Heldon
Heldon is a French electronic rock band created in 1974. The name of the band was taken from the 1972 novel The Iron Dream by Norman Spinrad. Like its predecessor Schizo, it is above all the group of guitarist Richard Pinhas who released a large number of albums under his own name. He has worked with numerous collaborators among which musicians of the band Magma as well as philosophers such as Gilles Deleuze (of whom he was a student). Influenced by the work of Robert Fripp and Brian Eno, the music of Richard Pinhas and Heldon is sui generis and innovative and has in its turn greatly influenced the field of electronic rock.
Heldon is a French electronic rock band created in 1974. The name of the band was taken from the 1972 novel The Iron Dream by Norman Spinrad. Like its predecessor Schizo, it is above all the group of guitarist Richard Pinhas who released a large number of albums under his own name. He has worked with numerous collaborators among which musicians of the band Magma as well as philosophers such as Gilles Deleuze (of whom he was a student). Influenced by the work of Robert Fripp and Brian Eno, the music of Richard Pinhas and Heldon is sui generis and innovative and has in its turn greatly influenced the field of electronic rock.
Members: Richard Pinhas
Event and Repetitions
"...a sporadic but constant thread in Pinhas’ music has been his experimentation with guitar feedback, loops and effects boxes, even in the early days of Heldon, as he tried to perfect his own version of Frippertronics. Well, it has been a long time coming, but Event and Repetitions may well signal the full realization of Pinhas’ long-time vision. The drifting, hypnotic patterns of the five pieces on this CD? have a shimmering beauty and depth that seems to suggest a destination at the end of a …
Live in Paris 1976
Souffle Continu is very excited to present two special vinyl editions of live recordings of French heavy space prog band Heldon -- this 1976 recording and Live in Paris 1975 (FFL 007LP). Heldon took rock music and mixed it with analog synthesizers in a very special and unique way. Recorded live at Le Palace, Paris, 1976, this two-track recording documents the raw, acidic, psychedelic sound of Heldon, consisting at the time of Richard Pinhas, Patrick Gauthier, and François Auger. The fantasti…
Live in Paris 1975
Souffle Continu is very excited to present two special vinyl editions of live recordings of French heavy space prog band Heldon -- this 1975 recording and Live in Paris 1976 (FFL 008LP). This historic recording documents one of the rare Heldon concerts of the mid '70s era. Formed at the time of guitar loop master Richard Pinhas (Mellotron, ARP 2600 synthesizer, AKS, and guitars) and Alain Renaud (guitar and analog keyboards), Heldon deliver five tracks of guitar freak-out melded with hypnotic …
Split lp
Split LP, released in an edition of 300 numbered copies on splattered orange/black translucid vinyl, and packaged in silver ink silkscreened cardboard covers with an insert. Richard Pinhas, guitarist from French cult band Heldon, is accompanied by his son Duncan, Oren Ambarchi (SunnO))) and Erick Borelva. Tamagawa plays number of songs that are totaly stripped from subtlety. A suite of audible haikus bring to mind the sound of footsteps in the water... a distant waterfall.
Allez Teia
Materpiece!! The second album by French guitarist Richard Pinhas under his infamous Heldon moniker, was a groundbreaking album of its era, encompassing a wide variety of guitar work, Mellotron and analog synths that float with a delicacy he had never showcased in this type of volume. Released in 1975 on the Richard Pinhas owned imprint Disjuncta, Heldon’s Allez-Téia is an astonishing and gorgeous album, foreshadowing the type of music Pinhas he would further develope with future solo recording…
Richard Pinhas special bundle
all the three Heldon groundbreaking 7inch EP at special price
Le Voyageur / Torcol
This is the debut release of Souffle Continu Records, the newly-founded label by the Parisian record shop. This new imprint will focus on high-quality vinyl reissues and explore avant-rock, early electronics, psychedelic noise and kosmische beats. The first three releases are reissues of three ultra-rare 7"s by France's finest guitarist Richard Pinhas (Heldon, Lard Free, etc.). In 1972, Richard Pinhas and his group Schizo invited Gilles Deleuze to read text by Nietzsche for a recording that …
Soutien a la RAF
This release marks the second release of Souffle Continu Records, the newly founded label by the well respected Parisian record shop. This new imprint will focus on high quality vinyl reissues and explore avant-rock, early electronics, psychedelic noise, kosmische beats and free jazz. The first 3 releases are reissues of 3 ultra-rare 7”s by France’s finest guitarist Richard Pinhas (Heldon, Lard Free…). Following "Third", Heldon brings out this EP "Soutien à la RAF" in 1975. Radical, highly polit…
Perspectives
This release marks the third release from Souffle Continu Records, the newly-founded label by the Parisian record shop. Perspectives, the companion EP to the Heldon IV/Agnetta Nilsson LP, came out in 1976 and saw Heldon toughening its music with the appearance of sequencer and Moog. "Pure savage electronic energy," as would later describe Dominique Grimaud and Eric Deshayes. Now almost impossible to find, this record is available again for the first time in almost 40 years in its original sh…
Interface
Awesome, monolithic slab of metal machine music from 1977, France, Paris...Heldon! A prog/early electronic holy grail replete with breathtaking and far-out Heldon's most crystalline work, building to the epic crescendo of the title track. Many fans consider this to be their masterpiece, but more importantly, Interface is a record that will continue to unfold for centuries to come. Richard Pinhas is an artistic iconoclast. A French intellectual as likely to collaborate with MAGMA as the radica…
Desolation Row
Desolation Row finds things coming full-circle for guitarist/electronics pioneer, Richard Pinhas. In a career spanning more than 40 years, pathfinder Pinhas has remained continually innovative, pioneering groundbreaking developments in electronic rock and industrial music and influencing generations of musicians. In a major recent creative surge, he has released numerous recordings over the past several years in collaboration with noise and experimental musicians, breaking further sonic gr…
Third
"After our acclaimed reissues of the first two LPs by French electronic rock pioneers Heldon, we are proud to offer a lavish vinyl version of their third album (also known as It's Always Rock 'n' Roll), where Pinhas and Co. follow the same paths he created with Electronique Guérila under the strong influence of works by Robert Fripp and Brian Eno, and of course the contemporanean Krautrock movement. For those of you following our line of releases there will be no need to say that composer, …
Electronique Guerilla
Centered around guitarist Richard Pinhas and featuring a floating cast of regular collaborators (Didier Batard, François Auger, Patrick Gauthier, Alain Renaud, Georges Grunblatt; Coco Roussel amongst others), Heldon will marry Pinhas personal obsessions -modern philosophy (Deleuze, Guattari), science-fiction (Norman Spinrad, Philip K.Dick), progressive rock (King Crimson, Fripp & Eno), american minimalism (Terry Riley, Steve Reich) and electronic music- into a diverse musical cocktail tha…
East West + Live Tracks
East/West was Richard's fourth solo album, which was originally released in 1980. This album has Richard embracing the new, computer-driven electronic technology, while still using some of his old gear and is one of Richard's personal favorites of his '70s and '80s work.
DWW
Recorded between 1983 and 1991, DWW contains some of the finest material devised by the former Heldon leader since that band's "demise." All that is Pinhas is here in its glory: guitars soldered with "Terminator" steel, coruscating electronics, and sequencers that tear electrons from their molecular womb. This is a music that uses King Crimson circa 1974 as its template and couches its aural metaphors in a tapestry of post-Philip K. Dick mind blasts and William Gibson-fused cyberpunk. In fact, D…
6 - Interface
As with the preceding album Rêve Sans Conséquance Spéciale, if you come to grip[ with this wild experimental minimalistic music , you will find yourself riveted to your seat by the sheer power and violent intensity of the music developped by Richard Pinhas (the sole leader of this project). It really depends on how your mind (and mood) is set to understand what is developped here but Can is not far away and Fripp/Eno collaborations are also in the sonic neighborhood. Pinhas 's guitar is deeply i…
Stand By
This is a reissue of the seventh and final album by this quintessential progressive French electronic rock band. Originally released on Egg in 1979, this features the classic Heldon line-up of Richard Pinhas-guitar and electronics, Patric Gauthier-Moog synthesizer and electronics, Didier Batard-bass, François Auger-drums and guests, including Klaus Blasquiz of Magma. This was one of Heldon's heaviest rock albums.
Un Reve Sans Consequence Speciale
Heldon's 5th album, recorded in 1976. Featuring Auger (drums), Gauthier (Mini Moog, Moog bass), Didier Batard (bass), plus Janick Top on one track, this is a crushingly dense synthesis of loud sounds. Magma-styled intensity meeting the "apex of the punk electronic sound" -- a masterpiece.
Single Collection 1972-1980
New jewel case edition of this singles compilation (replaces the now o/p paper sleeve edition). "The rare 7" single track compilation. Featuring; Schizo (pre-Heldon), Heldon, T.H.X, Richard Pinhas (solo). Most tracks are first release on CD. Fifteen tracks, digital remaster, jewel case version. (Some materials are taken from the original 7" record).
Keio Line
An incredible collaboration that sweeps across the generations of electronic music. Richard Pinhas is internationally recognized as one of France's major experimental musicians: the 'father' of French electronic music. He was the founder of Heldon, a band whose violent fusion of electronics and guitar in the 70s rivalled the German electronic school. As a guitar player he has been compared to Robert Fripp. Cited as an influence by many electronic musicians, Richard Pinhas has helped to define th…