Claire Voyant (band)


Claire Voyant was an indie pop and downtempo band from Sacramento, California. It was founded by childhood friends Chris Ross and Ben Fargen, who recruited vocalist Victoria Lloyd after initially making instrumental music as a duo. The trio were once part of a 5-piece band called Murmur, which split over creative differences. Their 1995 debut, Claire Voyant, has been followed by three more studio albums, Time and the Maiden in 1998, Love Is Blind in 2002 and Lustre in 2009. They were signed to Metropolis Records.
Lloyd also contributes to electropop artists HMB and Mono Chrome. Ross also contributes to HMB.

Murmur and Claire

Prior to the formation of Claire Voyant, its three members were in another band called Murmur. They realized that Chris could do everything that the bass player and drummer did with a synthesizer and a drum machine, so the trio left Murmur to start their own band. They had a difficult time finding a new name; many of the ideas they came up with had already been taken. Eventually, Victoria found the name Claire Voyant in a 1940s comic strip. The band felt the name fit the music they made, and they liked the wordplay, so the moniker stuck.
They released their debut in 1995 on their own independent label, Nocturne. They then sent the album to Projekt Records, who then forwarded it to the German label Hyperium Records. Hyperium included Claire's song Her on their Heavenly Voices IV compilation album, which garnered Claire a lot of publicity in Europe. Hyperium reissued the album, and went on to distribute their next album, Time and the Maiden. Their third album, Love Is Blind, was released in 2002 on Philadelphia indie label Metropolis, who had by then re-released Time and the Maiden with bonus tracks for the US market. On September 22, 2009, its fourth studio album, Lustre, the first in seven years, was released.

Discography

Studio albums

  1. * 'Time Again'' A Collection of Remixes, 2000