The rich, anarchic world of 1980s French duo Pray-Pax & art collective Lolita Danse explored on new compilation The Lolita Years, out 24th October

‘The Lolita Years’ is a new archival compilation of previously unreleased music by Thierry Azam & Alain Michon aka Pray-Pax, two artists who formed part of the extraordinary French art collective Lolita Danse during the 1980s.

Encompassing unearthed soundtracks created by Pray-Pax for the vibrant performances of the multi-disciplinary group, the rich, anarchic music collected here spans no wave, minimal wave, post-punk, avant-garde jazz and outlandish DIY composition. Steeped in surrealism, pranksterism, theatricality, and kaleidoscopic eloquence, ‘The Lolita Years’ chronicles the outré sounds of a singular musical unit, operating within a sprawling network of freeform artistic activity.

Founded in 1981, the Lolita Danse collective brought together artists, dancers, set designers, and musicians exploring innovative ideas within their chosen field. The artists of the collective developed solo work, duets and group pieces together but they never aimed for a single, unified style of movement or sound. Each member focused on their own gestures, with the goal of bringing them together into a form that was specific to the group; messy, multi-layered and spectacular. Creating one-off events between 1981 and 1989, their shows toured across France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Austria, Denmark and Brazil.

‘The Lolita Years’ offers a fascinating window into the collective’s artful world of exuberant disorder by spotlighting the fluid, uncanny soundworld of Pray-Pax, a pivotal element in the unique happenings of Lolita Danse.

Like stepping into some wild acid test, ‘Domani non c’e sarà più’ (Italian for ‘Tomorrow there will be no more’) opens the compilation with a bewitching, disorientating swirl of concrète collage, austere percussion and impassioned spoken word, evoking a mad, magical meeting point between Silver Apples, Luc Ferrari and a Giorno Poetry Systems record. As with the projects of Lolita Danse, the music here is impulsive and free-spirited; nothing fixed, everything permitted. ‘Can’t’ saunters into irrepressible avant-jazz spliced with the sound of broadcast signals and urban traffic; NYC’s downtown scene, Lizzy Mercier Descloux and The Flying Lizards all rolled into one, and filtered through Pray Pax’s oblique DIY lens.

From here, there are radical pathways through contorted organ tones and offbeat drum programming (‘Down In The North’) - like Tolouse Low Trax remixing Tuxedomoon - quasi-sacred music of distant bells and alien requiems (‘Disparus’), the sound of wayward jazz ensembles if orchestrated by Ted Milton (‘Prudnik Blues’) and a veritable galore of other strange and entrancing sounds conjured by this enigmatic duo.

This sense of revelatory deviation continues and ascends as the compilation develops. ‘T’sannah’ moves through poetic and guttural voices, carnivalesque accordion sounds and unhinged electronic treatments, bringing to mind a roving musical circus run by Jac Berrocal. ‘No Regrets’ creates vertiginous loops from fragmentary brass while ‘Mushahaa’ fixates on electro-acoustic cycles of guitar and background rattle, invoking Pascal Comelade and Pierre Schaeffer. Closing with the haunting mini-threnody of ‘Gabriel pleut’, we’re left with an atmospheric finale of funereal tones and the resonant patter of rain. This is music that leaves you with a lot to process, and a lot to discover.

The works collected here spill over with remarkable élan and boundless curiosity, incorporating idiosyncratic arrangements and intoxicating lawlessness. With an unpredictable yet intuitive poise, Pray-Pax make music that sparks into life, thrillingly unravelling and resurging with renewed eccentricity. Illuminating the life and times of the Lolita Danse collective through the sound of Pray-Pax, ‘The Lolita Years’ is a special anthology of unfettered music, made for autonomous, uninhibited forms of expression.

Alongside the compilation, the multidisciplinary design studio Mestiza Estudio will release ‘À dix, on n’est pas fous - The Lolita Years’, a book delineating Lolita Danse’s momentous archive. The book features material drawn from a selection of more than 10,000 images that document not only the collective’s performances but the entanglement of their personal and professional lives. This will form a portrait of the collective in motion: sets, costumes, music, videos, drawings, rehearsals, and more. The archive extends far beyond the visual: travel journals, letters, sound recordings, press clippings, and videos trace the full sweep of their creative ecosystem.

“We began to sift through it, an archaeological endeavour of sorts, reconstructing the story of Lolita and, in turn, tracing the emergence of artistic collectives in the 1980s. We were struck by the richness of their work: the mix of styles, the strong visual language, the openness, and, above all, the freedom that ran through everything they did. This compilation and the book will be a home for that work, a case for the work of Lolita, to make visible what has long lain dormant in a folder marked simply, Lolita Group Archives.” - Mónica Urquijo Zobel, Mestiza Estudio

‘The Lolita Years’ is out 25th October 2025 via Zel Zele.

Available on vinyl w/ poster extensive liner notes digitally.