In Sotto Voce

Poésie Noire are a Belgian band that rose to prominence in the mid-1980s. Their Belgian origins and tendency to develop a goth-oriented, synthetic, gloomy universe with low-pitched voices – Poésie Noire could translate by "Black/Dark Poetry" – had them categorized as EBM, along with other Belgian members of the 1980s electronic music scene like À;GRUMH... or A Split-Second. However, much in the manner of various renowned Belgian EBM bands like The Neon Judgement and, to some extent, Front 242, they declared, through their music, a will to step away from the usual industrial aggressiveness that characterized Electronic body music and developed a more mainstream accessible dark pop sound that helped them to be regarded as plain new wave or dark wave.