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Music from France

Autoportrait
100 copies on clear vinyl. Reissue of a cassette released in 1991 by La Légende des voix. A sound self-portrait harsh and tortured also using some texts. Brume (Christian Renou) is a prolific French musique concrete composer/sound sculptor who has won himself a place of his own with his crossover between sound collages, electro-acoustics and noise. His compositions rely on dense, rapid-fire montage and wed cacophony and dynamics, emphasizing both the elements of discontinuity and continuity. Why…
Wakes on Cerulean
Timely outing from two grand masters of exploratory electronics. Kassel Jaeger is the moniker of French musician François Bonnet who works at the GRM and has released a number of books including the highly regarded The Order Of Sounds: A Sonorous Archipelago, published by Urbanomic in 2016. Jim O'Rourke is known to most through his explorations of the song and shapes, the high and low, the east and south. Wakes On Cerulean is a joint adventure where process folds upon process and the operation …
Ruins of Time
Following Phantasmes, released in 2014, Ruins of Time is a new original motion picture soundtrack of the short film “Ruins of Time” by Mathieu Peteul. "Ruins of Time” is an experimental short film originating from the film Limbo.Available on vinyl, the 4 tracks mixes various human voice and strings blending spacey dark drones and strange atmospheres.Frédéric Charlot - Viola, cello, drones, voice. Olivier Charlot - Synth, drums, drones, voice. Nicolas Boyer - Field recordings. Sofia Atman - Voice…
Ephémère
Three works for viola and tape or electronics played by Vincent Royer: Luc Ferrari's Ephémère in a 2012 version by Brunhild Ferrari, her Le Piano Englouti, and Royer's live improvisation on Ferrari's Ce qu'a vu le Cers.
Carp's Head
The newest record produced by the group of three – Ghédalia Tazartès, Pawel Romanczuk, and Andrzej Zaleski – is the result of only a few meet ups and a shared passion for music that shapes their perspective. The long play was recorded at the Rogalów Analogowy studio in the eastern part of Poland. It’s worth noting that the space and surrounding countryside did not influence the sound itself as the record drifts away from the traditions of chamber music. The musicians, together as well as separat…
Oeil Vision
Modern Silence present a reissue of Oeil Vision, originally released in 1964. One of the best albums by legendary French pianist Jef Gilson, recorded in 1963 with Jean-Luc Ponty on violin,Daniel Humair on drums, Jean-Louis Chautemps andPierre Caron on tenor sax, Guy Pedersen and Henri Texieron bass. A superb line up for this beautiful album including two splendid versions of "Chant-Inca" (a hidden cover of Pharoah Sanders "Creator Has A Masterplan"). Essential French spirit/avant jazz. Gilson wa…
Enfin!
French pianist Jef Gilson came up in the ‘60s and played in a straight-ahead hard bop style and also made forays into Afro-jazz and free jazz, including a noteworthy version of Pharoah Sanders’ “The Creator Has a Master Plan.” He featured the young violinist Jean Luc Ponty on some early recordings, and also appeared on Magma drummer Christian Vander’s Vander et les Trois Jeffs. The pianist led numerous ensembles ranging from trios to creative big bands during his career, including the Jef Gils…
Tobel
Reinhold Friedl, inside piano. Franck Vigroux, electronics. 'An encounter between two worlds. Reinhold Friedl and Franck Vigroux are two musicians, both addicted to a real contemporary approach, getting to the core of sound but by very different means. Reinhold Friedl with his purely acoustic instrument and his highly developed and refined inside-piano techniques meets Franck Vigroux with his electronics including all kind of devices from tape recorders to analog synthesizers. Their sole …
Peau Froide, Leger Soleil
Peau froide, léger soleil is the result of a three-year recording process initiated by Mika Vainio and Franck Vigroux after a series of shared live experiences, beginning with a show in Paris in 2012. Their collaboration is an exercise in sensitive intensity, drifting through the whole space between minimalist meditations and maximalist kinetics. Vainio's signature brutalist production resonates throughout the album, constructing a psychic scenario for Vigroux's researches in spatial abstraction…
Fraction Sur Le Temps
At last, in stock now!! Urban Sax's third LP was recorded in 1982 & 1985, and released in 1985 on Celluloid, and it is an absolute diamond - sharing Julian Cope words "Everything starts with this massive (and I mean it...we're basically talking about something the size of an orchestra here) wash of sound, like something dropped wholesale out of the trippier parts of Ligeti's material in the "2001" soundtrack. Then we get swept into the primal repetition of a simple motif...very Magma-like, save …
Spiral
At last, in stock now!! 1991's Spiral makes its first ever appearance on vinyl format here. Previously it had only been available on a impossible to find CD, consisting of eight short to mid-length pieces, the major change being the prominence of the twenty-two piece choir, which shares the spotlight equally with the saxes, and three vibraphones, all which results in a far more ethereal and majestic sound than its predecessors. Urban Sax was created in 1973. Gilbert Artman, the mastermind behind…
Urban Sax 2
Urban Sax's second LP, issued in 1978 on Cobra, is the continuation of their debut work. Actually it features parts 2 and 3 of the pieces contained on 1, again similarities with works by La Monte Young, Phil Niblock, Glenn Branca, Steve Reich, Terry Riley, a.o. are present, and it's the perfect companion to 1 as it is, basically, part two of that first album. a spiral malax of surreal, undulating soundscapes. Urban Sax was created in 1973. Gilbert Artman, the mastermind behind Lard Free -who has…
Urban Sax 1
Much-needed reissue of these incredible LPs. Urban Sax's debut LP was issued in 1977 on Cobra, recalling the best Terry Riley, stunningly psychedelic, it’s the perfect combination of hazy, fluttering psychedelia and tough, tactile reed work. Urban Sax was created in 1973. Gilbert Artman, the mastermind behind Lard Free -who has also participated in dozens of recordings by other artists of the French experimental scene that included Delired Chameleon Family, Clear Light, Komintern, etc.- develope…
Pas Encore Mort
Costes has caused me so much trouble. Even today, 25 years after the last time I performed with him, I still have a hard time booking shows because he has not mellowed as I have and the venues are afraid, because of my past association with him, that there will be piss, shit, violence, genitalia, racial tension, cops, etc. Costes has caused himself so much trouble. He's been taken to court five times over his art, received countless death threats. When's the last time you can think of tha…
Jules et Jim/Tirez sur le pianiste
The fruitful and long working relationship between the legendary director François Truffaut and composer Georges Deleruecovered 23 years and 11 films, beginning with Tirez sur le pianiste (Shoot the Piano Player) (1960). In this compilation, two of the most famous scores of "the Mozart of the Nouvelle Vague" are reunited in a precious LP. From the melancholic tunes of Jules et Jim (1962) to the vibrant piano of Tirez sur le pianiste, you can find here all the colors of Truffaut's cinema. First p…
Plastic&Magic
Bisou records (Isabelle Magnon and Quentin Rollet) asked Jean-Louis Costes to do a book for children. This guy is mostly known for his extreme adult performances.Here he tells us the story of Plastic & Magic with drawings and a (free) CD of songs for… childrens !
5 Rimbaud 1 Verlaine
** Edition of 300 copies ** Lovely 10" reissue of this memorable & noisy performances of Rimbaud & Verlaine, giving to their poetry the best of tributes. French musician Ghédalia Tazartès is best known for a quintet of albums, dating from his late 70s debut Diasporas to 1990’s Check Point Charlie, whose distinctive and idiosyncratic collages meshed his deliriously mimetic vocals with raw improvisations, crude loops and drones and concrète manipulations of all manner of found and plundered sounds…
Francois Truffaut: Bandes Originales 1959-1962
Featuring the work of acclaimed composers Georges Delerue and Jean Constantin from François Truffaut's classics Les Quatre Cents Coups (The 400 Blows) (1959), Tirez sur le pianiste (Shoot the Piano Player) (1960), and Jules et Jim (1962), this collection seeks to introduce the listener to the sonic landscapes of some of the most important films of the French New Wave. From playful to intense, these tracks perfectly capture the moods of Truffaut's films and serve as the exact complement to his wo…
Pale Calling
**restocked** Pale Calling presents the fruits of the first collaboration between Oren Ambarchi, Kassel Jaeger and James Rushford, recorded at GRM studios, Paris in 2014. Although drawing on aspects of each member's solo works, the trio mark out their own unique territory, a mysterious space of slowly cycling electronics, distracted vocal mumbles and often unidentifiable field recordings. These two side-long pieces are composed of distinct layers that gently rise up and recede, obeying a dream-l…
Unusual Perversions
Unusual Perversions was the first "official" production of Pacific 231, originally released in 1984. Previously,Psychic Euthanasia was a limited edition, self-produced tape, and one of the first DIY experiments from 1981-83. After the short lived Berlinerluft, an outfit that included Axel Kyrou (from Vox Populi!) and Bertrand Wolf, Pacific 231 swiftly moved away from the new wave genre toward a raw industrial sound with power electronics tonalities in-line with his influences, going from writers…