Best known for having played host to Daniel Balavoine's debut, French progressive rock band Présence was formed in 1969 around Jean-Louis Désumeur (vocals, guitar), Érick Saint-Laurent (vocals), Daniel Darras (keyboards), Daniel Baudon (drums). After participating in the recording of Eddy Mitchell's album Mitchellville, Jean-Louis Desumeur called on new musicians, including guitarist Jean-Pierre Galliot (formerly of Frogeaters), to record for the "Pop Music" series on the Vogue label, of the single "Filles du nord " (1970), followed by the hit "Le Jour s'est levé" (1971), featuring Daniel Balavoine on vocals and songwriting, replacing Érick Saint-Laurent, alongside Michel Cohen (bass) and Alain Crépin (guitar). In 1973, it was without Daniel Balavoine, who had left in May 1972 for a glorious solo career, that the quartet recorded "Si tu passes par chez moi", the opening track on their only album, Présence, produced by Igor Wakhévitch for Warner Bros. Another absentee single, "Vole, vole, vole", marked the end of the group in favor of the duo created by Daniel Darras and Jean-Louis Desumeur, who recorded the albums Temps (1975) and Darras & Desumeur (1979). The latter died in Orly (Val-de-Marne) on July 9, 1992, five years after Daniel Balavoine's death in Mali on January 14, 1986.
