Singer Charlène Dupuy, drummers Médéric de Vanssay and Shaman Lebrun, and saxophonist Davide Woods left in its early years, while Rosemary Standley joined in 1999.

This radical change opened up new musical territories for the band, giving them greater freedom in sound experimentation, and allowing them straightforward, stripped-down performances in places such as a prison in Normandy, a mental institution in central France, a ruined castle in Tuscany, and the streets of Paris and Dublin.

In 2007, Moriarty released their first album, Gee Whiz But This Is a Lonesome Town, recorded in eight days by American producer Bob Coke in the attic of a farmhouse in Brittany, near Merlin's tomb.

Meanwhile, the members of Moriarty have also appeared as guests on Franco-English singer Emily Loizeau's second release, and were amongst the artists involved in The Fitzcarraldo Sessions project,[5] initiated by members of French rock band Jack the Ripper, with which they co-wrote the single "Alice and Lewis (Soon will come too soon)", released as a first single from the Fitzcarraldo Session's album "We Hear Voices".

In 2010 the band started working on a second album, entitled The Missing Room, following a specific process: the songs were composed, then performed and matured on stage during five months of touring, before being actually recorded at the Studio Pigalle in Paris in January 2011.

[8] The album's sleeve and artwork was designed by Moriarty's double-bass player Zim, who conceived it as an illustrated book, containing the storyboard to an imaginary film noir whose plot revolves around a missing room in a hotel.

The album cover itself contained an Indian phone number, leading to an answering machine in Mumbai, on which band member Charles recorded an enigma for fans to solve.

2000 pieces were manufactured and, as an attempt to counteract mass-produced standardisation, within each single record sleeve, hand-crafted by the band members with the help of a few volunteering fans, a different and unique envelope was inserted, containing drawings, newspaper clippings, old set lists, broken guitar strings and other paraphernalia rescued from the tour.

[9] In January and June 2012, while touring Réunion, the band met with local singer Christine Salem and her musicians, and started working on new, co-written material.

[12] In 2014 and 2015, The musicians of the band wrote the soundtrack to the theater play "Vanishing Point", staged by French director Marc Lainé, and performed it live for 80 shows in France and in Montreal.