Stéphane Merenne

 

I was very saddened to hear of the passing of Stéphane Merenne. Stéphane alongside Sylvie Cartiaux were Nuit et Brouillard, an excellent label and promotions project based in Lille. (France). I knew he was unwell, but I never thought .... 

Stéphane was always encouraging, passionate and enthusiastic towards Dieter Müh. I consider him a good friend. 

.... I first met Stéphane in 1998. Nuit et Brouillard had a stall at an event called "The 11th Independent Music & Arts Festival" in Saint-Niklaas, Belgium. He was there to see Troum + LD50, and also sell records and tapes. We immediately formed a friendship that has lasted 26 years. When I heard the news yesterday I played the Nuit et Brouillard release Temple Garden's / Asche cassette 'Trance / The Older Stuff'. It was the first release I bought on their label, and it is still sounding superb. Stéphane had an ear for sound. Nuit et Brouillard is also a distribution outlet and would happily take Dieter Müh releases. The joy of getting a Nuit et Brouillard catalogue with a description (written by either Stéphane or Sylvie) of Müh was an honour. The catalogues were a joy in themselves. Stéphane would appear at Dieter Müh live shows whenever he could. He came to see us at the WGT Treffen Festival in Leipzig in 2006 where we played with Propergol (also released by Nuit et Brouillard), Novy Svet, Land:Fire and Apoptose. Both Stéphane and Sylvie came to London to see Dieter Müh play at The Conway Hall in 2009. Always supportive, always a pleasure. A pleasure to talk to and share information with. In 2014 Stéphane and Sylvie invited me to play in Lille. I stayed with Stéphane. The evening before the gig he and Sylvie entertained me with fine food and wine. We stayed up until almost daylight talking and drinking, drinking and talking, ever the enthusiast Stéphane was pulling out vinyl and putting on 'demo' cassette tapes asking for thoughts and opinion. And as a perfect and polite host my glass was never empty (it was always ... 'just one more'). It was this evening that Stéphane suggested he re-issued the Dieter Müh album 'The Bjorn Tapes' on vinyl. It was his favourite Dieter Müh release and a cassette and subsequent CDR release "did not do the sound any favours". How could I say no? The album came out in 2018 on Stéphane's 'side' label Force Majeure. 

In 2010 Stéphane invited myself and the family to stay at his apartment in Lille. This was pre Air B&B! He just gave his apartment over to myself, Tamsin and (at that point) my two young children. All free of charge and he stayed at a friends house whilst we were there. I shall never forget his kindness, his friendship and love. 

The last time I saw Stéphane was in November 2014. I was at the 'Harbinger Soundclash II' event at De Kreun in Kortrijk, Belgium. I was working at the event so didn't have much time but we did sit and chat and laugh and drink. To be with Stéphane was always a pleasure. Like I said, I knew Stéphane was unwell, he never told me and I don't think he told many people, but I never thought ... 

Gone too soon.