the art of skinlessness

The art of skinlessness (aka TAOS) is a band formed in Paris during the winter of 1999 by Scott Batty (voice, lyrics, music and artwork) and Aurélien Nicolas (voice and music).

Their first performance took place in the yard of the Sorbonne University on the 25th of March 1999 during the first edition of the French poetry festival "Le Printemps des Poètes".

After experimenting briefly with other musicians, Emiko Ota (drums and voice) joined the band at the end of spring 2000.

As part of this promising collaboration, the art of skinlessness immediately gave one of its best performances in Paris at La Villette on July 2000, also bringing to the band its basic shape, sound and music.

During the next three years this trio gave plenty of weird and explosive concerts.  One of these was filmed in winter 2001 and privately released by Sycomore Films (Thomas Bertay & Pacôme Thiellement) under the name All my friends are dead.

A kind of osmosis and maturity came about during the period when TAOS played many gigs at Le Cafe Bleu between 2002 and 2003.

The band remained active until the end of spring of 2003 before it officially split up in 2004.

It finally reunited for about a year between 2009 and 2010, recording a couple of new songs and giving a few more inspired concerts.

Their very last gig took place at Espace B in Paris on the 7th of April 2010.

The art of skinlessness broke up a few days later without ever releasing an album or meeting commercial success.

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Today Scott Batty keeps painting and writing poetry. He also writes, sings and performs in a band called Larynx and claw (formerly known as The umbilical chords).

Aurélien Nicolas totally retired from the scene. He however keeps writing and playing music, mainly sharing his work on the Internet under several names.

Emiko Ota keeps playing drums, percussions and singing with many bands and artists from the mainstream or the underground scene.

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"The past is a fiction." - William Burroughs

"It happens, it's not important. It simply happens." - Scott Batty, gas flowers.

"Let the dead bury their own dead." - J.C. (Luke 9:23)