A document that slipped through time's cracks, finally surfacing. Recorded live in Brussels during December 2009, this captures Gilbert Artman leading a late incarnation of Lard Free - three decades after the project's storied 1970s trilogy - at the Paris Delirium festival organized by Metaphon. The fire never dimmed.
This lineup brought sitar into the mix alongside keyboards, drums, bass, saxophone and female vocals. A different beast from the Krautrock-adjacent electronics and processed guitars of the 1977 III album, yet unmistakably bearing Artman's fingerprints. The music breathes with patient intensity, building landscapes rather than assaulting. Where the original Lard Free drew lines between Terry Riley's minimalism, the motorik pulse of German experimentalism, and the electric expansions of Miles Davis, this Brussels performance moved into more contemplative territory.
Part of Replica Records' monumental wooden box set documenting the complete Lard Free arc - this live recording exists nowhere else. The performance shows an elder statesman of French experimental music still seeking, still pushing, still refusing easy paths. No nostalgia trip, no victory lap - just Artman and collaborators navigating spaces between structure and dissolution.
For those who know the classic trio of albums, this reveals another dimension. For newcomers, it offers an entry point less abrasive than the 1973 debut's harsh geometries, more grounded than Midnight's electronic drift. The music unfolds rather than attacks, rewards patience rather than demanding immediate surrender.
Essential for completists. Revelatory for those discovering Lard Free through Replica's crucial archival work. A reminder that genuine experimentalism doesn't age - it simply continues.