To live vicariously is to experience the world in our minds through imaginative or sympathetic participation in the experiences of another person. As our daily lives become more and more interwoven with the Internet, and especially with social media, our identity construction and portrayal, as well as our interaction with others is increasingly taking place online.

This trend became even more obvious during the COVID19 pandemic when we spent long periods of time stuck at home, cut off from direct contact with others. Faced with the impossibility of doing the things we were so used to pre-pandemic, many of us began to seek out ways of experiencing the world vicariously, through the experiences of others.

Lockdowns · social distancing · stay at home · exercise alone · buy online · work from home! The Covid19 pandemic and the resulting lockdowns set in place the ideal conditions for vicarious consumption to flourish.

LP / Digital Album

Le Cliché might be described as minimal synth, synth pop, postmodernist, cold assembly line with neo consumerist themes, based on the use of synth sequences and virtual voices.

Digital Album

Synth music project based in Barcelona, originally from Limerick, Ireland.

The music is inspired by synth and electro pop acts of the early 1980s and the 2000s. The dominant themes are consumer, consumption, consumer society and postmodern marketing.

LP / Digital Album

In celebration of Bold Monday’s 10th anniversary we invited two of our favourite artists, Le Cliché (Gerard Ryan residing in Barcelona) and Colophon (3) (Bas van Vuurde hailing from Haarlem) to compose six exclusive tracks. We are releasing those tracks as a special limited edition EP on vinyl.

Design of the outer and inner sleeve is by London based MuirMcNeil. We are longtime admirers of their work and were thrilled when Paul and Hamish agreed to design the artwork for this project.

Final mastering was handled by Marco Spaventi in Amsterdam. The resulting digital audio files have been pressed on 140gr vinyl by Record Industry in Haarlem.

The tracks on this EP can be categorised as contemporary electronic music with a clear nod to its roots, while both artists opted for a different emphasis as well. Le Cliché composed the tracks Francophilia, Ergophobia and Chorophilia inspired by experimental postpunk and early synth pop. Colophon on the other side created Monospace and Methods of Synchronism referencing the more dance-oriented styles from 1980’s New York and Detroit, with the track 574 Mondays serving as an ambient interlude.

Mini-LP

This is a 5 track EP, ‘experimental electronic music, on C46 cassette, one sided, in a metal box with the contents of a typical geometry set.

The music might be described as minimal synth, synth pop, postmodernist, cold assembly line with neo consumerist themes, based on the use of synth sequences and virtual voices.

Digital Album

All of the tracks on this EP are inspired by a host of sounds, clips and samples borrowed from wonderfully obscure electronic music artists cassette tapes of the late 70s and early 80s.

Digital Album

“Exercices de style” est une sélection de chansons du projet Le Cliché. Certaines chansons sont tirées de précédentes sorties, d’autres sont inédites. Toutes sont chantées en français, langue que l’Irlandais Gérard Ryan, a voulu mettre ici à l’honneur.

Cassette / Digital Album

The music might be described as minimal synth, synth pop, postmodernist, cold assembly line with neo consumerist themes, based on the use of synth sequences and virtual voices.

CD / Digital Album

According to Hall, “To function effectively abroad it is just as necessary to learn the language of time as it is to learn the spoken language”. Indeed, cultural interpretations of time are a foundation for all human behaviour. Therefore, we should consider modifying our approach to waiting to ‘fit’ the time orientation of each specific cultural context.

Digital Album

Le Cliché is about the ironies and inconsistencies of the postmodern consumer society seen through the medium of electronic music.

The music is inspired by the synthpop & technopop of the early 1980s and the 2000s.

12″ / CD / Digital Album