Par avion: by airmail (written on a letter or parcel to indicate how it is to reach its destination).
I have been rediscovering the Shelflife CD-R series. Not too long ago I wrote about Citra Super. In the past I had written about Bunny Nightlight and Punky’s Dilemma.
There were 12 releases total. So I have covered less than half of the bands that were part of this cool series.
Par Avion was the 10th release, coming out in 2003. The EP was titled “The Various Laneways of Colonel Light Gardens” and included 5 tracks: “Modern Love”, “Clarity”, “Ruth Chew”, “I Don’t Care About Your Tuesday” and “Time Piece (12″ Megamix)”.
The sound of this release is not classic indiepop but more of lo-fi electronic pop. As previous releases in the series there were only 100 numbered copies.
Par Avion was a duo. It was formed by Janiece Pope and Jason Sweeney. Jason was well known from bands like Sweet William, Other People’s Children, Simpático, Panoptique Electrical, Mist & Sea, Luxury Gap, Pretty Boy Crossover, School of Two, The Millards and Sweeney. He hailed from Adelaide in Australia. Did Janiece too?
It is also worth mentioning that Par Avion had previously released another record. In 2001 the band put out “A Song a Day” a cassette on the Italian label Best Kept Secret (LIE 038). This tape had seven songs, “Ackland Crescent”, “Child Star”, “Horrid Burger” and “By Air” on the A side and “I Don’t Want to be Interesting”, “Dip the Paddle” and “Dragon’s Blood” on the B side.
The songs were recorded at Panoptiqué Electrical between 1996 and 1999 and were mastered in January 2001 by Dubhustler.
That info is quite interesting, right? The band had started in the mid-90s!
On Discogs there are two songs listed for compilation appearances dating from 2018. I believe this must be a different Par Avion. But correct me if I’m wrong.
I couldn’t find any other details about this project. For other Jason Sweeney’s bands there’s much more info. But not for this one. So yeah, any other details will be appreciated.
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