Pierre Moreau (L'Engoulevent) - Attentif Piano Solo 1979

Pierre Moreau was a graduate of Berklee in Boston (what a source of genius that place is!) as well as McGill in Montreal where he studied composition and jazz. He is or was the primary composer in the famed Quebec group L'Engoulevent, as well, he composed music for children, soundtracks for film (Race de Batard), for theatre (La Scouine), and this incredible lost album of solo piano compositions that travel everywhere from intense to reflective, with an astonishing palette of colours.

Here we have the full range of his creative talents on display, with some gentle songs, quasi-atonal material (Cinquieme), playful passages (Cascade), and the plucked-strings style of piano that one often hears in avant-garde from this period in time. This is not at all like fellow Canadian Andre Gagnon's simplistic classical style, all the education of a university degree is brought to bear to be distilled in the complex harmonies and dissonances like a beautifully deep barolo. As I've said so many times before, this music, progressive rock, goes farther than anything the human mind has ever created before or has since.

It is highly unfair that the impressive works in this record have been lost to time. Like so many others, I would love to let him understand how much I love his work, especially in the master prog-folk band L'engoulevent.

Cascade:


Cinquieme:

astrë "foresight" (1981,USA,sympho,ELP type)

astrë "foresight" (1981,USA,sympho,,ELP type)

astrë is a trio  with ELP influences. from Oklahoma,USA.

This album is famous for the poor sound quality recording although the tracks are brilliant ones.
I tried to improve them in order to enjoy their excellent tracks than  before.

Ripped from the LP

RYM 

Recorded at Star Track Studios on August 24,1981

except "lar-asia" recorded live  on October 6,1981 

Bill Tankersley .....b,bass pedals,key,vo

Mark Loveless .....key,g

Les Mobley .....kit,talking

Side 1
1. Hole in the Sky pt1....6:20
2. Through the Looking Glass.......6:08
3. Lar-Asia .....6.37 (live recording)
4. Before the Gods ......6:42

Side 2
1. The Doorway.....9:33
2. World Class.......13:40
   1. Nadia
   2. Free and expressive Beauty
   3. Competition
   4. The Waiting
   5. The Glory  
   
   
   
   track 1
   

 

Gerard Entremont & Co {France}[1975, Pathe EMI]

Artist: Gerard Entremont & Co
Album: Gerard Entremont & Co
Year: 1975
Label: Pathe EMI
Genre: Chanson
Format: Flac (separate) +Artwork + 3% Recovery
Size: 206MB
Lineage: VINYL Rip 16bit 44.1khz

Source: Album Collection



Track Listing

1. A faire l’amour
2. Tire-toi à tire d’ailes
3. Simplement
4. Août 1989
5. Fais comme un rat
6. La folie est en toi comme en chacun de nous
7. Lettre à mon petit frère
8. Mon amour, mon amour
9. Était-ce un rêve ?

Line Up/Musicians

Dominique Blanc-Francard : piano, basse et choeurs
Patrice Cramer : batterie (1, 2, 5, 8, 9), percussions (6), guitares (4)
Jacques Brély : guitares (1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9), basse (2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9), contrebasse (3), choeurs (1)
François Ovide : guitares (1, 6)
Hervé Derrien : violoncelle (1, 3, 6)
Patrick Amar : guitares (3)
Alain Potier : flûte à bec (3), saxophone alto (6, 8), saxophone baryton (8), saxophone soprano (9), harmonica (7), larynx (9), murmures (6)
Éric Miggliaccio : guitares (4, 9)
Geza Fenzl : percussions (5)
Denis Brély : basson (7, 8)
Jean-Luc Quillet : tuba (8)
Dominique Widiez : piano (8), orgue (9)
Jean-Jacques Leurion : orgolia (9), murmures (6)
Jean-Fançois Benatar, Roland Stepczak, Pierre Louis, Hervé Derrien : cordes (5)
Alain Manneval : choeurs (1)
Mauricia Platon : voix (4)
Gérard Entremont chant, choeurs (1), murmures (6), glockenspiel (3)

 

Hard to classify album with definite prog influences and great musicianship...an unfortunately unknown gem and a delightful album

Das Pferd (1987) (Deutschland)

This group (the horse) was a discovery from the mighty osurec and I want to give him credit for it. It reminds me a lot of US band The Inserts from the eighties with its sharp, angular and tritone-heavy dissonant and energetic style driven here by both guitars and knife-sharpened saxes. There are experimental tunes and a kind of industrial overall sound as if you were hearing the soundtrack to a huge factory cranking out creative musician robots out of leftover sheet metal and split riffs cut from dna polymerase reactions and amplified by marshall amps. I like that the production doesn't have the tinny early digital sound, the percussion is nice and tough and rough. The final track features a very slow free experimental jazz number with possibly only a dozen notes in total played by a grand piano and a breathy flute, I've included it as a sample below.

Tracks are composed by Kazda and Schmidtke.

Credits:
Bass– Jan Kazda
Drums– Diethard Stein
Flute– Wolfgang Schmidtke
Guitar– Markus Wienstroer
Keyboards– Jan Kazda, Wolfgang Schmidtke
Saxophone– Wolfgang Schmidtke
Vocals– Jan Kazda, Wolfgang Schmidtke
Vocoder– Wolfgang Schmidtke

Samples:

01 Dynamo Dresden


03 Sie Kommen


11. Komm

Iviron 1981

From France back to my home country of Germany for a few albums via Alsace though not without picking up some fine rieslings and sauerkraut along the way. It's odd and I have said it before that the germans are so derelict in their progressive heritage unlike the french for example, which are unearthing palaeontology everywhere. It's certainly not for lack of masterpieces, in the private pressed files there have been tons discovered, amongst which this one-off album by Iviron from 1981. Listen to the opening track, After the Push, initiating F minor with clear minor second dissonances like a subterranean lava flow to introduce the prototype progressive instrument of flute melodicizing behind a co-ed choir. Use of the sustained notes on cello adds the usual spooky-sad dimension.

The second track is typical progressive bizarreness-- note the really weird underlying elec. guitar riff passing into gentle-giant like acoustics with the added classical elements (soprano and alto female singing), and note how abruptly it switches between 2 entirely different songs-- wow! There's throwaway tracks at the end of side 1 (a straight jazz number oddly enough called wings of perception part 2) and at the beginning of side 2 a dumb irish jig that almost makes you want to give up on the record. Why?? why did they do this?? I ask myself. A late-70s roger waters-like song called 'Sister magic" sounds like the band's effort at crafting a radio hit, before we return to the progressive in a big big way, with 'Tales of iviron' and 'Ode' at the close of side 2...

It's absolutely astonishing what some classical training and education provides in terms of harmonic subtlety, originality, and competence for these tracks; essentially they are chamber orchestral works which somehow found their way from a packed concert hall (where they should have been played) on to a 1981 rock record for a few hundred lucky buyers... Musically, the number of creative ideas in the Tales of Iviron is legion, powers of ten beyond any contemporary radio-played weekly set list. Why did this music burn out and die??? And I love how the whole record closes out with a kind of exclamation or question mark, suddenly after an ascending chord pattern, as if an unfinished short story in which you're left hanging as to the death of the hero...

I understand some may feel this is an uneven album but to me, the first half of side 1 and second half of 2 really are stellar -- without the "junk DNA" filler, this would be a superb product of progressiveness.

Now this album was reviewed 2 years ago by our friend ashratom on his sister blog the cd reissue wishlist (sister in the same way Chattanooga Tenessee is the sister city to Marsupilamipotamia, Iraq) where he gave it for the first time a priority 1 five times over, agreeing with me on its masterpiece status, here:
http://cdreissuewishlist.blogspot.ca/search/label/Iviron

And I quote:
" Unusual fusion album with many disparate but incredible ideas. Iviron constructed their album more in an early 1970s exploratory style, though the sound was more relevant to the late 70s / early 80s time frame. There's a real sense of adventure here (a lot of East-West references), and even a touch of the psychedelic. It even has jazz-rock or fusion elements, two synonymous terms as my readers well know. A very interesting find by my excellent contact TS [Tristan Stefan - editor]. At the level of Missus Beastly, I'd say--and readers of this blog will know we take Missus Beastly pretty seriously! Y'all 'll like it [= you all - ed.]"

Tom did tell me recently he has thrown in the towel and given up his blog, due to the competition from us-- he'll never catch up to all the rarities we've posted, in several lifetimes, acknowledging in a personal communication "your collection is so much bigger than mine, Tristan, I admit defeat. As well, you've lived too many lifetimes for me, I'm only on my first here!"  For regular readers of the cd reissue wishlist (cdrwl) this comes as a devastating blow, we loved being able to feel superior as Tom was frantically trying to catch up on all the rare progressive records. He continues, "with your four houses and 5 executive positions, and 6 blogs, Tristan, I have no way of competing unless I marry some models (like you) and move to Salt Lake City, Utah". Well sorry Tom-- been there, done that. Before I moved to Wurstenburg, Bavaria, to become CBO (chief burgomeister officer) after getting rich with my fast food burger joints in the midwest (which I sold to AOL Time-Warner at the peak of the dotcom craze for half a billion dollars) I actually was a polygamist mormon personal trainer cum lifecoach who taught Tony Robbins how to be born-- at that time of course he was merely a lost soul without a body who had befriended Oprah's spirit at the local starbucks in purgatory. This is how I made my fortune -- I told Oprah the secret to success was to always change weights, never stay fat or thin for too long, and look at the millions she made off my advice! So RIP cdrwl.

Btw for those curious about the name, from wikipedia:
"The name Iviron originated from the ancient Georgian Kingdom of Iberia (Iveria) where the master architect of the monastery Ioannes was from...
The Holy Monastery of Iviron (Greek: Ιερα Μονή Ιβήρων, Georgian: ივერთა მონასტერი) is an Eastern Orthodox monastery at the monastic state of Mount Athos in Greece. The monastery was built under the supervision of Ioannes the Iberian and Tornikios between 980-983 AD and housed Iberian clergy and priests."


Credits▼
written and arranged by H. Scherner and I. Schleicher-Atanasov
Lyrics by Ronals Bergmayr (Sister Magic) and I Schleicher-Atanasov (Bernie the Faust)

Bass– Thomas Gang
Cello– Dan Fahlbusch
Drums– Peter Hackspiel
Engineer– Bernhard Klein, Walter Brüssow
Flute, Whistle– Ronald Bergmayr
Guitar [6-string Guitar, 12-string Guitar], Mandolin, Mellotron, Vocals, Written-by, Arranged By– Ingo Schleicher-Atanasov
Guitar, Tambura, Vocals, Written-By, Arranged By– Helmut Scherner
Piano– Robert Säbel
Saxophone– Karl Takats
Tabla, Congas, Percussion– Fritz Schoisswohl
Vocals [Alto]– Gerlinde Mayr
Vocals [Soprano]– Eva Meindl

Sample tracks:
Bernie the Faust


Wings of Perception Part I

Wasn't I right when I said we'll all be spoiled with recent and coming material on our blog? Well, you don't know about the coming material yet, but I guarantee we'll feature several albums that don't even exist and never did exist! How's that for a treat?

Kreuzweg (Germany ,1983 ,symphonic rock)

Kreuzweg (Germany ,1983 ,symphonic rock)

This very famous but obscure private Xian's conceptual prog album is one of the best German  symphonic rock.
Highly recommended to those who love  Novalis, Grobschnitt,
and Anyone's Daughter . You will be able to wander into German mystic forests.....

If you hope to watch the pictures of the album carefully ,click it.
I tried to show the original color of my LP using software "Picasa3".
The left peaceful one is the front cover.
The right apocalyptic one is the back cover.

Seite A
1. Menschenkind  ...4:30
2. Die Zeit ....4:35
3. Zeichen der Zeit .....8:43

Seite B
1. Schuttle den staub ....9:44
2. Wirst du geh'n ....5:26
3. Passion .....6:50

Markus Greibler ...lead voc
Joachim Haas ....g,vo
Alfred Kirst ....ds
Daniel Pahls ...key
Ellen Muller ...key,vo
Roger Muller ...b

(guest)
Mario Schaub ....sax,flute,oboe
Jorg Botticher ....key

track4

Mimi Lorenzini and Ann Ballester - Orchestra II (1983) [Post-Edition Speciale]

Imagine my excitement when I looked on my wife's laptop the other day and saw a folder called "best prog" and I jumped up saying, "finally, you're into my music!" Her laughter was my disappointment: it was the best programs she (as psychologist) had designed for her work in the IBI therapy of autistic children... Well, you know by now what my wife's comments are about this music: "it all sounds the same to me-- are you sure you're not just getting the same record over and over again?" Needless to say this statement drives me crazy. Or "I guess they were all on drugs back then..." Or remember her immortal comment: "another toto blanke??"

Well, things got to a head this past week when she saw the postman come day after day delivering those big square packages that could only be records, and each time she said with increasing frustration, "another one?" So yesterday she told me she got her revenge by buying a new pair of shoes. Unfortunately for me the equation goes: one pair zanotti shoes = 9 records (on average)...
I wonder what the experience of others is (our very own master shige for ex.) in the same situation, if he has to use a secret credit card for his purchases too? Of course this kind of secrecy can work against you in a marriage, she might be wrongly imagining I'm spending thousands on records each month. (When in reality, I'm spending thousands in massage parlours.)

Obviously that was a joke. And what about the lonely world we live through with our tiny minority taste-- will progressive ever become more popular in the future, or, considering the average age of the true fan of two score plus or four dozen plus, is it likely to die off in a generation? Will we really be like the monks of the dark ages, preserving for the future the greatest music the human mind could ever create? Or will it all die off when we do, and digital files can no longer be exchanged in an altogether different world post-population peak? In my darkest moments (i.e. every second) I certainly believe this is true, it has happened before, in fact, every civilization before ours has collapsed in time. I know my dear brother Shige disagrees: "Keep the fire of prog burning!"

Edition Spéciale are by far my favourite prog-fusion group from France, if not from anywhere in the world. From progarchives:

"Martial "Mimi" Lorenzini, one of France's most famous guitarists for his contribution to Canterbury band TRIANGLE, got together with female singer/keyboard player Ann Ballester, bass player Josquin Turenne des Prés and drummer Jean-François Bouchet D'Angely to form ÉDITION SPÉCIALE in 1975. Their style of groovy, accessible jazz-rock is highly comparable to that of RETURN TO FOREVER and BRAND X. Their first album "Allée des Tilleuls" received mixed reviews, in part due to Ann's vocals that spoiled the effect of the excellent musicianship. Featuring virtuoso drummer and newcomer Alain Gouillard, the subsequent "Aliquante" and "Horizon Digital" were a definite improvement. Gouillard's drumming is so tight he could probably rival Bill Bruford. Both albums are rhythmic concepts based on very complex tempo cuts, where the guitar and violin interplay will remind the listener of MAHAVISHNU. Two [3 -- ed.] excellent albums of world-class French fusion."

Good descriptor, though I think the first album is genius too. The duo went on to record more records after the break-up of the band in the eighties, including this slightly less fusion outing, more mainstream jazz and classical-composed, but in a sense it is definitely a follow-up to the amazing Edition Speciale records, taking into account the changing of the guard in that era, wherein progressive and hard fusion were no longer in style, sadly. Same thing as we saw happened to my favourite underrated genius Toto Blanke.

Moving forward into the nineties, from Discogs:
" After having worked together during the Seventies in the same Progressive rock band EDITION SPECIALE, Mimi LORENZINI and Ann BALLESTER unite again for new musical adventures, accompanied by bass-player Jean-Luc PONTHIEUX. The three of them are famous and experimented musicians of the French school, and they perform a kind of music definitely rooted in a mainly acoustic and strongly Americanised jazz. However, it also shows exotic or ethnic ideas, and is particular due to its brilliant and truly elaborated guitar style. Recorded in 1999 on Musea Parallèle, "Question De Temps" is the second record by this band, after the excellent "Le Diable Bleu" (1994).

What an impressive musician this Lorenzini was, particularly when you listen to the ever-inventive riffs he came up with for Ed. Speciale.

His discographie until the present :

BARNEY WILEN “ FREE ROCK BAND “
PHILIPPE MATÉ,RACHID OUARI, CHRISTIAN TRITCH “ EDF “
TRIANGLE ( 3 albums et plusieurs 45 T chez E.M.I )
RENÉ URTREGER - Album compilation sur les pianistes français
EDITION SPECIALE ( 3 albums chez RCA )
DUO LORENZINI / BALLESTER ( Mélodie )
ARESKI / BRIGITTE FONTAINE
5tet ORCHESTRA 5 ( Muséa )
LORENZINI TRIO “S” ( Muséa )
1994 Le Diable Bleu, Lorenzini . Ballester . Ponthieux dist Harmonia Mundi
1996 Percussive Compagnie-Philippe Laccarriere dist Harmonia Mundi
1997 BLUE PHEDRE- François TUSQUES dist Harmonia Mundi
1998 QUESTIONS DE TEMPS - Trio LORENZINI-BALLESTER - PONTHIEUX
2002 Percussive Compagnie-Philippe Laccarriere - acte 2 -
2004 Sortie du CD en duo D’Improvisation (F.Toullec/M.Lorenzini) avec pour invité le poète et comédien J. Luc Debattice



In this record we get that really gorgeous old progressive melancholy carpe diem french sound with the intro 'ballade' (thanks to that intergalactic synth sound), moving into an almost-ed.speciale guitar tune in 'bip bop,' then some pat metheny-like wordless singing on 'feria' in an annoying nod to the eighties, but listen to the incredible fourth track on side 1, 'La ville en rose--' even the title recalls the old group's 'ville en beton'. The two duet quite remarkably on this track moving through some unusual minor chords. Equally the title track has some reminiscences of the old days in the 70s... ah those beautiful angular tritonal prog days of hammering guitars and space-synths!!! (sigh) Beautiful Sophia Domancich guests on the track Salsita from side 2. Note the last track, Grasy M, starts with Bill Evans' chords from Blue in Green.

In some sense this record makes me sad when I think of how much it sounds like the old progressive masters, but is lacking that genius spark of unconventionality and hard amplified guitar/synth edge. In another sense I'm happy to hear more from a group I love so so profoundly. Then the sad desolation returns when I remember how wonderful and beautiful it was to discover those 3 Edition Speciale albums for the first time so many years ago, with my old proverbial friend...

Sample track, the prelude-like intro to the album:

Marguerite (Patrick Lemaitre) - Mr. Ford {France}[1973, CBS]

Artist: Marguerite (Patrick Lemaitre)
Album: Mr. Ford
Year: 1973
Label: CBS
Style: Progressive Rock
Genre: Prog-Psych-Folk
Format: 320mp3 + 3% Recovery
Size: 80MB
Lineage: VINYL Rip 16bit 44.1khz

Source: Album Collection

Relatively unknown band/project fronted by Patrick Lemaitre who worked with french psych Gerard Palaprat. Recently rediscovered french progressive/late psych pop gem! Sounds like another great French band IRIS. Good organ/guitar work,some little studio effects. A good addition to any Euro Psych/Prog collection.

Studio album released in 1973

Track Listing

01. Monsieur Ford
02. Etrange Animal En Cavale
03. On Est Un Fleuve
04. La Bataille D'Eldorado
05. Un Bon Caractere Ca N'A Pas De Prix
06. Ailleurs
07. L'Annonciation
08. Parabole
09. Moi Le Jour
10. Sur La Grande Roue
11. Monsieur Ford
12. Epilogue (A Moins Que Je Ne Recommence)

Line Up/Musicians

Patrick Lemaitre - Guitar, Vocals
Georges Varenne - Clarinet, Organ, Vocals
Michel Mouffron - Piano, Organ, Vocals
Alfredo Sarto - Bass, Vocals
Jean Altana - Drums, Vocals

Special thanks to Master Olaf_alien for his help and patience with the restoration work

Hope you enjoy it!

Michel Ripoche - Equinoxe {France}[1975, Atlantic]

Michel Ripoche first solo album released in 1975.

Artist: Michel Ripoche
Album: Equinoxe
Year: 1975
Label: Atlantic
Genre: Jazz-Rock-Fusion
Format: Flac (separate) +Artwork + 3% Recovery
Size: 217MB
Lineage:VINYL Rip 16bit 44.1khz
Source: Album Collection


Studio Album Released In 1975

Track Listing

A1  Neptune  2:15  
A2  Vimanas  4:18  
A3  Hier Aujourd'hui Demain  7:55  
A4  Mirage  5:08  
B1  Tirer Pousser  2:08  
B2  Equinoxe  5:59  
B3  Entre Le Ciel Et La Terre  2:15  
B4  Ballade Pour B-B.  3:08  
B5  Divertissements  3:12 

Credits

Bass – Janick Top*
Drums, Percussion – Jean Schulteis*
Engineer – Dominique Blanc-Francart*
Piano, Electric Piano, Arranged By – Philippe Briche
Viola – Hervé Derrien
Violin – Michel Noel*, Michel Ripoche, Pierre Louis
Violin [Alto] – Pierre Llinares
Vocals – Anne-Marie Briche

Michel Ripoche & Andre Demay - Contes Musicaux {France}[1977, Atlantic]

Artist: Michel Ripoche & Andre Demay
Album: Contes Musicaux
Year: 1977Label: Atlantic
Genre: Jazz-Rock-FusionFormat: Flac (separate) +Artwork + 3% Recovery
Size: 208MB
Lineage: VINYL Rip 16bit 44.1khz
Source: Album Collection





Michel Ripoche was one of the founding members of Zoo, he was also a very popular session musician and played with Emmanuel Booz and Michel Zacha. He was also involved on early Vangelis albums (Dragon, Hypothesis) and the Aphrodite's Child masterpiece 666. Better known for his Violin work he is also a talented Sax and Trombone player.

Studio Album Released in 1977

Track Listing

A1  Danse Du Crabe
A2  Crépuscule
A3  Violon Fantôme
B1  Sonatélectrique
B2  Nouvelle Valse
B3  Récréation
B4  Sept Boules De Liège

Credits

Guitar – André Demay
Percussion – Charles Benaroch*
Violin – Michel Ripoche

Enjoy!

Noctett - Contrasts (Germany 1979)

Now the first album from this nonet of fantastic German jazz musicians, mostly compositions by the trumpeter Peter Herborn save the first track by the keyboardist, there is a lot of big-band jazz sound going on here, and still quite a bit of classical influence. It's a little less rock in comparison to Dauner's Jazz and Rock Ensemble but to me the overall sound is very similar, and the charts are very very strong. There is nothing 'standard,' to use the american word, in the songs. It's too bad there isn't more piano action here from Hufschmidt. Check out the wonderful hair (head and facial) styles of the musicians on the back.

Long live European Jazz and Fusion (and synonymously, jazz-rock, because of course, fusion and jazz-rock mean exactly the same)!

Members:
-Peter Herborn (trombone)
-Thomas Dörr (alto saxophone)
-Remy Filipovitch (saxophone, flute)
-Bernd Krämer (trumpet)
-Raimund Hüttner (trumpet)
-Thomas Ophelders (trumpet)
-Thomas Hufschmidt (piano)
-Martin Engelien (bass)
-Peter Walter (vibraphone, drums)

Tracks:
A1 Springtime 7:10
A2 Polly's Phone 9:14
B1 To Go Is to Think - To Sing Is to Go 4:48
B2 Thoughts to Anthony B. 7:59
B3 ...And Neverthless: Adriana! 9:04

The sample below is the most composed and proggy track, the last one with the very odd title, as in the Full Score album (which came next year) they saved the best for last...

Expresso - First Cup (USA, 1981, Jazz-Rock/Fusion)

Expresso - First Cup (USA, 1981, Jazz-Rock/Fusion)

This obscure private-press LP was the sole release by this California fusion group. There's a distinct Dixie Dregs influence at work here, and some Al Di Meola too. However, this is generally lighter and more relaxed sounding than those comparisons would imply. Nothing mind-blowing to be sure, but excellent guitar playing (the band was led by two guitarists) and some good melodic compositions make this an enjoyable listen. (This review was written by my friend "F".Thanks to him !)
RYM
BTW,this record is hard to arrange to listen to.,because your cartridge is easy to pop and skip again and again if you miss the control of the weight of your cartridge with the turntable .

Side 1
1. Vegetable Death (3:29)
2. Telluride Falls (5:02)
3. Moody Shoes (4:49)
4. Skid Row (4:50)
5. First Step (4:25)

Side 2
1. Ice Cuba (4:35)
2. Under The Wing (1:39)
3. Line 'Em Up (3:52)
4. Dear Mr.Food (3:19) ....trad.
5. First Rain (6:30)

(members)
Kurt Kieffer ....lead guitar
Rick Sigman ....guitars
Phil (L.G.)Chidester ...key
Dennis Harper ...b
Casey Smiley ....ds & per


(additinal musicians)
Michael Horne ...per
Mark Ford ....harmonica

Recorded at the Music Annex , Menlo Park ,CA ,Oct & Nov ,1981

track3

HASARD "Embarque si ca t'tente " (Canada,197?-198?) Jazz rock,Canterbury-vein

HASARD "Embarque si ca t'tente " (Canada,197?~198?) Jazz rock,Canterbury-vein

Still many unknown,obscure prog & jazz rock gems are waiting for us to dig it out in the world.
This Québec jazz rock band  from Canada is one of them.
This is not  instrumental album although it is the jazz rock .
Seven tracks among all the nine tracks are vocal tunes (in French) ,and the other two ones are instrumental(Tr 8 and Tr9).
Male vocal is elegant and intellectual...sometimes reminds me of  Richard Sinclair (ex-Caravan).
So,if you like early-Caravan ,such as "In the Land of..." ,you will surely like this one.

I believe ....most of the tracks are brilliant ones.

RYM
FACE A
1.Paysage Bleu (3:16)
2. En Colere (3:37)
3. "Embarque si ca t'tente  (4:15)
4. C'est Ouoi L'Amour (6:39)

FACE B
1. Monsieur Tout Le Monde (4:45)
2. Un Enfant (3:45)
3. Ensemble (2:34)
4. R.S. (4:01)
5. Nuit D'Amour (4:13)

(members)
Pierre Vigeant ....Guitar
Gaetan Mongeau .....Vibraphone,key,vo,percussion
Guy Arcand ....bass ,percussion

track5

track8

Bipsautru Chu Content (Canada, Private 1978)

This album is not the rarest album that doesn't exist I mentioned earlier, but almost so. Chu Content = Je suis content (I am happy) in joual (= cheval or horse), the french-canadian dialect or pronunciation of french. This is a private pressing from Hull, Quebec, across from the nation's capital of Ottawa. Hull is famous in the outaouais region for strip clubs in which touching is not just permitted but encouraged, and huge government (of Canada) offices. Coincidence? Of course. It's a very long record, clocking in at under 50 minutes, surprisingly. The closest comparison would be to the earlier Beausoleil records I posted, with a bit of a rougher edge, or perhaps fellow kebekers Le Temps. Some really nice acoustic guitar work appears near the end of side 1 and it's unfortunate the band couldn't link these together into a suite of sorts. There is a kind of d-i-y quality here with the guitars at times being not just not tight, but downright amateurish. Probably I'm not the only one to find this more than a bit charming. I also really like the use of recorders and harmonicas for that real teen-band sound.

Coverart: a drawing of musical instruments as spaceships--? I can't help but quote from Spinal Tap: "there's a fine line between clever and stupid". The back cover is really hilarious too for its DIY quality. Check out those doodley drawings under the tracklist.

On track 12 if you notice some loud bumps in the background that sound like the steps of bigfoot himself, it's my three-year old Julian arranging his Thomas wooden railroad track from his bedroom to my feet at the record player and I apologize for this, what you won't hear luckily is me gradually losing my voice telling him to stop stomping over and over. Hey c'mon-- it's not that loud, he's only three.



I've included two samples, an acoustic guitar instrumental and the third track with its crystalline guitarwork recalling CANO, it sounds almost like it could've been a hit.

Michel Mailhe et Bernard Meyer - Le Bateau Ivre (1979)

I want to continue on with the series of french rarities I mentioned pre-alpha. This is about as french as it gets, with poetry from Rimbaud (of course) on top of wonderful proggy music by Bernard Meyer, I daresay it would be difficult to enjoy unless you are either french or a francophile. Similar obviously to what the group Catharsis did on the same theme. Rimbaud is a true hero for the French, he wrote only a handful of books (incl. this "Le bateau ivre," the drunk ship) and then abandoned literature at 20, to become a true adventurer in Indonesia, Yemen, and Africa, before dying young at 37 of cancer, of all things. Not only are his works incredible (esp. une saison en enfer - a season in hell), and highly influential in France, they deal with the kind of debauched lifestyle that harkens forward to the rock stars of today, a big factor in their success at the time too.

As much as I love french poetry though, I gotta say it's a shame we can't separate the speech from the music when it's of this calibre. There is a lot of variety in the compositions here, with a nice pleasing rock style to it-- similar to Janko Nilović or Laurent Petitgirard. All of the composing is credited to Bernard Meyer, with the exception of the Jacques Brel poem (this was done by Ange too, wasn't it?) Strangely each composition's title is different from the poem so I included both.

In fact I primarily bought this for the remarkable cover painting, which I include in toto. Credit to un certain Jean-Pierre Blanchard for the very three-dimensional and structural style of the troweled-on paint. I've said before what a lost art this was-- creating graphics for LP covers. Now with the amazing pollux for help we can get some really awesome high resolution scans of the art - check out the work he has done on all the covers using a small scanner and photoshop to repair the images.

Credits:
Poumy Arnaud - batterie
Alan Jones - basse
Bernard Meyer - guitares, basse, synthetiseur
Claude Meyer - Percussions (1,2)
Jean-Robert Rossi - orgue, synth
Jean-Claude Touzet - guitarre electrique
Peinture - Jean-Pierre Blanchard

Track 2
Poeme de Guy Demaysoncel - Femme de longtemps, Tentative de Poeme;
Musique de Meyer: Catherine M



Instrumental intro to the side-long bateau ivre:


Stay tuned to our show because there's a lot still coming, some more french material, some british jazz-rock, then back to my country of Germany to complete a few bands and a huge progressive masterpiece that I'm dying to feature, all guaranteed rarities of the highest calibre. One album I mentioned earlier, that's so rare it doesn't exist, I will not even post about given the fact of its nonexistence.
Unless I get a lot of requests for it.

Alpha Omega (Steve Maxwell von Braund) 1976

Alpha to omega means from beginning to end, since omega was the last greek letter. This must have been a common (pretentious) saying back then because so many progressive bands or albums have the same title. I haven't heard someone say it since I was in university, which was a long time ago, and I doubt any person on the street would understand if the saying was used in ordinary conversation, although I think I'll try it later this week, just to get that " wha? " In fact, human brain size as measured by anthropologists has decreased of the order of 10 percent since cro-magnon times (about 30,000 years ago). Moreover, neanderthals, who died out in competition to humans, had larger brain volumes than our species. Is this reduction a consequence of better organization on the premise of more efficient energy use or improvement of maternal and fetal outcomes at birth -- given the large energy requirements of the brain and large size of the human head? We must at least entertain the possibility that compared to hunter-gatherer times, it is possible humans have become less intelligent in some respects-- perhaps for ex. our memories, because the lifestyle of the pre-neolithic people required a huge amount of mental power, remembering social groups of up to 100 individuals, remembering foods to eat and not to, prey habits, etc. And in agricultural times, intelligence was not in favour for many reasons. We see this in domesticated animals (such as cows) that have lost a great deal of ' intelligence' compared to the wild counterparts, thank god for them. Temporally continuing on, is it possible humans could devolve? Of course, particularly in the setting where less energy is available for the brain (i.e. food), or perhaps the world really does overheat to the 4-6 degrees (I mean in 100-1000 years) currently predicted in 'business as usual' scenarios, along with a fracturing of the ecological niche a group occupies. Because for one thing neither in this world nor in any previous society, has pure intelligence been rewarded. A very interesting study along those lines was carried out with birds, selecting the more intelligent ones in certain tests, they were tagged, rereleased, and it was seen they were not able to outcompete the stupider ones-- on the contrary. I would go so far as to say, the only time it was rewarded was when homo sapiens was in competition with the other hominids all over the old world, 100,000 years ago. The observation that the poor have so many children is as true today as it was 500 years ago and goes a long way towards explaining why poverty is still with us to an evolutionist. With the long perspective of geological time, a million years from now, it may be seen intelligence was indeed an evol. error, since it committed its holder to a very short species lifespan and doomed a large part of the biosphere in the process. Instead of asking why more species aren't more intelligent, as is usual to ask today, the question can than be, why should it ever evolve since it is an evolutionary dead end. Although this is heresy to a physicist or mathematician, it is common sense to the biologist.

I am very happy to present this new rip from master shige of Alpha Omega, an album whose style is impossible to pin down, in fact I would say it's sui generis. You might even call it chamber fusion, to make a new genre. It always reminds me of Italians Orch. Njervudarov's brilliant classic. Especially the first song's riff really recalls the angularity of their album. Notice that although Steve Maxwell plays all keys, the composing (which is the ne plus ultra of this work) is credited to John Bellamy. I don't find much information about him at all, I would like to know if he composed more or if this is his one-off masterpiece. Another good point of reference would be the midnight madness phase did, or fusion quartet comprovisations, very composed jazz rock incorporating a lot of orchestral-style elements. When I listen to some of his guitar riffs, they are so chromatic and fast I have a lot of trouble following the notes, of course I'm not a professional musician, but I have no problem with standard radio fare. Consider for ex. the title track, starting with a dzyan-like guitar riff repeated in different keys, then the bass keeps going up and down by minor seconds as the others riff on top. I guarantee no other fusion record from the period has such an oddball chart. It sounds improvised, but I doubt it is. Or consider the track Dawning, with perhaps the oddest melody in all fusion history, played by a guitar and a sax an octave apart, sax with great wah-wah effects. Only in the last acoustic song do we get some more 'conventional' songwriting, with its straight-up E minor.
Or consider the first track, after the drum solo, the re-intro guitar riff is first played a minor 3rd above on the keys, but then again he plays it a minor 2nd above-- I'm like, "Could it be--?" is it a mistake? it couldn't be, it's the same riff but a half-tone above. Totally against any god-fearing compositional rule there. Then near the end of same song, he plays a D octave up in the pattern: duh dee duh duh dee, a dead giveaway that he had a classical education, which almost of all them did back then, of course. I want to thank master shige again for this incredible-sounding new rip, despite the slightly scratchy record, I love you bro (and your work). And finally, I won't even get into the crazy guitar solos Bellamy plays, which are so off the blues scales or any scales they are functionally atonal in the Arnie Schoenberg way.
And I would love to say, John Bellamy, if ever you read this, please comment and tell us more! I love this work of yours.

A1 Constellations 9:32
A2 Silent Voices 6:33
A3 Sundance 5:56
B1 Alpha Omega 8:40
B2 Dawning 9:25
B3 Reflections

Credits
Bass – Tony Hargreaves
Guitar – John Bellamy
Percussion – Ray Dick
Saxophone – Dave Brown
Synthesizer – Stephen Maxwell Von Braund*

Finally check out the band picture, esp. the madonna-like smile on Steve's face-- chemically induced or not? My wife would say yes, she would say the same about the music. I love the side-part on the bassist's long hair, that's a classic.

Priority: 1
(I know someone is going to disagree)


track 5


track 6

André Demay - Generic (1980)

I wanted to take this opportunity to welcome our new amazing contributor and collector pollux (with perhaps myself le castor--?). In honour of him, I will post a few extremely rare gallic goodies, including some so rare, they don't even exist! for the propagation of le patrimoine francais. I'm sure I'm not alone in having a deep and profound love for the progressive of France, with its crystalline, melancholy, highly emotional, sometimes brilliantly pure and perfect, classical and often rigorously composed music. Whether it's folk, jazz-rock, classical, RIO, symphonic or genesis-style, any style, the French will provide examples of mastery of the subgenre.

I love how pollux is highly in tune with the covers of these albums. I often feel I'm the only one who truly cares about this (lost) art, which is sometimes breathtaking, witness the recent Galorn cover. And I'm sure I'm not the only one who has framed favourite covers for my basement walls (Art Bears' Hopes and Fears, Jan Hammer's Like Children, etc.), right Tom? Pollux really puts me to shame with his efforts that have gone into cover scanning, where I wimp out with a smartphone. It's clear that in the CD era, with the size difference alone, not as much care is put into cover art by musicians. Holding a record and gazing lovingly at the cover whilst listening to the vinyl is truly a lost experience for most.

Some comments were made earlier about the fantastic team we have going here (thank you for the positive remarks) and I think we will all be spoiled rotten in the next little while with master shige, the indomitable pollux, mighty osurec, our very own beautiful princess of prog Isabel, and myself, all of us coming up with rarities right left and centre. Although Isabel has been MIA recently I sure hope it's not due to some negative comments in a recent post, which, as I can testify, can be a little bit off-putting. It surprises me when people feel they have to complain about a record they never bought: what you could do is right-click on the folder and then press delete, it's really that simple. Of course perhaps you wasted 5 - 30 minutes downloading it, and for that, I sincerely apologize on behalf of all of us for your wasted time.

To me this record is quite a find, a genuine rarity, not expensive, and with a load of progressive elements, with a very high dynamic that is sustained throughout. Notice the high quality of the musicians too (incl. credits below).

In terms of music, think Patrick Moraz' Story of I as interpreted by Heldon and Jannick Top and I think you can get a rough idea, a mix of electronic and jazz fusion with excellent synthesis or heterosis (hybrid vigour) as the biologists would say, including great guitar effects and some really throbbing (erect?) bass (as the cliche goes). The song "Private Entrance" in particular really sounds like a Jannick Top late-fusion song, full of odd vocal effects, great jumping bass figures. Or perhaps imagine if Michel Moulinie's masterpiece Chrysalide was played twice as fast and twice as deep with a ton of heavy drums due to several complaints about its wimpy nature, or maybe if some drunk and crazy deejay wanted to use it for house techno trance electro-jungle music or whatever it's called, tritones and dissonances and all, horrifying the partiers with progressive music their small and simplistic ears could never handle... Or perhaps think Stravinsky as played by a US-made flamethrower educated at Juilliard with some extra lessons from jazz great Herbie Hancock (in his fusion period) who however is the reincarnated electric guitar maker Les Paul after he was killed in a bizarre industrial accident involving an electric kazoo and a robotic amplifier made at MIT by the artificial intelligence lab headed by Walt Disney's head in suspended animation, recently revitalized by area 51's extraterrestrial metabolism lab... I think you get the point.

Tracklist
A1 Generic Cycle 5:50
A2 Nervous Structure 4:50
A3 Musical Syntax 4:20
A4 Sybarite Island 4:50
B1 Private Entrance 5:15
B2 Telepathically Yours 4:30
B3 Razzia Man 4:35
B4 Automatic Stop 5:00

Credits
Guitars - Andre Demay
Bass – Jannick Top
Drums – Joe Hammer
Guitar – André Demay
Other [Artwork] – Razzia
Percussion – Fred Desplan
Producer – André Demay, Paul Scemama
Synthesizer – Celmar Engel

Song Samples and links up soon -- or rather, maybe never, given the trouble with uploads these days.
Please enjoy this wonderful 'lost' record.
Absent from the credits (and record) are compositional information, but I think it's safe to say Demay wrote everything, since all songs feature strong guitar leads. Although the titles sound like a kind of electronic library record, in fact there is a huge variety to the music. I was praying it would not turn out to be droney boring electro music, and looks like my prayers were answered.

1


5

Galorn - "Galorn" {France} [1978, Velia]

Artist: Galorn
Album: Galorn
Year: 1978
Label: Velia
Genre: Prog Folk
Lineage: VINYL Rip 16bit 44.1khz

Source: Album Collection




Track Listing
1.Jezaïg
2.Saute-Ruisseau
3.Kergadig
4.Mélodie-Valse
5.Scottisch Occitane
6.Arrests Under Special Powers
7.Le Mendiant
8.Sabbat (Rond De St-Vincent)
9.An Dro

Line Up/Musicians
Gilles Floury - Violin
Xavier Harivel - Vocals, Percussions, Dulcimer
Gilles Le Bigot - Guitars
Bruno Le Masson - Bass
Jean Michel Veillon - Flute, Tin Whistle, Low Whistle

Kergadig...
Scottish Occitane...

link in comments

An Dro - "Les Jeux Sont Faits" {Germany} [1982, Private]

A truly superb album! This unique "Breton made in Germany" album is a real gem! Little known due to it's small distribution being on a private label. A mix of tradional and original compositions sung in Breton and French the music combines successfully traditional and modern instruments to create at times a haunting atmosphere. Highly recommended to all Prog-Folk fans






Artist: An Dro
Album: Les Jeux Sont Faits
Year: 1982
Country: Germany
Label: Private
Genre: Prog Folk
Lineage: Vinyl Rip 16bit 44.1Khz

Source: Album Collection


Track Listing
A1 Pont Ar Vilin 3:09
A2 Le Pommier 6:05
A3 P Stands For Paddy 4:41
A4 C'Est En Passant La Riviere 2:50
A5 An Dro 3:52
A6 Farewell Air 1:10
B1 Les Jeux Sont Faits 7:34
B2 Sur Le Pont De Nantes 5:06
B3 Hugh The Graeme 4:40
B4 Avalon 6:22


Credits
Bass – Michael Fechner
Guitar – Werner Vaillant
Mandolin, Pipes, Dulcimer, Flute, Guitar, Glockenspiel – Rüdiger Kebe
Vocals, Bodhran, Dulcimer, Psaltery – Rita Schmidt
Vocals, Celtic Harp, Guitar, Cister, Whistle, Bombard, Pipe – Klaus Stammer

Les Jeux Sont Faits...
Hugh The Graeme...
Avalon...

link in comments

PRISMA (1980.,Light and soft symphonic rock,Netherlands )

PRISMA (1980.,Light and soft symphonic rock,Netherlands )

RYM

Recorded in October ,1980







side A
1. moving up fast (6:02)
2. eagle flies (4:12)
3. outing to spain (3:32)
4. masquerade (5:19)

side B
1. what made you change (6:47)
2. natassja (5:15)
3. chimera (4:09)
4. no time for tears (3:01)

members

Rob Van Der Sande....key,vo
Paul Bruinenberg....g
Carl Beukman....b
Robert Meyran....ds

additional musician
Huib Quitz....congas (A3 & B2)

track 1

Ophiucus - Salade Chinoise (Barclay 1973)

On this second album Ophiucus offers once again a mix of delicate finely crafted songs ranging from psy-folk-rock to soft pop. While appealing to a maybe more mainstream audience it might not be as strong as their first album but is definitely worth listening to. It will also grow on you.

Artist: Ophiucus
Album: Salade Chinoise
Year: 1973
Label: Barclay
Style: Progressive Rock
Genre: Folk-Psych-Prog
Format: 320mp3 + 3% Recovery
Size: 82.3MB
Lineage: VINYL Rip 16bit 44.1khz

Source: Album Collection

Studio Album Released in 1973

Track Listing

A1 Oh Ma Douee
A2 J'Oublie
A3 Canadian Bar
A4 Cacaoutchouc
A5 L'Instant D'Une Nuit
A6 Dans Toute La France
B1 Bonte Divine
B2 Je Joue Toujours De L'Harmonica
B3 Cette Chanson Vient D'Autrefois
B4 Recreation No1
B5 Quand On A Besoin De Rever
B6 A La Claire Fontaine

Line Up/Musicians

Percussion, Flute, Harmonica – Bernard Labacci
Piano, Strings, Brass – Michel Bernholc
Synthesizer – Roger Loubet
Vocals, Bass, Guitar – Jean-Pierre Pouret
Vocals, Bass, Guitar, Flute, Percussion – Michel Bonnecarrère
Vocals, Guitar – Alain Labacci

B4 Recreation No1