Pryzme (France): Crossover Prog

Already on PA since June 2019 under their former band name, PRYZME is a hitherto rather unknown progressive rock band from Rennes, France, originally known as Lingus, and born from an idea of Dominique Blanchard and David Chollet in 2014. After several months in a home studio, an initial demo of 8 pieces was completed and the search for other motivated musicians began - with the first addition being Jacques Reale on drums and backing vocals in January 2015.

David Chollet began playing guitar at age 14 and experimented with some with high school friends in various small rock and folk bands. His first 'serious' band "SI" was formed while he was still at university in the early 90s, and the music already had a progressive rock tendency. In the middle of that same decade, he joined a band called "Anacrouse", which often played at dances, but had a different repertoire which enabled it to also play concerts in bars. This collaboration lasted until 2012, when he once again felt the desire to compose. The first pieces he had subsequently written were later arranged with the help of Dominique Blanchard.

Dominique Blanchard began playing guitar at the age of 11 at the Saint Malo Conservatory, and formed the rock covers band 'Exit' at age 16, with Olivier Mallet on drums. This band played many concerts in the Saint-Malo region, and performed at the Route du Rock music festival in Saint-Malo, Brittany in 1991. After later participating in a couple of jazz-rock groups, he switched to bass, and his opening to composition occurred when he formed the rock-funk power trio Yuma - with Olivier Mallet again on drums and Stéphane Grandjean on vocals and guitar. The band recorded a CD and performed several concerts on medium-sized stages in Sarthe and Saint Malo.

Jacques Reale played trumpet for many years, and only started playing drums by chance at age 15 to accompany a harmony orchestra. Very soon he began taking part in jam sessions between friends and various small groups, and he travelled widely in France - performing initially on the Grenoble scene and eventually throughout the Rhône Alpes region - but also eventually in Paris, Lyon, Montpellier and even Belgium. While in Paris he met the illustrious drummer and teacher François Laizeau, and began to play regularly in café-concerts with the "Mâches Patates", a ska-rocksteady band with whom he would go on to record an album. His travels finally took him to Rennes where he met Dominique in the "Bloco Loco" Brazilian percussion group (or 'Batucada'), and this was the beginning of his collaboration with Lingus.

With this line-up, the band released a 6-track album called 'Lingus 2018' in January 2018. Maxence Marmieysse then joined on bass at the end of June 2018 to make the band a four-piece. Gabrielle Duplenne replaced Jacques Reale on drums in September 2019, and the band changed its name from Lingus to Pryzme in February 2021.

Maxence Marmieysse started as a self-taught bassist in a New Orleans Jazz orchestra in Villeneuve-sur-Lot at age 15, and formed his first rock band with some friends at around the same time. Around three years later, he joined a regional progressive rock band called "Eutherpe". He then moved to the Bordeaux region where he perfected his technique during two years of training at Le CIAM School of Music. He played in a band from this school called 'Amalgame' in the Rochelaise region and a few other areas of south west France, and then moved towards Brittany where he accompanied a number of well-known artists in the city of Brest before he finally became the bassist of Lingus.

PRYZME is a twin guitar band - with the two guitars almost always performing different but complementary roles in their compositions rather than the more usual harmony & lead lines - and they adopt somewhat of a mixed musical approach - combining progressive rock, jazz fusion and pop melodies with a variety of other influences on their first album as Pryzme - 'Four Inches' (released in September 2021). Their inspirations are stated to come from bands such as Pink Floyd, Yes, Genesis, Pat Metheny Group and Porcupine Tree.

The recording of 'Four Inches' took longer than expected due to the Covid-19 pandemic restrictions, with the mixing of the album (by Clément Champigny and Jérome Acquiers at studio 123) also being delayed for the same reason. 'Four Inches' is far from being a concept album, with the songs being written over a long period of time between 2013 and 2021, having no common thread, and each track dealing with its own unique theme.

Gabrielle and Maxence then left Pryzme at the end of the summer of 2022, and a few months later, Lucas Planque became the new drummer and Benoît Toquet the new bassist. The band's follow up album 'True Stories...And Other Lies' was released at the end of May 2025, following a couple of singles from the album which were released earlier in the month.

The band play accessible melodic progressive rock, with careful and sometimes complex arrangements, occasional jazz fusion elements, with the songs always being delivered with a strong sense of emotion. Lingus/Pryzme has performed numerous live concerts in France over the years, and are open to any proposals to play abroad.



'Four Inches' (2021):

1. Fusion (7:39)
2. Vision (5:20)
3. After Wichita (8:39)
4. Nothing To Say (6:08)
5. Pretty Princess (8:07)
6. The Ride Of Your Life (7:52)
7. Morning Song (6:53)
8. Four Inches (13:49)

Total Time 64:27

- Dominique Blanchard / guitar, vocals
- David Chollet / guitar, vocals
- Maxence Marmieysse / bass, vocals
- Gabrielle Duplenne / drums, vocals

Digital album self-released September 12, 2021

True Stories... And Other Lies (2025):

1. Echo Of Silent Place (1:09)
2. Earth Song (7:49)
3. End Of The Anger (8:46)
4. Green Eyes (11:04)
5. Reality Of Dreams (7:20)
6. Never Again (7:54)
7. Silent Place (12:12)

Total Time 56:14

- Dominique Blanchard / guitar, vocals
- David Chollet / guitar, vocals
- Benoît Toquet / bass, vocals
- Lucas Planque / drums, vocals

Digital album self-released May 30, 2025



https://pryzme.bandcamp.com/.
https://pryzme.fr/.
https://www.facebook.com/Pryzme.
https://awesomeprog.com/artists/19063.

Edited by yam yam - July 06 2025 at 18:14