L.O. (Hello) was born in Mûres, a village in Haute-Savoie perched at the foot of the Semnoz, near Annecy and its lake. It was one day in 2013, whilst working closely with Bruno Arts and his daughter Margot, that the idea of a father-daughter duo first took shape.

Bruno Arts, a songwriter, composer, singer-songwriter, arranger and multi-instrumentalist, and his daughter, a guitarist and keyboardist, launched the musical venture L.O. – Liberté Obligatoire – centred on Bruno’s repertoire of songs, written over the years since 1984.

Back in 2012, with the album Sugar Bonbon, Bruno Arts had already created a musical fusion by blending his Anglo-Saxon rock/folk/blues influences with the West African musical styles of his Ivorian friend Édouard Guêt, with whom he founded the band √4 (Racine de 4) . Together, they have successfully blended Bruno’s lively riffs, sweet refrains and effective gimmicks with Guêt’s distinctly African melodies and rhythms. ‘Sugar Bonbon’ has been a huge hit on the other side of the Atlantic, where it has racked up over 655,000 plays.

On 25 October 2013, Margot and Bruno gave their first and only concert as a duo in Seynod, in a small venue. The ups and downs of life, coupled with the death of Pascale – Bruno’s wife and Margot’s mother – meant that the L.O. project was put on hold until autumn 2020. The first lockdown and the need to pay tribute to Pascale rekindled their passion for music. Margot and Bruno dusted off their guitars after their long hiatus


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Over the summer, Bruno decided to record Just a song for you (song for Pascale), a song written in 2018. The first step was to transcribe the guitar accompaniment so that Margot could learn and play it. In October 2020, Bruno spoke to his close friend William Garcin, a solo violinist and teacher of music theory and chamber music at the Grenoble Conservatoire. William immediately offered his expertise. In November, Bruno and William made the first recordings of the song (violin, Hammond organ, vocals) at William’s home studio in Mûres. From this, the idea took shape in Bruno’s mind to produce a debut album featuring all the songs he had written over the years since 1984. Margot and William were immediately enthusiastic about the idea, and work began on transcribing all the guitar parts composed by Bruno.

As 2020 draws to a close, the band’s line-up therefore consists of Margot on guitars, Mellotron and keyboards, and Bruno on vocals, guitars, bass, harmonica, Mellotron and keyboards.