Utopium is an indie rock band with a post-rock penchant and hypnotic, noisy, atmospheric
phrasing. The band's music is characterised by distorted, airy guitar soundscapes, as well as warm and piercing bass lines. Mogwaï or My Bloody Valentine are not far away, neither
are the Smashing Pumpkins or Placebo.
///// line up /////
+ BASS : Tito de Pinho
+ GUITAR : Andres Soto
+ DRUMS : Guillaume Labaume
+ VOICE, GUITAR : Maxime Petrovski
///// BIOGRAPHY ////
Utopium's adventure commences in 1998 in Paris when Maxime Petrovski, a Russian singer and guitarist, came to Paris and subsequently formed the band.
Playing, at first, traditional guitar rock essentially, the band's style evolved progressively along with the changes occurring in its line-up. After the arrival of
the new bass player, Renaud Pempie, Utopium went to London to do their first serious recording in the spring of 2000. It was co-produced by an English team,
Simon Lovelace and Andy Davies, who grew out of the North London/Stevenage suburban belt that had spawned bands such as Fields of Nephilim or Cron Gen.
Their input in turn changes the band's style and outlook and helps them to find an original indie-rock sound that supersedes traditional guitar values. It is at this
moment that Andres Soto, a Mexican guitarist, joined the band, introducing new arrangements for the songs of the album entitled "We are". His ethereal yet
harsh sound strongly contributed to the band's forging of its current identity. In the summer of 2001, Tito de Pinho became the band's drummer bringing with
him an original drumming style as well as precious sound engineering skills. From 2001 to 2003, the band played various prestigious Parisian venues and
recorded a new album entitled "Persistance". In that album, Utopium takes a slight post-rock turn. From now on, the tracks lean heavily on ambient guitars.
In 2005, Utopium recorded their new and last album to date, "No Memory Man", which is more atmospheric, and noisier than ever before.
