Informed by house music as well as variété française, Variety Lab is a collaborative downtempo electronic music act led by French producer Thierry Bellia that first emerged in 2002 with the lounge hit "London in the Rain." Born in Nancy, France, Bellia collaborated with Jérôme Didelot (bass), Alexandre Longo (keyboards), and Jacques Tellitocci (percussion, vibraphone) on the full-length album debut of Variety Lab, Providence (2003), on Wagram Records. The album was released in the wake of "London in the Rain," which had become a lounge favorite and was compiled on over a dozen chill-out compilations over time, most notably a few different editions of the popular Hôtel Costes series. Two other songs from Providence, "Son of the Sun" and "R. Bvor," were also compiled on multiple chill-out compilations. Several years passed before Variety Lab emerged again with new music. The follow-up album Team Up! (2008) was eventually released on the Wagram sublabel Pschent. The album features collaborations with a long list of vocalists, practically one for each song, and spawned a couple singles: "Soda Pop Confusion" featuring Kidsaredead and "We Should Be Dancing" featuring the frontman of the Belgian band Sharko, David Bartholomé. In addition to these singles, the song "Is This the Last Time?" featuring British psychedelic folkie Donovan was compiled on numerous chill-out compilations. ~ Jason Birchmeier