Octet

French Indietronica/lap-pop duo.

François Goujon and Benjamin Morando founded the French electronic pop duo Octet in 1997 after meeting at the Transmusicales Festival in Rennes, France.
Goujon, a native of Redon, a town near Rennes and ex-drummer for indie/pop rock band [a=Lighthouse (4)], along with Morando, a Parisian music producer member of the [a=D*I*R*T*Y sound system] Dj collective, initially envisioned Octet as a purely electronic group, but eventually realized they enjoyed blending glitchy, playful electronica with traditional instrumental and vocal pop and soul, incorporating aspects of classical music. Octet's initial EP, The Buxtehude Years 1999-2001, showcased this contrast: featuring vocal tracks with Suzanne Thoma (who has also worked with M83, Elgam, Lab°, Nolderise) alongside remixes by Readymade FC, it set the stage for the duo's debut full-length album, "Cash and Carry Songs" in 2004, which included Thoma and various vocalists along with a distinctive blend of soul, electronica, classical, and pop elements. Francois Goujon evetually left the project and, decades later, formed 178° , a similar experimental electro pop noise band which released an album called "Firebugs" in 2025. Suzanne Thoma, had met Morando while at art school, sharing a class with one of his ex-girlfriends. She was involved in the duo's work since 1999, both as a singer and, on "Blind Repetition," as a co-writer and lyricist. She became a full member after Goujon's departure. The two of them started working on a second album but it remains unreleased (the unreleased tracks "Bel Air", "The pond & "Landscape" were available on Myspace).

Trivia:
The band was originally named Buxtehude, after a German composer and organist who was a contemporary of Bach, but decided to change it to something easier to remember. "We wanted to find a name that was significant in both English and in French," Morando said. "Octet in English means an eight-musician band, but in French it means 'bytes.' It's a name about music and computer."