Voyage (band)

French disco and pop/funk band

Voyage was a French disco and pop group, consisting of André "Slim" Pezin (guitar/vocals), Marc Chantereau (keyboards/vocals), Pierre Alain Dahan (drums/vocals) and Sauveur Mallia (bass), together with British lead vocalist Sylvia Mason James, who sang on the group's first two albums, Voyage (1977) and Fly Away (1978). For their next two albums, Pierre Alain Dahan became the lead vocalist on Voyage 3 (1980) and on One Step Higher (1982), and the group's sound changed from disco to pop.

Before Voyage, Pezin, Chantereau, Dahan and Mallia worked together in a band called V. I. P. Connection in 1975 with two disco songs: "Please Love Me Again" and "West Coast Drive", songs known by fans and collectors of early disco music. They also worked as session musicians or in live performance in France, with artists such as: Manu Dibango, Cerrone, Alec R. Costandinos & the Synchophonic Orchestra, Michel Sardou for Slim Pezin; Michel Legrand, Jean Musy, Bernard Lavilliers for Sauveur Mallia; Léo Ferré, Michel Delpech, Guy Béart or Johnny Hallyday for Marc Chantereau; Nino Ferrer, Jean Claude Petit and Stéphane Grappelli. From the late 1960s until the mid 1970s, they were in demand in France, Europe and worldwide, in all styles of music: jazz with Grappelli, French chanson with Ferré, world music and jazz with Dibango, rock with Hallyday, and French pop with Sardou and Delpech. Their lone Billboard Hot 100 entry was "Souvenirs," which hit No. 41 in 1979. Their last impact on the charts came in 1979 when "Let's Fly Away" peaked at number thirty eight. However, the four musicians couldn't replicate their successful French record sales in the United States. The songs "I Don't Want To Fall In Love Again" in 1980 and "Let's Get Started" in 1982 failed to chart. As disco waned, they turned to making albums with a more mainstream pop sound. In Netherlands the single "Discotch" was released in 1981; this was a compilation remix of four numbers (Tahiti, Tahiti, Latin Odyssey, Bayou Village, Scotch Machine), made by Dutch DJ Eric Benjamin. The single peaked at No. 18 on June 27, 1981 in the Dutch Top 40 and stayed 9 weeks in the charts. After Voyage, the group members worked separately with a number of singers, including Françoise Hardy, Alain Chamfort, Mylène Farmer, Guesch Patti, Jean Louis Murat. Pezin worked on the French movie soundtrack Betty Blue in 1986 and produced a French hit "Caressé Mwen" sung by Marijosé Alie in 1987. Sauveur Mallia worked on several movies soundtracks like Moonstruck with Cher in 1987, Breakfast of Champions with Bruce Willis in 1999, and was involved in other projects with Chantereau and Dahan.

Year Title Peak chart positions Record label AUS UK US USR&B 1977 Voyage 93 59 40 57 Sirocco 1978 Fly Away — — 47 — 1980 Voyage 3 — — — — 1981 One Step Higher — — — — "—" denotes a recording that did not chart or was not released in that territory.

Year Title Peak chart positions Album IRE UK USR&B USDan 1978 "Lady America" — — — —1 Voyage "From East to West" 20 13 — 85 "Scotch Machine" — — — "Point Zero" — — — — "Souvenirs" — 56 41 73 1 Fly Away 1979 "Let's Fly Away" — 38 105 — "Tahiti, Tahiti" — — — — 1980 "I Don't Want to Fall in Love Again" — — — — — Voyage 3 "I Love You Dancer" — — — — 17 "Do It Again" — — — — 1981 "Nowhere to Hide" — — — — — One Step Higher 1982 "I Surrender" — — — — — "Let's Get Started" — — — — — "Follow the Brightest Star" — — — — — "—" denotes a recording that did not chart or was not released in that territory.