(Sorry if the writing isn't so good: English ain't my mother tongue ^^)

14 years after his public disappearance, who still remembers , whose short career was among the weirdest oddities of the 90's. As legend claimed, had been recording alone in his home studio for years, accumulating a large vault of unreleased material and living a very solitary existence. Aged 35, he decided that it was tuime for him to try and make it as a professional musician and he made the first bold move of a long series of bold moves, by chosing to be known as an unpronouncable symbol instead of his real -or any other- name. "Everybody told me it was suicide, he later recalled, but I knew that it would get me a lot of attention and it did!"

first gained public attention by recording the soundtrack of a short lived dance show, in mid-1993, that was loosely based on Homer's Odysseus. Decided to make an impression, the new -yet unsigned- artist embarked at the same time on a clubs tour that gained him considerable critical acclaim. In early 1994, one of the last shows, dubbed The Sacrifice Of Victor, was even aired on MTV, an unusual bet by the channel who usually supported well known acts. During the tour, sold Gold Nigga, a jazz/funk/hip-hop album recorded with his band, the New Power Generation.

's first solo single, The Most Beautiful Girl In The World, was soon released worldwide on various independent labels, and was an immediate success, reaching #1 in the UK. Quite soon after that, the musician now known as "The Artist" released a music CD-Rom called Interactive (that featured very little music overall). Quite mysteriously, 2 DAT tapes were sent to several european radios, that contained both a live show and several unreleased songs. "The music on these tapes was amazing", remembers a music critic, "it was really the future of music, with a very intelligent mix of real instruments and loads of samples, every one was so excited, and the fact that it was only played on the radio and that people had to trade tapes obviously created a mythos around 's music!". Very quickly, most of these songs ended on a music video movie, The Beautiful Experience, which was aired on several TV channels.

The music featured in the film consolidated the Artist's reputation and was immediately signed on Warner Bros Records, which unfortunately prevented the release of what was to be his first solo album, The Undertaker, alongside an issue of Guitar Magazine, as well as his second single, Love Sign, of which the video was nonetheless sent to TV stations, and that was featured on the artist's recently created NPG Records' compilation 1-800 New Funk. "Once again we couldn't put our hands on his music except by buying or trading tapes and bootlegs. This was very strange, you know: everyone's talking about this guy, but except for his hit single you can't buy his music in the record stores". Asked about this odd approach to the music industry, once declared "I don't see the future of the music industry as records-based only, which is why I'm trying to diversify with things such as live shows, the CD-Rom, the TV movies and dance show soundtrack." The Undertaker soon leaked and critics were admirative: the music featured there, a bare rock & roll hendrixian experiment, was totally different from the jazzy tracks that were on Gold Nigga or the R&B oriented songs that were featured on The Beautiful Experience. What the sound of would be in the end was an absolute mystery to every one, a fact that generated much hype in the musical press.

The relationship with WB quickly became sour, though, with the major trying to influence the Artist's artistic choices. Trying to push him towards a more commercial approach, the label kept pushing forward the release of 's first album, completely recorded by the time the deal had been made and now officially known as The Gold Experience. The Artist started promoting an album that he said "would never be released" and bashing the label pubclicly. Considering the colossal advance paid by the label, WB executives weren't happy with their reckless new act! Eventually, after more than a year of conflicts, The Gold Experience was finally released in late 1995. It met critical acclaim again but WB failed to promote it properly and the hype that surrounded the Artist in 1994 had already started to fade, leading the album to a very moderate commercial success. 2 albums produced by were also released by NPG Records that year, the NPG's Exodus and Mayte's Child Of The Sun, but they were very confidential releases and were ignored by the general public.

The Artist contractually owed a second album to the label and, much to everyone's surprise, he gave them another rock album in the vein of The Undertaker. The major's executives, who expected another commercial, R&B/pop album in the vein of The Gold Experience, were highly disappointed and Chaos And Disorder was released almost confidentially in mid 1996. Critical reaction, this time, was mostly negative. This saw the end of the releationship between the artist and the record company.

But hadn't been lazy in the meantime: while touring, he had gone through the insane process of recording a 3-CD extravaganza called Emancipation, and had managed to secretly negociate a release deal with EMI before the end of 1996. The world was shocked: no one before had taken such a risky step: releasing a triple album after only 2 moderatly successful records. EMI execs explained their decision by the fact that the album had been recorded with the Artist's own money, and that it wasn't such a dangerous operation for them, since they only had to invest in the album's manufacturing and promotion. promoted the album heavily and critical reaction, while not always positive, was good overall. Unfortunately, EMI faced an unprecedented economical crisis in 1997, which abruptly ended any effort in promoting the record.

moved on and after a quiet 1997 year (which still included a confidential cassette of intrumental music, released under the name NPG Orchestra), made another bold move the next year. In early 1998, his next album, this time an acoustic set called The Truth, was released independently alongside another 3-CD set, itself composed of older, unreleased songs. "I have been recording music for 15 years before I started releasing it, I felt some of this material deserved to meet the world at last", the Artist explained. Some tracks were also outtakes from The Gold Experience, that Warner Bros had forced him to replace by songs the label considered more attractive. Both the acoustic CD and the outtakes compilation were met with very little hype, though critics all agreed that the musical content of the 4-CD set contained quite a number of gems. "Had released some of his 80's material when it was recorded, he could have been one of the most important artists of that era", even said one critic. But this set was more of a gift to his fans than anything else, the artist explained. "I wasn't going to make a lot of cash with an acoustic album and old songs from my vault, I just wanted to free this music, to be free of it and to let it have its own existence in the world". Later in 1998, made his real move: had been producing albums for funk legends Chaka Khan and Larry Graham, both ex WB artists themselves. Now signed on BMG, he released these 2 records alongside a third NPG album, this time with himself on the lead vocals. Critics were really divided over the 3 albums, though Khan's record received more praises than the 2 others. Sales, unfortunately, were moderate again, but Arista, a BMG sublabel, had a lot of faith in : they offered him to try and recreate the hype that had surrounded the beginning of his career, if he would allow himself to be produced by a major figure of pop music and include many guests on his next album. Convinced that he had anough in him to achieve, at last, a considerable commercial success, agreed to have his music produced by Prince, who had mostly retired from the music industry 5 years before that, and indeed invited several major acts to perform on what would become Rave un2 The Joy Fantastic. Featuring the likes of GWen Stefani, Eve, Chuck D, Maceo Parker and Shanya Twain, Rave was released in late 99 (soon after another indy release with the NPG, The War, and a TV special made home video, Beautiful Strange) and its first single, The Greatest Romance Ever Sold, was an obvious attempt at recreating the success of The Most Beautiful Girl In The World. But for some reasons the song wasn't very popular. The artist's deception was immense and Arista abruptly decided to stop investing money in the album's promotion, not even trying to release a second single. A TV special happened in the form of a live show -once again with many guests, including high profile Lenny Kravitz- in late 99, that would be released on home video in 2000, but even that couldn't save the album's sales. "It was so frustrating for , one of his past musicians explains: The Undertaker had been shelved to make room for The Gold Experience, The Gold Experience had been released a year too late because of WB, Emancipation had known only 3 months of promotion and 2 singles due to EMI's bankrupcy, and now Arista would suddenly decide to stop promoting Rave. It was really unfair". Disgusted by the music industry, went into depression for some time and finally decided to retire from the music business. In one of the rare interviews he gave afterwards, he declared: "I was much happy before I decided to become a public figure and I'm much happier again now. I stll record a lot of music, in my home studio. It's for me and my friends. Every once in a while I will play a show in town, at a local club. That's enough for me. I don't have any regrets, though: I've known fame, I've been food for hypsters for several years, many people gave me a very positive feedback about my work back then, and even if it was tense and often frustrating because I couldn't release or promote my music the way I wanted to, these 6 years were the most exciting of my life, I'm really grateful for this. But now I'm more balanced, more relaxed, I'm happy. Will I ever try and release another record? I don't think so, he laughs. What's the point, really?". Strangely enough, the failure of Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic didn't prevent it from being a new starting point for producer Prince, who resumed his career soon after, with the critically acclaimed album The Rainbow Children.

Today, most young people don't even know about that mysterious, fascinating artist whose name couldn't be pronounced, but for whoever was there in the mid 90's, he remains a major figure. "The way he popped-up out of nowhere, quite old already for a new popstar, the way he suddenly threw at us all this incredible music by the most unusual channels, no one can forget this!, says another music critic. And the fact that he music was, overall, so great, but that he couldn't ever manage to really make it despite the hype he was creating! His career was a failure when you think of how promising he seemed to every one in 94, I'll give you that, but when you think of it he's now a legend of pop history, and the fact that he retired only adds to that. He tried, he made it big, REALLY big, and then things didn't meet his expectations so he just... disappeared. That's quite a story if you ask me!"