1982), better known by his stage name Boys Noize, is a Berlin-based German-Iraqi electronic music record producer, songwriter, and DJ. It is similar to the name of Ridha's label, Boysnoize Records, which he estab ...

, Patrice Baumel, Radio Slave, James Zabiela (who placed ''Bones Club'' in his Essential Mix on BBC1, and ''Libera me'' on his compilation for

Renaissance Recordings Renaissance Recordings is a British record label, founded by the club Renaissance in 1994. It went into administration in September 2010 and the back catalogue was sold to Phoenix Music International Ltd. After a year of inactivity, in July 20 ...

), etc. When asked about his pseudonym, he provided the following explanation : « People were saying that I always had my head in the clouds ''(« avoir la tête dans la lune » literally means « to have one’s head in the moon »)'' and that I wasn’t able to concentrate. I finally came up with this german word ''(« Mondkopf » literally meaning « moon head »)'', I thought it sounded good and so I kept it ».

Since the creation of In Paradisum

In 2012, in collaboration with the visual collective Trafik, he created the ambient live "Eclipse" at the

Cité de la Musique The Cité de la Musique ("City of Music"), also known as Philharmonie 2, is a group of institutions dedicated to music and situated in the Parc de la Villette, 19th arrondissement of Paris, France. It was designed with the nearby Conservatoire d ...

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

, on the occasion of a

Brian Eno Brian Peter George St John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno (; born Brian Peter George Eno, 15 May 1948) is a British musician, composer, record producer and visual artist best known for his contributions to ambient music and work in rock, pop an ...

tribute party. Under his own record label In Paradisum, that he launched along with Guillaume Heuguet, he released the EPs ''Ease your pain'' and ''Ease your pain remixes''. He started performing regularly during the label’s events, dedicated to the underground techno and ambient international scene. In 2013, in parallel with a couple of appearances in Berlin (at

Berghain Berghain () is a nightclub in Berlin, Germany. It is named after its location near the border between Kreuzberg and Friedrichshain in Berlin, and is a short walk from Berlin Ostbahnhof main line railway station.

, at Boiler Room...), he collaborated with Perc Trax to release the EP ''The Nicest Way''. In 2014, his fourth album ''Hadès'', released under In Paradisum, represents a « new start »: Mondkopf distances himself from pure techno in order to experiment sounds on « the most goth and doom side of the industrial scene » (according to a French journalist from ''Tsugi''). As he describes it himself, his musical approach follows a cathartic and redeeming logic, in a mental environment that is tinted with mysticism. He continues to perform live on various occasions, among which was a unique collaboration with

Charlemagne Palestine Chaim Moshe Tzadik Palestine (born 1947), known professionally as Charlemagne Palestine, is an American visual artist and musician. He has been described as being one of the founders of New York school of minimalist music, first initiated by La ...

for the 2015 edition of the

Sonic Protest Sonic Protest is a yearly music festival in France focused on left field music genres like experimental rock, electroacoustic music, improvised music, noise and avant garde music. The first edition of Sonic Protest took place in 2003. The editions ...

festival. In February 2016, on In Paradisum, he released the EP ''The Last Tales'', that he elaborated during the ''Hadès'' tour. He is currently working on several projects, either solo (Extreme Precautions) or involving other artists in the entourage of In Paradisum (Autrenoir, FOUDRE, Spero Lucem).

References

External links

Soundcloud
{{Authority control French electronic musicians 1986 births Living people