160 pages Edited by Sébastien Bismuth Text(s) by Sébastien Bismuth Cover by Invader 18 x 10 cm Language: French Paperback Publisher: Densité 2026
New York, 1967. In the midst of the Summer of Love, a heretical band writes the soundtrack of the underbelly. Hostile to the hippie utopia, the Velvet play the spoilsports, tearing apart the rainbow banner with their black-and-white shrieks. Against the grain of the fashionable epiphany of love, the band’s wildside songs explore the dark, nightmarish, and perverse face of an America that pretends to ignore its own decadence. Despite the sonic clash, an era dizzy with freedom responds with a dull refraction to the Velvet’s experimental compositions and to the ultra-realist poetry of their singer.
The Banana Album (signed by Andy Warhol) is the work of two uncompromising extremists, impervious to the smoke-filled air of their time. The fruit of one of rock’s most creative pairings: Lou Reed, a songwriter and lyrical genius, and John Cale, a dark eminence and multi-instrumentalist trained in the most unyielding avant-garde discipline.
