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Various Artists - 2009 - Aufbruche (Die Umsonst & Draussen-Festivals 1975-1978)

February 16, 2016, 11:41 am
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Various Artists 
2009 
Aufbruche 

 


(Die Umsonst & Draussen-Festivals 1975-1978)


101. Hammerfest - Lokomotive 9:11
102. Missus Beastly - Vloflutho 5:00
103. Jack Bone Group - Himalaya-Erdbeernuss 5:35
104. Embryo - Sidetrack 4:50
105. Atzen Wehmeyer - Arbeiterjugendblues 3:06
106. Hammerfest - That's What I Say 4:08
107. Buttergasse - Sonny 4:09
108. Johannislust Orchester - In the Beginning 3:57
109. Munju - Talk to Me 5:55
110. Embryo - The Bad Times Are Gone 6:16
111. Einhorn - Wer hat Angst vor Adalbert Wenstein 5:35
112. Hammerfest - Cross 5:49
113. Missus Beastly - Slow One 6:57



201. Real Ax Band - Nylon Recycled 5:42
202. Skyline - Tashiro 6:38
203. Sparifankal -  I mechd di gean amoi nackad seng 4:15
204. Molle - The Joker 4:31
205. Hammerfest - Jung Siegfried 5:49
206. ES - Today 5:41
207. Checkpoint Charlie - Ausschnitt aus der Geschichte von Herrn Müller 3:54
208. Julius Schittenhelm - Drei Orchideen 3:32
209. Munju - Patscha Menga Underground 8:49
210. Moira - Improvisationen 6:16
211. Funky Bone & The Gang - Higher 7:46
212. Embryo - Getalongwithasong 6:43



301. Real Ax Band - Move Your Ass in Time 5:47
302. Skyline - The Journey 8:02
303. Sadja - Daka Dhin 2:33
304. Einhorn - Einhorn Thema 4:59
305. ES - Fee Forever 1:34
306. Missus Beastly - For Flü 7:35
307. Release Music Orchestra - Sonntag 6:31
308. Ihr - Give Peace a Chance 1:30
309. Munju - I Feel so Blue Without You 5:02
310. Out of Focus - Sommer '58 6:03
311. Real Ax Band - Never Never Again 4:41
312. Good Food - Take It 6:55
313. Embryo - Wir sind alle politische Gefangene 5:02.



401. Aera - Herr Siebert & die sieben Siebe 4:38
402. Mathea Wlömsk - Bahama Mama 4:54
403. High Crack - Anina 4:49
404. Porta Westfalica Allstars - Airto 4:17
405. Das Dritte Ohr - Don't Use Your Spray 5:45
406. Hammerfest - Wilde Zeit 5:26
407. Molle - Bildertraum 4:42
408. Checkpoint Charlie - Smogalarm 5:40
409. Porta Westfalica Allstars - Keine Macht für Niemand 2:08
410. Spacebox - Tape Talk Hirn 5:12
411. Julius Schittenhelm - Er dreht sich hinein ins Hirn 4:24
412. Airbreak  - Crossover 4:09
413. Missus Beastly - Porta Erotica 4:45
414. Brühwarm - Tango 2:16
415. Brühwarm - Fummelrock 2:28

Open Air Concert - Vlotho-Winterberg +
Umsonst & Draussen: Vlotho 1976 +
Umsonst und Draussen - Vlotho '77 +
Umsonst und Draussen - Porta Westvlothica 1978



An impressive collection, no question about it. The box set includes the four original 'Umsonst & Draussen' releases in re-mastered form, accompanied by a booklet containing articles and photos (most of which are available on the official release site at http://www.umsonstunddraussen.info/). You can also download the albums individually from iTunes (the German store, at least).

Most of the music is in the kraut-funk style of mid-to-late 70's Embyro, which is no surprise since they were involved in setting up the festival in the first place. The first album contains perhaps the most krautrock-orientated pieces, but is unfortunately marred by the mastering being done from an LP release (the original tapes were missing). The sound improves considerably with the second album, and although the music is more focused on kraut-funk, it makes for a more consistent listen. The third and fourth releases are both double-albums, over 90 minutes each, and diversify the range of music somewhat. That's good in one way, but certainly makes them feel more like compilations that the second album.

Very few of the recordings are available elsewhere (Embryo's 'Wir sind alle politische Gefangene' was released on the re-master of 'Apo-Calypso' as 'Prisioneri Politici'), and most of the bands are pretty obscure. That said, a large proportion of the bands involve musicians from better-know bands; some 67 minutes of the 4 1/2 hours of music feature Missus Beastly and various off-shoots, for example. Six tracks (from four bands) involve Marlon Klein of Dissidenten, who also is responsible for the re-mastering of the albums. And that's quite aside from the various Embryo-related projects. Obscure some of these formations may be, but there's no lack of musicianship.

On the (slightly) negative side, the CDs don't exactly follow the original releases - there's no way the third and fourth albums would fit onto single CDs. So all the albums (except the first) are split across at least two CDs, which breaks whatever continuity the originals had. It's better than leaving tracks off, and at least you can import the tracks into iTunes (or whatever) and make your own playlists. Also, the promotional artwork that you might see around is slightly misleading: in my edition at least, the cardboard sleeves containing the CDs are generic and do not show the original album art. That's slightly disappointing in an otherwise well-made box set.

All in all, this is a set which is greater than the sum of its parts, or at least than the individual songs it includes. Perhaps one more for the fans (of Embryo and later Missus Beastly in particular) than the casual listener, it's nevertheless a great overview of the alternative festival scene in Germany at the time. Recommended.



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Patrick Vian - 1976 - Bruits et Temps Analogues

February 16, 2016, 11:47 am
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Patrick Vian 
1976 
Bruits et Temps Analogues


01. Sphère (6:10)
02. Grosse Nacht Musik (5:05)
03. Oreknock (6:45)
04. Old Vienna (2:10)
05. R & B Degenerit! (6:10)
06. Barong Rouge (4:10)
07. Tunnel 4, Red Noise (4:30)
08. Bad Blue (1:56)
09. Tricentennial Drag (2:20)

- Georges Granier / electric piano, marimba, noises
- Mino Cinelu / drums, percussion
- Bernard Lavialle / guitar
- Patrick Vian / Moog synthesizer, ARP 2600, Moog sequencer, piano


The recording career of little-known French musician Patrick Vian, son of novelist and jazz trumpeter Boris Vian, began with the sound of someone using and then flushing a toilet. Fortunately, from such inauspicious beginnings came great wonder. That recording, as part of the prog-leaning group Red Noise, came from their sole album from 1970, Sarcelles - Lochères. The band subsequently split in two, mirroring the actions of German krautrock collective Amon Düül. While one half of the group soldiered on under the name Komintern, Vian was preparing his masterwork. Released six years after Sarcelles - Lochères, the playful spirit of that album remained on Bruits et Temps Analogues, even if the tools for getting the job done were remarkably different. Here, Vian cooks up a form of cosmic jazz, made with the aid of various Moog and ARP synths, plus a backing band that includes drummer Mino Cinelu (Weather Report, Miles Davis, Gong).
It's the type of recording that's circulated in small underground circles for years, partly abetted by Vian's inclusion (along with Red Noise) on Nurse With Wound's notorious list of artists that inspired them. There's a sense of a beginning rather than an end, a feeling that Vian was onto something that he could have developed further. Instead, he fell silent in subsequent decades, just leaving this singular recording hanging. Vian leans heavily on his analog arsenal, but there's plenty of room for bursts of guitar noodling (courtesy of Bernard Lavialle) and Cinelu's impeccably fussy rolls. The circular, clean-cut guitar riff that drives "Sphere" even sounds like a precursor to the Sea and Cake's central sound. But this is an album that doesn't stay in place for long. Sometimes it's purely made up of intricately overlapping keyboard parts, similar in tone to Harald Grosskopf's analog wanderings; elsewhere there's an airy, new age feel; on "Old Vienna" a form of mania sets in, as rhythms escalate wildly in tempo.
The way the album lurches in mood adds to the mystery, with the quirky parts bolted on to more somber fare, occasionally making it sound like a Moog demonstration record that was intended to be taken utterly seriously. Vian's motivations for making this are anyone's guess, but somehow he managed to sequence it so a crazy burst of machine noise could effortlessly slide into a piece of elegant Moog-driven funk and then back out into utter chaos again ("R & B Degenerit !"). Of course there were many other artists testing out the boundaries of old ARP synths and similar instruments during the 70s, but here Vian demonstrates both a mastery of the tools at his disposal and a wide-open mind as to where they could take him. His work with Red Noise awkwardly hopped through an array of genres, but here there's a more seamless blend, with his keyboard work tying together all the maniacal shifts charging through his mind.
This reissue of Bruits et Temps Analogues by the Staubgold label doesn't add anything to what came before; no outtakes, no demos, no lost material excavated from the vaults. It's better that way, leaving something of the original spirit of the LP intact. What's most perplexing about Vian's short career is the breadcrumb trail he left behind here, offering hints of further experimentation to come. "Tricentennial Drag" appears to be leading us somewhere else altogether via a series of primitive cut-ups, bursts of sheer aggression, and blaring police sirens. It was nothing particularly new for the time, perhaps even a little dated when you consider the White Noise were working in a similar zone some eight years prior. But it sounds like the germ of an idea he was about to exploit. Instead, all that’s left is this, sealed by a back cover image of Vian that's easy to romanticize, depicting him rowing away on an old wooden canoe to some unspecified destination.

French artist Patrick Vian, formerly of Seventies avant group Red Noise, released his one solo album `Bruits Et Temps Analogues' in 1976, and what a baffling yet intriguing electronic-related album it is. A colourful and confusing work that perhaps occupies the mindset of Vangelis' unconventional albums from the same decade, or even Manuel Göttsching's Ashra in just a few moments, but without leaving quite as much of an impression as those works did, it's a mix of progressive-electronic, jazz/fusion, ambient, blues and avant-garde that makes it quite fragmented and disjointed, yet full of experimental potential that was never followed up on.
Chilled bluesy guitars may burn over whirring Moog and trilling synths throughout opener `Sphere', but `Grosse Nacht Musik' is pure floating electronic ambience full of mystery and wonder, and one of the best pieces on the LP. Quickening murky loops, drowsy guitar bends, lonely faraway flute, gentle sounds of nature and hypnotic electronics drift through `Oreknock', which might have easily come from the early Deuter albums, and the Vangelis-like synth experiment `Old Vienna' closes the first side.

Glistening Fender Rhodes electric piano and slow-burn funky guitars weave between splintering synth ripples on `R & B Degenerit!', percolating percussion carefully builds behind marimba as the Gong-like `Barong Rouge' slowly unwinds (unsurprising to find guest musician Mino Cinelu here, who actually played on that band's `Shamal' album, and in Zao and Weather Report), the maddening sequencer patterns of `Tunnel 4, Red Noise' cause instant mind-meltdown via bubbling freeform electronic nightmares, as if the groaning hostile mutant offspring of Pink Floyd's `On The Run' and mid Seventies Tangerine Dream are making violent love, `Bad Blue' is a jazzy piano interlude with a hint of darkness, and `Tricentennial Drag' is a fractured cut-up sound collage.

Fascinating, frustrating, unique and frequently gently precious, Patrick Vian's `Bruits Et Temps Analogues' is maybe not essential, but it still makes for an interesting and diverting little electronic curio that holds real magic in a few little spots, while also growing stronger with each listen. Electronic listeners, take a break from the big names of the genre and explore the little guys like this one, easier than ever before with the recent CD reissue!
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Red Noise - 1970 - Sarcelles-Lochères

February 16, 2016, 11:50 am
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Red Noise
1970 
Sarcelles-Lochères

 

01. Cosmic, Toilet Ditty (0:40)
02. Caka Slow / Vertebrate Twist (4:21)
03. Obsession Sexuelle, No.1 (0:29)
04. Galactic Sewer-Song (4:04)
05. Obsession Sexuelle, No.2 (0:12)
06. Red Noise Live Au Café Des Sports (2:08)
07. Existential-Import Of The Screw-Driver Eternity Twist (2:03)
08. 20 Miror Mozarts Composing On Tea Bag And 1/2 Cup-Bra (2:29)
09. Red Noise En Direct Du Buffet De La Gare (2:15)
10. A La Mémoire Du Rockeur Inconnu (0:40)
11. Petit Précis D'Instruction Civique (0:36)
12. Sarcelles C'est L'Avenir (18:56)

- Philip Barry / guitar, drums, voices
- Austin Blue / percussion
- Jean Claude Cencu / flute, saxophone, voices, wind
- Daniel Geoffroy / bass, electric bass, voices
- John Livengood / organ, hammond organ
- Patrick Vian / guitar, voices



RED NOISE were formed as a French anarchic outfit in late 1960s by Patrick VIAN (guitar), a son of a French poet / writer / jazz musician Boris Vian. It's said they've played on stage defended in barricades in Université Sorbonne. They released one and only album "Sarcelles Lochères" in 1970 and soon were disbanded in the same year. Their indomitable spirit for rock music could be taken over by another French project named KOMINTERN.
Anyway, Patrick Vian should be a tremendous talent methinks. Later he released a solo album as a synthesizer player (not a guitarist), and in his solo work, we can find another gem slightly different from This RED NOISE's interesting noises, named "Sarcelles-Locheres".

Back to the topic, as if not 40 years ago, we can hear flood of progressiveness deeply under cynical (and usually nasty) phrases. Sometimes they slip away upon a wee-wet sheet in a toilet under such a sensual saxophone solo, and sometimes are immersed in poo-poo song ... but I feel their appearance might be very serious, even in such a pleasant and relaxing mood upon the vinyl (especially upon the Side A). In the mysterious and funny atmosphere of RIO, there are lots of beautiful sound stones created by the "serious" players. (For me the saxophone sounds are very addictive.)

And finally, the last song "Sarcelles C'est L'avenir" is exactly a serious battle play among all "serious" players. Improvised spiritual sounds shot by keen soundlauchers could rage like a hurricane, but they should not be destructive but absolutely creative. Let me say that's an much united infernal cry, full of intensive psychedelic & Kraut-ish aggression. 18 minutes is very short in RED NOISE theatre.
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Horde Catalytique Pour la Fin - 1971 - Gestation Sonore

February 16, 2016, 11:53 am
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Horde Catalytique Pour la Fin 
1971 
Gestation Sonore


01. Gestation Sonore 1 - 12:48
02. Gestation Sonore 2 - 3:55
03. Gestation Sonore 3 - 4:05
04. Gestation Sonore 4 - 19:24

- Richard Accart / Saxophone tenor,flutes
- Francky Bourlier / Harpe de verre, flute, vibraphone, percussions
- Jacques Fassola / Contrebasse, guitare, banjo, orgue a bouche
- Gil Sterg / Drums et percussions



"Gestation Sonore" is the only album to be released by the French improvisational quartet "Horde Catalytique Pour La Fin"; which rightfully found its way onto the infamous Nurse With Wound list. The four piece line-up consisted of Richard Accart (Saxophone tenor, flutes), Francky Bourlier (Harpe de verrer, flute, vibraphone, percussions), Jacques Fassola (Contrebasse, guitar, banjo, Orgue a bouche) and Gil Sterg (Drums and percussion).

Released in 1971 on the legendary Futura label, this ultra-rare LP binds the idiocratic tendencies of Free-Jazz and Avant-garde into four intriguing tracks. Staying true to their improvisational ideals the album was record entirely without a predetermined score; with each group member focusing their spontaneous creativity to connect an effortless mind flow between the individual musicians. References for this band come from far and wide, with leafs being taken from likes of early improvisational-ist AMM and Limbus 3. The album weaves its way through dark and moody passages crowned with droning psych like characteristics, only to abruptly cut loose with Skronky onslaughts.

For an improvisational collection the album possess a rare flow from passage to passage; not to mention the wealth of textures and emotion flaunted. This being said, "Gestation Sonore" will test many casual listens into the point of despair. The albums true beauty works on a more subtle level, so don't abandon hope after the first spin.

This is grim stuff indeed. From the outset there's 'skronk' jazz saxophone with a splattering of other tuneless instruments randomly fired at the listener. Bangs, crashes, tinkles and what sounds like someone using a rubber hammer inside a grand piano will give you some idea of what you're about to endure for the next 39 minutes .
If any similarities could be made - it would be with 'AMM' who sounded more sure of their abilities and were heavier in execution. I guess it's also similar to early 'Nurse With Wound', but without the black humour, vocals and tape manipulation.

Recorded in one night at the 'Theatre de Nice' on 26th February 1971, 'Gestation Sonore' is a very difficult listen. Only the bleak soundscapes and creepy flutes hold my attention here. They remind me quite a lot of my earliest childhood TV memory - 'The Clangers'. However if you forced 100 people to listen to this (it would have to be at gun-point, by the way), I can guarantee you that no more than five would reach the end.

There are no hooks, no tunes with just a grey smog prevailing. It's also quite flat sounding in its production, without any feeling of depth.

The dissonant approach does grow on me after 10 minutes. It helps if you can switch off that musical part of your brain and just take it for what it is - a random, garbled collection of acoustic instruments played without any sense of timing or purpose.

Some of the percussion work is quite interesting, sounding like it's being played on children's toys - a bit like the 'Tom and Jerry' cartoons. To tell you the truth, towards the end I was actually starting to enjoy this. However, the sheer alienness of sound will deter even the hardiest of Prog listeners.

This surely has to be one of the most inaccessible recordings in the entire blog... but somehow I keep coming back to it
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Triode - 1971 - On N'A Pas Fini D'Avoir Tout Vu

February 16, 2016, 11:57 am
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Triode 
1971 
On N'A Pas Fini D'Avoir Tout Vu



01. Magic Flower (5:32)
02. Misomaque (2:58)
03. Moulos Grimpos (4:06)
04. Blahsha (4:20)
05. Lilie (4:50)
06. Ibiza Flight (4:49)
07. Adeubis (2:44)
08. Come Together (4:46)
09. Chimney Suite (8:54)

- Pierre Chereze / guitars
- Pierre Yves Sorin / bass
- Didier Hauck / drums
- Michel Edelin / flute


One of the most delightful and charming little albums you're ever likely to come across, Triode's sole album is the sort of album that washes your hair before it sings gently in your ear.

With a flute song from distant gardens and a genuine feel of 1970s nostalgia with twinkling cymbals, wooden congas and a slow coarse guitar that sweeps its way through the music like a janitor on acid, - the music filling up your room is one of slow hazy psychedelia lead jazz rock. Every time I play this one, I get the feeling of sitting on a heather shrouded meadow with all kinds of freaky people hanging around on the grass - eating fruits, grooming beards, jumping through fiery hoops, making love in trees and generally just having a funky good old time with everything. This music is being played continuously from up on high, where small midgety folks have decorated the forest treetop line with dozens of Bose speakers. It gives off a certain frivolous kitchen-party-in-the-rough kind of feel, and instantly makes people feel better about their lives, what they're doing with it, and perhaps moreover forget everything nasty in it. Triode feed off your willingness to become one with your lawn, and while not far off Jethro Tull's bluesy flute rock debut - this one seems altogether more with it - in tune with the times surrounding it. Sure it sounds like it was made in 69 with all the bluesyness of the guitars and bass licks, yet the nicely recorded percussions as well as the delicate and jazzy flute make this thing into something timeless.

I like to listen to this at parties, where I sneak in with my I-pod and wait for people's incompetence to play music continuously, and then swooof like a great big leopard I swoop over the controls and let this wonderful chill, saucy, funky, warm, electric, sweaty, jazzy, bluesy and earthy like the very colour of its cover art - music roll over the unsuspecting crowd.

There is indeed something earthy about Triode. An immense musical root network which has buried its feet deep beneath the surface of the soil........... Maybe that's why I always get these hippie images of heathers and people partying on lawns with this thing? Either way, it's the single most alluring part of this album - that warm, earthy feel permeating it.

I played this to my black bird friend I've named Charlie. He sits in the highest pine tree in my folks' garden. Come noon he'll be tooting his horn about whatever it is that birds talk about (Flying methods and possible readjustments perhaps?), and here the other day I had this album playing from a small pair of MP3 speakers resting cosily in an Agave cactus. The moods of the flute seemed to interest him, and at one point I was under the impression that he threw a spastic fit, during a flute spitting manoeuvre of one of the more rocking sections - completely out of his head jumping halfway down the branch - collecting himself enough to jumble back on top of it with an intensive and life invigorating PEEEEP - the likes I normally only hear when there's brown feathered women about him.

So there you have it. This album is so good, it naturally attracts different species. Just think about what amazing get togethers you could throw, if you would be able to expect giraffes and squirrels attending.
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Travelling - 1973 - Voici La Nuit Tombée

February 16, 2016, 12:00 pm
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Travelling 
1973 
Voici La Nuit Tombée
 


01. Voici La Nuit Tombée (18:00)
02. Flamenco (4:02)
03. Passo (3:05)
04. Soleil (3:03)
05. Tout Compte Fait (3:27)
06. Shema (3:06)


Yves Hasselmann/ piano, Hammond organ, vocals
Jacques Goure/ bass
Roger Gremillot/ drums


TRAVELLING were a trio from France who released only one album(1973). The organ and piano dominates their sound that is without question Canterbury flavoured. SOFT MACHINE had to be an influence on these guys as the vocal style and fuzz organ certainly bring them to mind. This band does have it's own sound though and I love it. The side long opening track is one of the best songs that i've heard in a while. What a pleasure to listen to. Pure joy indeed.
"Voici La Nuit Tombee" is an 18 minute ride that I have taken over and over again this past week. It opens with cymbals and bass before the organ quickly joins the fray, and it sounds fantastic. A full sound before a minute that includes piano, fuzz organ, bass and drums. Organ and piano then create a piece of heaven before the vocals come in. The light drums, organ and vocals are other worldly. Did I mention I love this song ? Piano joins in. Vocals stop as fuzz organ returns. I could listen to this all day. Vocals are back after 6 minutes. The fuzz organ comes and goes. The piano takes the lead with bass and light drums 8 minutes in. This section is very jazzy. A spacey, experimental, eerie passage arrives before 10 1/2 minutes that changes 2 minutes later as an uptempo organ, light drums and bass melody arrives. Fuzz organ after 14 minutes. A change a minute later as piano again takes the lead. Vocals are back 17 minutes in. Amazing song !

"Flamenco" features more bass, drums and piano. The vocal melodies a minute in are outstanding and a nice touch. Perhaps a nod to Mr.Wyatt. Some fuzz bass after that with organ. Piano starts to take over.This song blends into the next one "Passo". The uptempo piano melodies continue but bass and drums help out here. This song then blends into "Soleil" as piano melodies continue to dominate. Before 2 minutes we get some fuzz organ joining the piano melodies. "Tout Compte Fait" opens with slower paced piano as the organ provides a nice background. This song blends into the final track "Shema".This sounds better than the previous song because bass, light drums and vocal melodies are added.

This is another French band that has impressed me to pieces. I had heard about them on the ProgEars site and am so thankful I did. A must have for Jazz and Canterbury fans.
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Cathy Berberian - 1967 - Revolution / Beatles Arias Chantés Par Cathy Berberian

February 18, 2016, 11:16 am
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Cathy Berberian
1967 
Revolution / Beatles Arias Chantés Par Cathy Berberian



01. Ticket To Ride   
02. I Want To Hold Your Hand   
03. Michelle    2:28
04. Eleanor Rigby   
05. Yellow Submarine   
06. Here, There And Everywhere   
07. Help!   
08. You've Got To Hide Your Love Away   
09. Yesterday   
10. Can't Buy Me Love
11. Girl   
12. A Hard Day's Night   


13. Pourquoi Je Chante Les Beatles?
14. Introduction   
15. Ticket To Ride   
16. Yesterday
17. Ticket To Ride


Harpsichord – Guy Boyer (tracks: 1 to 12)
Tracks 1 to 12, originally released in 1967. Unnamed chamber music ensemble led by Guy Boyer, harpsichord.
Recorded December 1966 at Studio Arsonor, Paris.

Tracks 13: Cathy Berberian interviewed on Radio France, February 1975
Tracks 14 to 15: recorded at the Festival d'Avignon, 1982
Tracks 16 to 17: recorded at the Festival de Divonne-les-Bains, 1980


Cathy Berberian was an American mezzo-soprano vocalist based in Italy. She was known as a proponent of both avant garde and contemporary vocal music, moving during her career from debuting one of John Cage’s major works, his “Aria with Fontana Mix” composition in 1958, to covering Beatles songs. Cathy Berberian was an opera diva who never took herself too seriously and she was probably the hippest lady in classical music of her day, a sort of spiritual predecessor to Laurie Anderson in certain respects.

Born in 1925, after attending Columbia University, Berberian received a Fulbright scholarship in 1949 to study music at the Milan Conservatory where she would meet her future husband, the great composer Luciano Berio, who would write music for her during their marriage (you might say they were collaborations considering how integral her contribution is!) and afterwards. His Requies: in memoriam Cathy composition premiered the year after her death of a sudden heart attack at the age of 57 in 1983. It’s interesting to note that when she passed, Berberian was to sing “The Internationale” (ala Marilyn Monroe) on TV in Rome to Karl Marx on the anniversary of his birth. That’s the sort of performer Cathy Berberian was. She just didn’t take it all that seriously, and yet, she took her artform very seriously indeed. Pompous, she wasn’t, although she was the most celebrated vocal recitalist of her time spent on Earth.

Sylvano Bussotti, Hans Werner Henze, William Walton and even Igor Stravinsky works for Cathy Berberian’s distinctive voice. She’s even name-checked in the Steely Dan song “Your Gold Teeth” on Countdown to Ecstasy: “Even Cathy Berberian knows / There’s one roulade she can’t sing.” (There’s the answer to that Trivial Pursuit question!) Of his multifaceted wife, Berio said “The versatility of her mind was astonishing.” Aside from her great vocal gifts, she was also a gourmet chef, a fashion model, a collector of pornographic porcelain and she translated Jules Feiffer and Woody Allen’s work into Italian with Umberto Eco.

But for all of her high-falutin’ musical and intellectual pedigrees, Cathy Berberian was equally known as someone with a wicked sense of humor. Her Revolution album of Beatles covers is a unique and quirky collection indeed, but she really ties together her pop and avant garde inclinations beautifully in her own composition, “Stripsody,” a short vocal piece where she uses comic book exclamations and sounds (Words like “Boing!” “Vrrop vrrop” appear on the sheet music) to get the point across, sounding very much like a humorous version of Cage’s Fontana Mix combined with Serge Gainsbourg and Brigitte Bardot’s “Comic Strip.”

It kind of annoys me that most people these days will only encounter Cathy Berberian through this album, mostly by proxy - tracks from here show up on compilation albums with such tasteful titles as The Weird Beatles, The Funny Beatles, Crap Beatles, whatever.  Man, this is the woman behind Stripsody and Omaggio A Joyce and Aria With Fontana Mix and however many other pieces.  John Cage and Igor Stravinsky both wrote tributes to her, she was that respected in the classical world.  Whatever.

So basically it's an album of Beatles covers, sung in an operatic style, with basic backing provided mostly by harpsichord and a string quartet.
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Cathy Berberian - 1970 - Magnificathy, The Many Voices of Cathy Berberian

February 18, 2016, 11:21 am
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Cathy Berberian
1970
Magnificathy, The Many Voices of Cathy Berberian

 


01 - La lettera amorosa - Montiverdi
02 - Debussy, Chanson de Bilitis - La flute de Pan
03 - La chevelure
04 - Le tombeau des Naides
05 - Cage - A Flower
06 - Cage - The Wonderful Widow of eighteen Springs
07 - Busotti - 'O' Atti Vocalis
08 - Weill - Subaraya Johnny
09 - McCartney,Lennon - Ticket to Ride
10 - Gershwin - Summertime
11 - Berberian - Stripsody

Piano, Harpsichord – Bruno Canino
Voice – Cathy Berberian


The voice is unique, and so is Cathy Berberian's selection of music for these 1970 recordings. What other singer would have risked such an unlikely rag-bag of pieces, let alone been able to fashion it into a sustained and marvellous entertainment? If Berberian's most enduring achievements are ultimately to be found in her work with the European avant-garde in the 1960s and 1970s, she will also be remembered as a startling recitalist, and this strange, exquisite compilation serves as a happy memento for all those who fondly recall her inimitable salon style.
Berberian strides confidently through what to many would be an assault course of a programme. Her Monteverdi singing, represented here by the Lettera amorosa, was celebrated long before the early music movement gathered momentum, and it remains a model of intelligent monodic delivery indeed it puts some of today's specialist early-music singers to shame. A less likely success is her Debussy, partly whispered into the microphone with disarming frankness and intimacy, partly sung in full voice. The John Cage performances, as one would expect, are immaculate; I cannot imagine a voice more obviously suited to the childlike ritualistic chanting of lines from Joyce's Finnegans Wake in The wonderful widow of eighteen springs. The popular items are equally glorious: a deeply indignant Surabaya Johnny (sung in English), a delicately crooned Summertime and an outrageous coloratura performance of the Lennon/McCartney classic A ticket to ride dressed up to sound like opera seria crossed with a Brandenburg concerto.
The finale is Berberian's own Stripsody, captured in concert with all the noises of a delighted audience and here one senses, more acutely than in the pieces recorded in the studio, her exceptional talent as a communicator. Actress, mimic, singer and stage personality all rolled into one, she inspired many music-theatre pieces that will never seem quite right in the hands of any other artist and in Stripsody she created for herself precisely the fantasy world—part noise, part music, part drama—through which she most liked to roam
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Colette Magny - 1970 - Feu et rythme

February 18, 2016, 11:30 am
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Colette Magny
1970
Feu et rythme



01. Feu Et Rythme
02. K³ Blues
03. Brave Nègre
04. U.S.A. Doudou
05. Jabberwocky
06. Soupe De Poissons
07. Malachites
08. Prend Moi, Ne Prend Pas   
09. A L'écoute   
10. La Marche   
11. L'église De Taban
12. Conascor   

Double Bass – Barre Phillips (tracks: A1 to A4, A6, B1, B4 to B5), Beb Guerin (tracks: A1 to A4, A6, B1, B4 to B5)
Guitar, Voice – Colette Magny

Released in a gatefold sleeve with texts inside.
An ensemble plays on track A5, A7 and B3, but the name of the ensemble is not mentioned. Neither are the players of the ensemble mentioned.



Colette Magny was a French singer/songwriter with a propensity for protest songs whose musical style was informed by blues, jazz, folk, poetry, and spoken word. Born on October 31, 1926, in Paris, France, she made her recording debut in 1963 with the single "Melocoton" on CBS. The single, the closest she would ever come to a mainstream breakthrough hit, was subsequently compiled on her full-length solo album debut, Les Tuileries (1964). Her final release on CBS, Les Tuileries is comprised of musical adaptations of works by writers Victor Hugo, António Jacinto, Arthur Rimbaud, Rainer Maria Rilke, Antonio Machado, and Louis Aragon, plus a couple American traditionals and a few originals. Magny returned two years later with "Avec" Poème (1966), an experimental full-length effort informed by musique concrète on which André Almuro is credited for the music. After this experimental effort on the short-lived label Disques Mouloudji, Magny began her long association with the label Le Chant du Monde, beginning with the album Colette Magny (1967), sometimes referred to by its album-opening song, "Vietnam 67." Subsequent albums on Le Chant du Monde include Magny 68 (1969), Feu et Rythme (1970), Répression (1973), Transit (1975), Chili un Peuple Crève... (1976), Visage -- Village (1977), Je Veux Chaanter (1979), Thanakan (1981), Cahier d'une Tortue (1981), and Chansons Pour Titine (1983). In later years, Magny self-released the album Kevork (1989) on the label Colette Magny Promotion, and some of her Le Chant du Monde output was reissued in the early '90s. Her death on June 12, 1997, in Villefranche-de-Rouergue, Aveyron, France, sparked another round of reissues including Melocoton (1997), which compiled the highlights of her CBS output, and Blues (1999), which is essentially a repackaged version of her final Le Chant du Monde album, Chansons Pour Titine.
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Colette Magny - 1972 - Repression

February 18, 2016, 11:39 am
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Colette Magny 
1972
Repression





01. Oink Oink   
  a) Babylone - U.S.A.   
  b) Cherokee   
  c) Djoutche   
  d) Libérez Les Prisionniers Politiques   
02. Répression
03. Chronique Du Nord   
04. Camarade-Curé   

Alto Saxophone – Juan Valoaz (tracks: A1 to A4)
Double Bass – Barre Phillips (tracks: B1 to B3), Beb Guerin
Drums – Noel McGhie (tracks: A1 to A4)
Guitar – Colette Magny (tracks: B1 to B3)
Piano – François Tusques (tracks: A1 to A4)
Trumpet – Bernard Vitet (tracks: A1 to A4)
Vocals – Colette Magny




Born 31 October 1926, Paris, France, d. 12 June 1997, Villefranche-de-Rouerge, France. Magny was one of the most striking and politicized of French singer-songwriters to emerge in the 60s. The daughter of a grocery salesman and an actress (though her mother only took up this profession at the age of 57), Magny started work as a bilingual secretary and translator at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in 1948, remaining in full-time employment there until 1962. Her interest in English-speaking culture introduced her to the work of blues and jazz singers, including Bessie Smith and Ella Fitzgerald. Having been instructed on guitar and banjo by the French jazz musician Claude Luter, she began to compose her own blues material, performing in and around the French capital. She played regularly at the Contrescarpe cabaret club, where she was spotted by enigmatic promoter Mireille, who booked Magny for her television show, Le Petit Conservatoire De La Chanson, and Magny’s version of “Saint James Infirmary” attracted rave reviews. The next day’s edition of the Paris-Presse newspaper proclaimed: “France has found her own Ella Fitzgerald”. Having left the civil service, she signed a contract with CBS Records and released her debut single, “Melocoton”, which reached the charts. However, she did not dabble with the mainstream French pop charts for long. Subsequent material included quotations from the Bible, Chekhov, Dostoevsky and Lenin set to music, translations of Lewis Carroll and Pablo Neruda and musical readings of French poets Victor Hugo and Rimbaud. She also continued to compose her own material, particularly after becoming politicized by the Algerian conflict of the 50s. Her song, “Le Mal De Vivre”, was banned by state broadcasters. A subsequent album, R?pression, reflected angrily on such censorship. She took an active role in the Paris student riots, helping to organize sit-ins and benefit concerts. In the 70s, Magny continued to branch out into new musical territory, working in jazz, rock and contemporary pop formats. Her 1973 album, Feu Et Rythme, won the Grand Prix du Disque from the Acad?mie Charles Cros. In the 80s she moved to the south of France, but thereafter her career was hampered by a chronic spinal disease. Despite this, she remained a huge influence on French political and musical culture, her curmudgeonly persona emphasized by one of her final outbursts, condemning ‘the bastards who pretend I’m already dead. I want to prove to them that I’m still alive, still creating.'”
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Colette Magny - 1975 - Transit

February 18, 2016, 11:52 am
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Colette Magny
1975
Transit
 



01. La Panade
02. Les Cages à Tigre
03. Ras La Trompe
04.1    Le Pachyderme   
04.2    Blues Ras La Trompe   
04.3    Radio Cornac   
04.4    Les Militants   
04.5    Finale   

Contrabass – Jean Bolcato
Drums – Christian Ville
Piano – Patrick Vollat, Rémy Gevron
Saxophone – Maurice Merle
Soprano Saxophone, Bass Clarinet – Louis Sclavis
Trumpet – Jean Mereu
Vocals, Guitar – Colette Magny




Legendary French avant garde/protest singer.She has collaborated with Raymond Boni,Michel Portal,Catherine Ribeiro,Un drame musical intantante,Didier Malherbe ,Andre Almuro amongst others.

"Colette Magny came first, (and has sadly died first) and was a massive influence on much French music to come. Beginning her career as a blues and folk singer, she became radicalized by the U.S. Civil Rights movement, the Nueva Canción musicians in South America, as well as the worldwide student revolt of that bygone era - you know the one. Her most astounding material is unapologetically violent, shocking, yet quite effective agit-prop accompanied by a heavy, romping jazzy rumpus.
I'm quite confused to see that the only Magny's album linked to the NWW list is Transit. Actually Colette Magny was some sort of politically involved blues/french chanson singer at the beginning of her career, but she soon evolved toward something much more experimental :
1° Feu et Rythme (Le Chant du Monde LDX 744 44)This is the most vanguard LP by far : There, the highlight is the two free jazz double bass players Beb Guerin and Barre Phillips (who on most tracks are the only musicians and who are well known to European free jazz listeners). Though the texts are quite well written, this album is the most appealling to the non French speaking part of the NWW audience, and in my opinion the musically most successful of all. The melody is not the backbone of this LP since Colette Magny experiments with her voice by reaching different levels of screams, monkey-like shoutings, putting the stress on the sound of harsh French words, and so on. On two tracks she's singing along an ensemble wich definitely gives a contemporary music feel to it.
I highly recommend this one to any vanguard music collector and especially to the NWW list addicted.
2° Repression (Le Chant du Monde LDX 74476)This one is somehow different from the previous one. On the flip side of the LP, Colette Magny still sings with Barre Phillips and Beb Guerin on double bass, but all tracks are much more structured though still kind of weird. On the A side, there's a complete change of personnal with the introduction of Bernard Vitet (Famous on the NWW list for his La Guepe LP on Futura), Francois Tusques (also famous for many entries on the NWW list such as Operation Rhino - Fete de Politique Hebdo, many sessions on Futura, and many other free jazz/experimental LP's). But despite all the expectations you could have, the music is basically a blues number (with a unique delivery style wich makes it quite different from regular blues numbers) with extremly violent political lyrics that sound dated nowadays.
This one is very nice, still weird but less experimental than the previous one.
3° Transit (Le Chant du Monde LDX 74570)This one is the one that seems to be pointed out by the NWW list. Actually this is the less experimental of all. You have a 3 minutes track filled with tape loops that is probably the closest work to the NWW music she has done. And this is probably the reason why this album is usually mentioned. The rest of the album is french chanson, wih some very nice vietnamese texts and poetry read, including a testimony of torture practiced in vietnamese jails during the 60's. The musicians here are from a band called The Free Jazz Workshop (one of the earliest recordings with French clarinettist Louis Sclavis) wich is, despite its name, not free jazz at all on this record. The record is globally speaking quite conventional and despite the 3 minutes tape loops very much dedicated to the French audience, not to the non French speaking audience.
To conclude :Transit is the one with a short track that is the most similar to Steve Stapelton's work.Repression is half a blues number half a demented LP with some of the best French and American free jazz musicians of this time.Feu et Rythme is definitely the one to get if you're in vanguard music. The whole record is breathtaking. I just can't figure out why this one is always missed when refered to NWW, since it all makes sense this is the most forward thinking one of all.
So you know what to do from now on.
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Colette Magny & André Almuró - 1966 - Avec Poème

February 18, 2016, 11:57 am
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Colette Magny & André Almuró 
1966
Avec Poème



01. Poème   
02. Poème   


Music By – André Almuro
Voice – Colette Magny, Pierre Frilay



A very rare LP of Colette Magny accompanied by André Almuró,released in 1966.Fantastic music concrete accompanying Magny's poems.Saw it selling for 500 EURO!
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Catherine Ribeiro + 2 Bis - 1969 - Catherine Ribeiro + 2 Bis

February 18, 2016, 12:02 pm
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Catherine Ribeiro + 2 Bis
1969
Catherine Ribeiro + 2 Bis
 


01. Lumière écarlate
02. Soeur de race
03. Les Fées Carabosses
04. Voyage 1
05. La Solitude
06. Un sourire, un rire, des éclats
07. Le Crime de l'enfant Dieu
08. Le Point qui scintille

Guitar – Patrice Moullet
Organ, Percussion – Alain Haldag
Trumpet [Trompette Marine Electrifiée] – Bernard Pinon
Vocals – Catherine Ribeiro



Born in Lyon during the war, Catherine Ribeiro started her career in acting, even shooting a film for JL Godart, Les Carabiniers, he met future writing partner Patrice Moullet (then under the name of Albert Juroost), before she started singing, recording a bunch of singles throughout the 60's, both in Portuguese (her parent's origins) and in French. These singles are now compiled in a set called Libertés. In the late 60's, Moullet asks her to starts a band, first named 2Bis (one record released under that moniker), than Alpes, where she'll be the front person. The group was lucky enough to participated to one of the very few festival still organized in France in the early 70's (most of them being banned to avoid further youth/student riots after May 68 both the group and festival getting the "go-ahead" from authorities a few hours before starting) in Port Leucate, then Avignon, playing to huge crowds and getting wide notice of the public.

During the early 70's, Catherine Ribeiro & Alpes recorded a string of stunning albums, starting with Ame Debout and ending with Le Temps De L'autre, the most remarkable being Rat Débile Et Homme Des Champs, with stunning tracks such as Poeme Non-Epique and Ere De La Putréfaction (sic). The group is then centered around Catherine, (guitarist) Moullet and (keyboardist) Lemoine (future Gong) and Motron, but by 76, only Lemoine remained with Catherine. The later 70's will see albums getting wiser in terms of provocations, but will gain in musician abilities and spectrum, but Ribeiro started recording solo albums dedicated to poets (Jacqueries for Jacques Prévert) and semi-anarchists singers (Ferré, Brel etc..).

In 8i, the group will disband in full glory (awards and academy prizes) after la Déboussole, Catherine recording a string of albums increasingly gentle and decreasingly interesting, until she will recontact Moullet for solo collabs. The very same Moullet will reform Alpes in the early 90's without Ribeiro, and two more records will be released, both sounding a tad new age, but remaining prog records. Moullet is still playing experimental music through his project Atelier Alpes, while Ribeiro still graces discs of her voice.

As a quick conclusion: Catherine Ribeiro & Alpes have recorded a string of fairly successful albums, gathering a few plaudits and yearly awards from specialized press, played throughout Europe and even in Latin America and Northern Africa and are now seen as an iconic group of the hippy 70's in France. Their use of seldom-seen percuphone and cosmophone (both alpine instruments), their lengthy Poème Non-Epique pieces, Ribeiro's anarchist avant-garde and ecologist lyrics and doomed atmosphere (there is some VdGG feel in their music) made this group a very distinct and very original group that has their own sound. Their record company will print at the back of the cover that "the lyrics of the group only engage the musicians and them only", therefore taking a distance to Ribeiro's incendiary diatribes. This disengagement is to be seen as CR&A's best compliment, as in their manner, they were at the forefront of the Counter Culture.

Catherine Ribeiro was born in 1939, the daughter of Portuguese immigrants. She starred in Jean Luc Godard's controversial film 'Les Carabiniers' aged 22, where she played a partisan. Here she met (and later married) guitarist and sound sculptor Patrice Moullet, the core member of the group they were to later form called Alpes. They released the first album Catherine Ribeiro + 2 Bis in 1969, but didn't use the name Alpes until the second album Nr.2. Her daughter Ioana was born sometime around 1971 and inspired many songs. Catherine is most well-known in France for her recording of Edith Piaf songs

I often say that the USA album is the greatest rock album made in the 60s, or that it's a toss-up between it and the VU + Nico album. Well, technically this album, more or less rock music I suppose we could say, was made in the 60s, and it makes the USA album seem like fluffy pop. I'm not saying that USA is at risk of losing its throne, but this a whole different breed of avant-rock royalty way off any scale we could construct. This is a holy grail of 20th century music. Never reissued, this needs to be heard by everyone even slightly interested in this aesthetic sphere.
It's misleading to call this rock music though, because rhythmically it doesn't use any conventional rock beats, and the percussion is used in a strikingly unusual way that gives a droney effect despite using a rapid stream of drum hits. That's drum, not drumkit. I don't think there's any drumkit used in this music. I suppose we could call this music "ecstatic psychedelic electric avant-folk music".
What's so amazing here is that the instrumental parts of the music are equally as idiosyncratic and startling as Ribeiro's bracing vocals. These people were from another planet. The avant-folk precursor to Magma.

IMHO just one of the 100 best records ever made!
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Catherine Ribeiro + Alpes - 1970 - Nr. 2

February 18, 2016, 4:49 pm
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Catherine Ribeiro + Alpes 
1970 
Nr. 2




01. Prélude
02. Sîrba
03. 15 août 1970
04. Silen voy Kathy
05. Prélude
06. Prélude
07. Poème non épique
08. Ballada das agues

Classical Guitar, Organ, Vocals, Lyre – Patrice Moullet
Guitar [Portuguese] – Isaac Robles Monteiro, Pires Moliceiro
Percussion, Organ – Denis Cohen
Vocals – Catherine Ribeiro



The first album by the French group Catherine Ribeiro+Alpes was the oddly named “No. 2.” Titled as such to tie-in with their previous incarnation as the short-lived Catherine Ribeiro+2 Bis, after this lineup recorded their sole effort for Festival Records, Ribeiro and husband Patrice Moullet disbanded 2 Bis and reassembled as the re-named Catherine Ribeiro+Alpes with the addition of Denis Cohen on percussion and organ. What they achieved as a trio was light years ahead of 2 Bis for “No. 2” sounds the result of an ensemble far larger, stronger, wiser and prone to experimentation. With the playing field emptied of their earlier folk-rock ruminations, Moullet was allowed to impose an uncompromised musical vision with his own self-made instruments. Yielding previously unheard sounds, they assisted in building up repetitive layers of rhythmic motifs to provide contrast to Ribeiro’s vocals, located in a similar no-woman’s zone as Nico’s on her then-recent album, “The Marble Index.” Perhaps it was their shared past lives as actresses (Nico in Fellini’s “La Dolce Vita,” Ribeiro in Godard’s “Les Carabiners”) eternal expatriate outsiders (the German-born Nico relocating to New York City and many points in Europe while Ribeiro was born in Lyon, France to working class Portuguese parents) or the drama of their existences as young and strikingly beautiful European artistes coming of age during the chaos of the sixties/seventies cusp -- A chaos they both navigated with more than a great degree of poise and forbearance.

They were similar only because they were both so unique, but in entirely different ways. Apart from exploring far darker themes than those of most female singer-songwriters of the day, as much as Ribeiro descended into realms just as dark and experimental as Nico, the comparisons end there. For Ribeiro’s alto vocals were far more demonstrative -- as well as stark, dark and brimming with full timbre textured like wood grain and draped in mysteries of brooding anguish as they emanated from her symmetrical head fixed to her statuesque frame. Her voice was beautifully controlled only until it descended unevenly into shrieking and wailing as if unhinging itself not only from the song but existence as well. Singing in French, Ribeiro’s voice soars, whispers, breaks into screams, cracks open the sky and passionately scales the heights of her Alpine-ranged emotions that peaked dramatically as if to darken the very summit of Mount Blanc itself. Her whole heart is in every modulation of every consonant while her commitment to her words that nested inside the arrangements of husband Patrice Moullet suggested a personal and artistic relationship that was complementary in every way.

As the sole musical composer of the group, Patrice Moullet not only created Alpes’ musical vision but shaped it further by constructing instruments of his own invention. The apparatus that appeared on “No. 2” was the cosmophone (credited on the sleeve as an electric lyre) which resembled an expressionistically-angled guitar with an oversized metallic body and neck that and could be either picked or played with a bow. Making its debut on the previous 2 Bis album was the percuphone: an elongated motorised machine with a variable speed control that produced tight, telegraphic repetitions reporting with the depth and low end of evenly rapped out bongos played at Morse Code velocity. Although this instrument would feature prominently on many future Alpes recordings, it was absent from the stripped-down proceedings recorded for “No. 2.”

The group’s previous folk underpinnings were retained and consigned to a trio of brief classical acoustic guitar instrumentals. All three were named “Prélude” and were interspersed to book-end the album with pastorales much like King Crimson’s “Peace: A Theme” did on throughout their “In The Wake Of Poseidon” album. Along with one concluding Portuguese ballad, these link together (and contrast greatly) with the far broader and highly progressive expanses that comprised the majority of “No. 2.”

As if to approximate the rhythm of a late night snowfall, “Sirba” opens with two circling Farfisa organ lines alternating in counterpoint until one of them un-tethers itself from the rhythm to blossom into full-bloom extemporisation. Moullet intones in Dylanesque guide vocalese while the entrancing build of layered patterns build and build and then build some more. “Sirba” takes its title from the Romanian term for ‘Serbian Dance,’ an ancient Central European folk rhythm whose unfolding and tightly-performed time signatures are adhered to as a chaotic avalanches of tom-tom rolls, random cymbal-striking and inhuman crow caws increase in dissonance and volume. When its crescendo halts dead in its snow-filled Balkan tracks, the dramatic stillness sets the darkened stage for “15 Août 1970.” Although Funkadelic recorded a song about the previous day, Ribeiro probably did not have “Saturday Night, August The 15th” slated as the original title (what was going on that weekend anyhow?!) Regardless of the song’s provenance or date, it signals the first appearance of Ribeiro’s vocals, here accompanied only by Moullet’s classical acoustic guitar. An arid lament, it’s probably a detailing of some life-changing event that occurred a fortnight after their appearance at the huge Aix-en-Provence Festival; where they were slotted somewhere in-between that unlikeliest lineup of Leonard Cohen, Johnny Winter and Chico Magnetic Band. Ribeiro’s modulations are the most lonesome and beautiful ones of the album, while Moullet’s finger-picking classical guitar is astutely aware of his wife’s every curve of tempo, no matter how miniscule.

As mysterious sounding as its title, “Silen voy Kathy” enters as an ominous calm before the storm. Low organ notes rumble behind Moullet’s cosmophone manipulations that resemble those of a viola held to a high-pitched, needling drama or even the quieter patches of Jimmy Page’s violin bow solo on “Dazed And Confused.” It maintains its quiet suspense until falling away into a series of plucked and faltering droning trails. Ribeiro vocals are enthralling, pleading and strident as they keep everything else in a state of suspended animation until it merges into a building of wordless wails to underscore a repeating musical crescendo. It all passes by in a duration of seven minutes that seems far shorter and far deeper.

After a repeating pair of the same acoustic “Prélude” that opened the album comes the eighteen and a half minute “Poème Non Épique.” Look out below, for this is a staggering and distended track comparable only to the entirely-imaginary aural scenario of Nico guesting on lead vocals on the last tracks of both sides of “Fun House” simultaneously as Iggy, Ron, Dave and Scotty forsake all guitars to manipulate some of Iggy’s homemade instruments in the Stoogeland basement jerry-built from the following: a organ recently stolen from SRC, a drainpipe strung with copper wire played with switchblades through a Mosrite Fuzzrite fuzzbox while several vacuum cleaner attachments are left to tumble low in a broken dryer while miked through their PA. Achieving a cathedral-sized O-Mind without guitars but just a set of Iggy’s hairy and Partched-together instruments, this ‘non-epic poem’ contains all of the late-night-shaking-off-of-numbness ambience of “Dirt” with the wild abandon of “L.A. Blues” into a wah-wah’d freak-zone of both into a tumult all it’s own. Which it is, because it doesn’t sound like The Stooges per se, as much as some mutant form of tango breaking loose from its tradition of restrained passion and high stepping rigidity held to the breaking point merged with the outermost fringes of the most out-there psychedelic Rock of all time (Forgive me for the magic roundabout of the previous paragraph because it ain’t the intention to lead anyone down the primrose path of purple prose’n’passages that “Poème Non Épique” is some sort of missing companion to “Fun House” cos it isn’t. But Alpes were just so fucking unique on their high watermark “No. 2” album that one -- OK, yours truly -- is resigned to pointing to fictitious might-have-beens in order to draw some semblance of comparison for the benefit of those who unacquainted with this 1970 classic because it’s STILL rollin’ in sight. With that said, it is a truly amazing piece of torrential musical downpour, a total freak out that made me feel stoned the first time I heard it when I wasn’t, and despite its title is truly EPIC in the same way that “Yeti Meets Yogi” is EPIC, that “A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers” is EPIC, and that “Supper’s Ready” was merely...epic.) “Poème Non Épique,” man -- it’s heavy yet begins with the lightest Farfisa organ touches that waft in like evening fog. Moullet’s extraordinary cosmophone enters noncommittally but steadily amasses through excruciating wah-wah-ing as rattling tom toms of darkening, apocalyptic skies work the distant background as they take various cues from Nick Mason’s drumming on “Set The Controls For The Heart Of the Sun” and “Syncopated Pandemonium.” Snare drums start to rap out a pattern, fall away and then re-appear as the cosmophone continually gets wah-wah’d throughout a series of shock corridors until five or six minutes inside this irregular construction, Moullet’s background vocals rise to a patch of heightened alarm with brief, nasally declarations as the rolling tom-toms and irregular snare patterns begin to rise above the holding pattern of just scuttling around the studio floor. Moullet rises in tandem, unleashing strafing wah-wah’d runs in contrapuntal strikes against the devolving musical breakdown at hand. Seven minutes in, the erection of high pitched cosmophonic needling quickly switches to a series of deliberately slow and loudly strummed strikes against the cosmophone that cracks through the crust of the horizontally-inclined music as if to signal of the entry of Catherine the Great. “Ahhhhh...” she enters, deceptively soft. The abrasive strums continue in their predetermined underscoring of her utterances but then the accusations soon fly fast and furious as her hoarse and cracking voice starts to intensify and occasionally plummet into fits of screaming. The juxtaposition of her voice against the wah-wah’d cosmophone and the unchanging tom-toms rolls plus snare patterns repeating at odd instances throw anticipation off-kilter and serve to reinforce the gravity of Ribeiro’s delirious, hair-tearing and head-rending banshee wailings...which have only just begun. She regroups her composure, only to freak out again to punctuate the backing rhythmic undulations with further tortured wailing and screams. Breathless and deathless she continues, hoarse with desperation and screaming of love, creaming for love, dreaming in the loss of love...Her throaty and sardonic tones then switch into unnerving bouts of hysterical laughter. Her bare fingers now bloodily claw at the gates of release, leaving deep furrows in its bolted door shivering with rivulets of blood and broken nails. Deep inside “Poème Non Épique,” things are getting hairy: the band now follow Ribeiro’s lead and she’s leading them through a broken trail of travail as feedback, wah-wah, cymbals that crash in anguish to weave a vortex of discordant waves that threaten to drown all as the emotional floodgates have now burst. White cat heat cries aloud, her guts strung out over an open fire as a descending scale is plucked out on it. The cries of “MON AMOUR!” “MON AMOURRR!!” “MON AMOUUURRRRRR!!!” are more agonised than the last, as if Ribeiro is seeking to wring herself dry of the distraught, heavy ocean coursing all around and in her veins. Repeating a raspy condemnation of “HOMME!” over and over, it finally collapses into a pit of deep echo with a final “Aaaarrrrghhh!” to end it all...as if signalling all clear for her personal phoenix to rise from the now smouldering flames of her heart, her mind and her soul.

Needless to say, there’s not much to say after “Poème Non Épique” finally curls up back into the silence except to let its trauma ebb from your head of its own accord. (As a footnote, Catherine Ribeiro+Alpes would reprise “Poème non Épique” on two later, separate occasions: The first being the sole redeeming moment of their patchy 1974 album, “Le Rat Débile Et L’homme Des Champs” while the second variation appeared on the following “Liberties?” album. However, neither approaches nor can touch the original’s power or primal outpouring of grief and pulsating anarchy.)

Bringing the album to calm closure is the brief “Ballada Das Aguas.” Accompanied by the Portuguese 12-string acoustic guitars of Pires Moliceiro and Isaac Robles Monteiro, Ribeiro sings in her parents’ tongue a specific type Portuguese ballad concerning itself with the regrets of working class existence. Referred to as a ‘fado,’ its essential ingredient is in the expression of what is known throughout the Portuguese-speaking world as ‘saudade.’ A term unique to that culture with no English equivalent, saudade is probably best described as a desire for something loved and lost in the past to return to the present some time in the future. An undying yearning for the impossible and usually based on an irrational feeling of passion for affairs that could never come to pass, Ribeiro encompasses it as it encompasses her while its innate sense of loss and impossible reclamation is more than obvious. And with this sad tale of woe from the western-most reaches of the Iberian Peninsula, “No. 2” finally steps down to its conclusion. You don’t need subtitles to relate to this or any other song on “No. 2” and to comprehend its artistic breadth of vision or feel its bottomless reserve of emotional depth, one only need to listen.

Julian Cope

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Catherine Ribeiro + Alpes - 1971 - Ame Debout

February 18, 2016, 4:57 pm
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Catherine Ribeiro + Alpes 
1971 
Ame Debout


01. Ame Debout (7:54)
02. Diborowska (3:39)
03. Alpes 1 (5:46)
04. Alpes 2 (6:22)
05. Alpilles (1:25)
06. Aria Populaire (2:09)
07. Le Kleenex, Le Drap De Lit Et L'étendard (3:28)
08. Dingue (4:36)

- Patrice Moullet / cosmophone, acoustic guitar
- Claude Thiebaut / percuphone
- Patrice Lemoine / organ
- Catherine Ribeiro / vocals


Third outstanding album from the absolutely crazy French psych outfit lead by Catherine Ribeiro's impressive vocals, but you'll know by now that her vocals are hardly the sole attraction to this amazing group. With a very pastoral artwork, CR&A certainly stood in a class of their own both in France, but maybe even worldwide with their psyched out

Starting out on an Indian raga with a wild returning streak of almost dissonant violin, the title track is a first strong moments with Ribeiro ranting and raving all over the place, over a fast tabla drum beat. The very acoustic Diborowska (a terminus train station) is little more than a hippie piece, but laid over delicate guitar arpeggios. The two-part Alpes instrumental, followed by its acoustic outro Alpilles (small Alp foothills in Provence) is a superb moment of ambient music with some of the most bizarre violin work , while Lemoine's keyboard work resembles a lot what was to happen in Van Morrison's St Domininc's Preview one years later. The second movement is more of a wild free-for-all improvs, complete with vocals and vulture cries. Aria Populaire in an almost a capella piece with a few acoustic guitar strummings, while Kleenex is an organ-driven almost a capella, both pieces being superbly sung by Catherine. Dingue (nuts) is the closing track that hints towards a certain type of Flamenco, complete with plenty of guitars, where Catherine sings out venom-spitting sperm and full dramatics.

It's probably the gloomiest of their albums, but is beautiful at the same time. I'm so pleased she always sang in French. A lot of the emotion would have been lost if she'd sung in English. This is my one gripe with most Krautrock bands. This, however, is no Kraut album. Alpes are instantly identifiable even without the vocals. I've always thought there's something a bit creepy about their albums. I can't quite put my finger on it. Most folk agree that 'Paix' was the high watermark of their career. Well, I choose this one. It's cool, suave, bleak, laid back yet intense. Oh, and she looks great - black eyeliner, jet black hair and a fantastic jawbone! Catherine Ribeiro is like that fantasy warrior princess love that we all wish we could have, yet can't even get close to.
A tremendous album that probably creeps in to my top 40
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Catherine Ribeiro + Alpes - 1972 - Paix

February 18, 2016, 5:02 pm
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Catherine Ribeiro + Alpes 
1972
Paix



01. Roc Alpin (3:02)
02. Jusqu'à Ce Que la Foce de T'Aimer Me Manque (2:56)
03. Paix (15:37)
04. Un Jour... la Mort (24:33)

- P.Moullet / Cosmophone, acoustic guitar
- Jean Sebastian Lemoine / Percuphone, bass guitar
- Patrice Lemoine/ Organ
- Michel Santangelli / Drums


CR&A's third album (fourth if you count the 2Bis album) is probably the best acclaimed by connoisseurs and deservedly so! Their hippy psych rock filled with revolutionary ideals in their lyrics works wonders in this case as it will in the next few albums, but back in 72, there was still a lot of peoplethat actually believe it was all still possible, something the 73 oil crisis will crush (at least in the old world and around the globe, bar the US). The quintet has again suffered some line-up shuffle and besides guitarist/composer Mouillet, percussionist, drummer Santangelli and keyboard Lemoine, appears Jean-Sébastien, brother of Patrice on bass guitar. With only four tracks and a very pastoral artwork cover
Starting with the wordless a cappella Roc Alpin, the album is off to a rather short &and unrepresentative upbeat track, that presents a slight folk feel. Much more impressive is the equally short (both around the 3-mins track) Jusqu'à Ce Que La Force, which shows all the usual CR&A dramatics over a Tony Banks organ line. Ribeiro's vocals are again very powerful, maybe recorded a tad too low, but her French singing shouldn't be a problem for anyone having the basis of the language. This minimum French is of course mandatory to understand Catherine's usually very strong lyrics, often selling revolution as if the obvious alternative; her sometimes arresting images in her lyrics are very powerful and add much to the group's flavour. Indeed the lengthy (15-mins+) title track starts on an extended instrumental intro (and equally long outro), showing the musical quartet being very good at their respective tricks, but its constantly crescendoing prog chords only add that much weight once Catherine starts bellowing her "peace" messages: "peace to our bellies, tanks for academics garbage" or "peace to our degenerate generations".

The flipside's sidelong suite, Un Jour. La Mort, is another fabulous journey into Alpes' universe: slow organ grindings with spacey electric guitar whinings taking their sweet times to develop, but once the bass gets along, Ribeiro's death-throes scat vocals are taking you on the other side of life, the whole thing dying down around the 7,5 mins mark, until Ribeiro's singing is now taking an almost liturgical tone (especially over the organ), until she becomes seductive and enticing, even when using colourful rebellious and thoughtful revolutionary lyrics. Interrupted by a strident musical raga-like interlude sprinkled with dissonant piano, enchanting acoustic guitar strums, Catherine comes back eructing death, claiming she's not a real lesbian (too bad for her. She's missing out, I am one ;o)), the same happening a little later than Catherine promising to make you a kid as the track slowly retires in a mish mash or her rantings and other antics mixed with strong organ.

Rather hard not to agree with many that Paix is one of CR&A's major achievements, Paix is indeed the perfect entry point to those seeking to enter this amazing French psychedelia. You'll have understood that CR&A is not for everyone, but if you love unusual music and smile at the thought of saying "WTF is this music???", no doubt that CR&A will take a few spins per year in the next few decades in your life.
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Catherine Ribeiro + Alpes - 1974 - Le Rat Dèbile Et L'Homme Des Champs

February 18, 2016, 5:07 pm
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Catherine Ribeiro + Alpes
1974
Le Rat Dèbile Et L'Homme Des Champs
 



01. La Petite Fille Aux Fraises (5:13)
02. L'Ère De La Putréfaction (3:28)
03. Un Regard Clair (Obscur) (4:47)
04. Poème Non Épique (Suite) (25:22)

- Patrice Moullet / cosmophone, acoustic guitar
- Claude Thibaut / percuphone
- Patrice Lemoine / organ
- Catherine Ribeiro / vocals


CR&A's fifth album comes with a catastrophically realized artwork, even if the intention was good as the great title hints, but did they really have to put their faces on the front cover?!?! Anyway, based on a variation of Lafontaine rhyme of Rats Des Villes et Rats Des Champs (town rats and country rats), this album is probably the ultimate statement of CR&A as they openly invoke anarchy to counter the society of pollution. Although CR&A were not the first to have concerns on environment (Spirit with Nature's Way and Fresh Garbage), this is to my knowledge one of the first group to spread all over an album and in successive albums. This is of course relative when you know that Ribeiro was a musical industry singer before this group and will return to more conventional song formats after Alpes' gradual dismissal.
The opening Strawberry Girl is slight a mouth-watering starter for the more interesting stuff coming up, a bit of a zakouski before the first course and the main course. Built over a descending riff the first Poème Non Epique takes its sweet time developing, and it is well over the three-minute mark that Ribeiro starts her mad ramblings, and by the time of its almost 10 minutes length, the group has given you a royal run-around, but you wouldn't notice it much. Un Regard Clair (Obscur) closes the first side of the wax slice over another spacey jam (between Gong and Third Ear Band and Floyd) that bring not much new to the album's overall contents.

The second part of the Poème Non Epique is the real crazy one, clocking at 25 min+ of the full oeuvre. When Ribeiro is not singing/yelling revolution, the rest of the group is doing it over an Indian-raga background, with incredible violin guitar interventions. With over two decades of advance over most Europeans, three over Al Gore and four decades over the rest of the States, Catherine Ribeiro is claiming that violence might just be necessary to save the planet from asphyxiation. With heavy psych dramatics, grandiose finale, the band had developed a form of minimalist raga that in some ways could make you think of Third Ear Band

Not exactly an easily absorbed meal, this album will of course be better digested if a proper mastering of the French language, an affinity for anarchy, a certain "penchant" for ultra-left wing hippy communes (not communism) etc. But most adventurous progheads will love this upon the first listens, but whether any CR&A album stands repeated listens is something I'm not willing to bet. Ribeiro's superb voice is an acquired taste (it an rub the wrong way), her group is fairly repetitive and not exactly looking for complex arrangements, but not shying away from it either. Overall I'd say that progheads looking for intricate arrangements and complex rhythm patterns will not find their happiness, but the most adventurous ones will love the "fresh" (back then it was, it might also sound a little stale) approach to prog.
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Catherine Ribeiro + Alpes - 1975 - (Libertes?)

February 18, 2016, 5:14 pm
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Catherine Ribeiro + Alpes 
1975 
(Libertes?)




01 Une infinie tendresse
02 Prélude médiéval
03 Parle-moi d'un homme heureux
04 Qui a parlé de fin?
05 Poème non épique No.III:
  * Prélude
  * Poème non épique
  * Tombe

Line-up / Musicians
Catherine RIBEIRO / Parolier, Auteur de la musique, vocals
Patrice MOULLET / Auteur de la musique, guitarres
Daniel MOTRON / Orgue, Piano
Henri TEXIER / Basse
Caroll REYN / Percussion.


Sixth album from this group that doesn't seem to wise-up, very fortunately for us. Indeed behind this rather bland artwork, CR&A are still going as strong usual with their psychedup progressive rock that is rather unique: even if there are moments to make you think of Third Ear Band, others of Floyd, there is no way to actually really pinpoint their sound other than raising CR&A as a reference in itself, this being reinforced by Ribeiro's very distinctive vocals and very personal lyrical style. Yes, the least that can be said is that her lyrics are often on the controversial, even anarchist, slant

After a very average Infinie Tendresse, not in terms of lyrics or vocal performance, but strict instrumental side of things, the short Prelude Medieval is actually the opposite, where the superb and stunning music would gain from being freed from Ribeiro's vocalizing practice runs. Homme Heureux is again more in the style of Infinie Tendresse, which just says average in terms of prog interest. The closing track of the A-side starts with a lengthy dialogue that holds interest only to those who wrote it and ends in a very solemn mournful vocalizing lasting 40 seconds.

The Poème Non Epique filling the whole second side is probably the best they've done including the other versions or parts present of Rats Débiles, their previous album. The track starts slowly and unlike its predecessors (previous album) is filled of breaks, counter breaks, rhythm changes and even holds some rather complex arrangements. This superb and extended intro only allows Ribeiro only appearing around the 9th minute, but what an entrance she makes: howling like only the beat poets could, she raves her fantasies about cops raping Cassius Clay and her anarchist/capitalist angsts over blood curdling cello drones and wild unpredictable percussions. The track veers towards total chaos in between the 21st and 23rd minutes, before ending abruptly in a fantastic manner.

Clearly if it wasn't for the sidelong Poème and the Medieval pieces, this album wouldn't stand up to the previous ones, but Libertés is yet another classic CR&A album that should be heard.
..
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Catherine Ribeiro + Alpes - 1977 - Le temps de l' autre

February 18, 2016, 5:20 pm
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Catherine Ribeiro + Alpes
1977 
Le temps de l' autre




01. Le Temps De L'Autre (7:32)
02. Cette Voix (8:51)
03. Aimer Quoiqu'il Arrive (5:50)
04. Le Silence De La Mort (10:12)
05. Kel Epik Epok Opak! (Quelle Epique Epoque Opaque) (9:42)

Catherine Ribeiro - voice
Patrice Moullet - guitars
Daniel Motron - organ, pianos
Jean-Daniel Couturier - bass
Jean-Louis Do - drums



With Catherine posing as Mona Lisa with a spliff in her mouth on the front cover, you can just about taste the provocation of CR&A. Recorded in 77, this type of hippy counter-culture was losing its "in vogue" status as France was one of the precursor of the Punk boom of 77 in London, but in France Punk had started the previous summer in Mont-De-Marsan with the first Punk festival ever. Nevertheless, Ribeiro's lyrics had a certain punk attitude that allowed the group to survive these punk years rather smoothly.

Entirely penned by Moullet for the music and Ribeiro for the text singing, bar the closing instrumental), this album is again well in the line of its predecessors. The opening 7-mins+ title track starts on a slow Motron-played Hammond organ before the bass kicks in, draguing the rest of the group in before stopping dead again with Ribeiro continuing her singing over a bass drone interrupted by majestic solemn keyboards lines, returning to a drone (this time organ-driven) and so on. Yes, Alpes are still alive and well in 77. The only weird thing is the guitar taking a weird violin sound, not always fit, IMHO for this type of track. The following Cette Voix (this voice) starts on quick acoustic guitar arpeggios doubled over a slow but clear synth line and is an ode to her own voice (the text was first published in a Witch magazine) where Catherine wonders what her heritage will be, wondering if her daughter (pictured on the inner gatefold) will this the words of such a delightfully slutty and smutty mother where thousands ships came to board, and who has a clitoris in her throat in favour of love... Riiiiight, Catherine!!!!.. Little wonder Phonogram wrote under the written text on the back sleeve of this gatefold release that the words written only engaged the artistes. Aimer Quoiqu'il Arrive is a little bland after such a strong text, and will resurface later on La Déboussole, but still holds its own on its beds of guitars and drones of all kinds.

The flipside only holds two tracks, the first being the 10-mins+ Silence De La Mort (silence of death), where you can guess that Catherine is not holding back under Spanish-sounding guitars and slow synth layers. The closing 9-mins+ instrumental (if you'll except the wordless choirs at the end) is the most interesting on for pure progheads, because of the constantly changing music is a pure delight to us all.

Yet another good/excellent CR&A album, one that I haven't seen reissued on CD yet, that will indeed figure quite well with the rest of their albums. Whether this album is more representative of their works than others is completely debatable, but you won't go wrong with this one anyway.
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Catherine Ribeiro + Alpes - 1979 - Passions

February 18, 2016, 5:26 pm
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Catherine Ribeiro + Alpes 
1979
Passions





01. Iona Melodies
02. Frères Humains
03. Cristalpin
04. a) Prelude
      b) Tous Les Droits Sont Dans La Nature
05. L'oiseau Devant La Porte
06. Alpinette
70. Femme-Témoin
8. Détournement de chants

C Ribeiro / Vocals
P Moullet / guitars
M Bauer / drums; percussion
P Lemoine / KB
D Rose / Violin



Compared with 77's Temps De L'autre, CR&A underwent a lot of pzersonnel changes, where only Moullet and Ribeiro remain, but with a returning Lemoine (whi will make his presence felyt as he's quite involved in the songwriting), making ex-Gong members (Shamal-era) two in this Alpes line-up along with percussionist Mireille Bauer. In the meantime, since their previous album, Catherine had recorded one or two solo albums, the first being homage to French poet Jacque Prevert, and another to anarchist singer Ferré. With a nature & wind snapshot of Catherine gracing blandly Passions, I always wondered why the much more impressive and militant and drawn (by Moullet himself) artwork on the inner sleeve didn't make it on the outer one, but most likely this was a record company decision
Passions is a bit of a departure musically, boosting shorter songs with the exception of two "monster tracks" with a much changed sound and even Ribeiro's vocals being recorded differently. This is immediately noticeable with the opening Iona Melodies where Lemoine writes the music and Catherine sings about her daughter changing her life, David Rose's violin being much too present and when not, guest Kennyatta's sax being obtrusive. Frères Humains is a return to previous Alpes albums and a highlight here. If it wasn't for Rose's (bad and sounding like a cheap fiddle) violin, you could easily imagine the following Cristalpin being on a Gong album of the later 70's, percussionist Mireille Bauer's presence clinching it. Starting out on an instrumental prog intro, Tous les Droits Sont Dans La Nature is another one of one those huge cries from Catherine about her utopias and generous ideals over an often changing "background" (only because it could've been recorded a tad louder in the mix) music.

The flipside holds the 11-mins+ L'Oiseau Devant La Porte, which starts in a lengthy prog instrumental intro, before Ribeiro tells us of the fresh young enthusiastic bird hitting the realities of our closed society's realities. While a good prog number, the track only convinces partly, because Ribeiro's lyrics are a bit off the mark and they dictate too much the music. Following the guitar instrumental Alpinette, Femme-Témoin is homage to Jane Fonda's anti-Vietnam stance and, while it comes over a decade after the facts, is impressive with percussionist Bauer renders the war realities particularly well. The closing Détournement De Chants (high-jacking of songs) is obviously from the same session as the opening track, this time with Kenyatta's sax and Campello's clarinet giving a strange glue-sniffing Supertramp- like feel over Lemoine's piano, but Catherine is taking wild shots at censorship.

While a bit different and not as representative of Alpes as others, Passions is still much worth owning, if you're into Alpes and want to own all the good albums. But personally I found David Rose's violin/fiddle all too often out of tune and not always inspired and it ruins a bit the album for me.
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