Danse dans les vents d'Europe, the story of ORAISON by Sebastian B.

ORAISON started out in April 1995 under the monicker ORAISON FUNEBRE. The first line-up featured Michael V.Whip on vocals, Catherine Smieczjak on keyboards and myself on drums (yes, I've always been a drum addict). The lyrics were inspired by the works of D.A.F de Sade, Emil Cioran and Friedrich Nietzsche and also COIL, LAIBACH, DECORYAH ou CURRENT 93. Very few rehearsals were done, none of them being recorded. All I remember was that atmospheric and chaotic sounds...A very eerie feeling in the rehearsal room.

Around October 1996, Alek S. joined the band as a guitar player, giving a more concrete and serious orientation to ORAISON FUNEBRE. Our first works were a couple of demo tracks recorded at home on a bad 4-track recorder, available as "A jig for the lost session" on the now sold-out CDR "Danse dans les vents d'Europe" (OPN CD 02) and later re-released as "Au commencement..." by VAWS.

December 1996 marked a very important moment in the history of the band, as we met Lisa Sheehan, an Irish pianist and singer , who decided to bring her exceptional and outstanding talent to ORAISON FUNEBRE. Far beyond any expectation, her voice fit perfectly to the music.

With Lisa going back to Ireland in 1997, the band's name was shortened to ORAISON and remained a three-piece until the recording of the "Life+Death=Love=Burden" demo in 1999 on which Marie André (formerly of NEMETON) is singing, demonstrating her real talent and beautiful voice. After receiving a rather good feedback worldwide, we played our second concert as a support to Tony Wakeford and OSTARA (great memories). The years 2000 and 2001 have been spent participating to numerous compilations. We decided to give up participating to compilations for various reasons, one of them being that it takes us too much time composing special songs for compilations. The release of "Terro Santo" is due this year.