Black Sessions

Black Sessions are performances of live music broadcast on the French radio station France Inter. They are recorded in front of a live audience and feature on the C'est Lenoir show. The name is a pun based on the name of their creator, Bernard Lenoir, translated literally as "Bernard the black"

The first performance was in 1992 and since then many French and international artists have performed Black sessions including:

• Belly
• The Cure
• The Wedding Present
• Death in Vegas (21st of October 1999)
• Placebo (band)
• Catatonia
• CocoRosie
• Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
• The Divine Comedy
• Ride
• Drugstore
• Gemma Hayes
• The Boo Radleys
• Throwing Muses
• The Sundays
• Pulp
• The Wombats
• Smoke City
• Pavement
• Radiohead
• These New Puritans
• Belle & Sebastian
• Lush (*01147 - Session no. 55; recorded live at studio 105 June 28, 1994 Paris, France)
• Elbow
• Weezer
• The Rentals
• The Raveonettes
• Mojave 3 (in their first public performance)
• The Eels
• Andrew Bird
• Yann Tiersen (2 December 1998, and released as Black Session: Yann Tiersen by Ici, d'ailleurs... on 2 November 1999)
• Röyksopp (with a power-out goof at the beginning)
• Feist
• Franz Ferdinand
• Interpol (Interpol released The Black EP which featured a number of tracks from their 2002 Black Session)
• Bloc Party
• The National
• Nine Black Alps (the Glitter Gulch EP released by Nine Black Alps contains "Coldhearted", the song performed on their Black Session)
• The Divine Comedy
• Klaxons
• Guillemots
• Mazzy Star (1993-10-25)
• The Shins
• The Cardigans
• Grandaddy
• Emilie Simon
• Goldfrapp
• Broadcast
• Rufus Wainwright
• Editors
• Beirut
• Lloyd Cole (1993 [covered Bob Dylan's "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue"], 1995)
• The Smashing Pumpkins
• Morphine
• Paul Weller
• Nick Cave
• Los Campesinos!
• Band of Horses
• Arctic Monkeys
• Bonnie 'Prince' Billy
• The Verve
• Madrugada (Session no. 159; recorded live at studio 105 April 3, 2000)
• Calexico (Session no. 163; recorded live at studio 105 May 22, 2000)
• Field Music
• Wire - released as the album The Black Session: Paris, 10 May 2011
• The House of Love (Session no.6; recorded May 6, 1992)

External links

• List of bands who have performed Black Sessions
• C'est Lenoir Official Homepage (in French)
• Black Sessions photos (1998 - 2000) by Laurent Orseau
• The Black Sessions: la musique pas comme les autres - list of Black Sessions