Lard Free

Recorded in just three days and released in 1973, mixing jazz, kraut and prog rock, Lard Free’s first album is a musical land-mark in the French underground scene. To this day, it still matches the perfection of their English and German fellows like Soft Machine and Amon Düül. A true masterpiece.

"Lard Free is a French psychedelic band, formed around drummer and keyboards player Gilbert Artman. He was the only constant member of the band on their few next albums. Music on their debut LP is perfectly composed angular rhythm structures-based synth/rhythm compositions with free-jazz sax improvs over them. All this mix sounds heavy, spacey, psychedelic, minimalistic - and excellent. I am not sure if this music could be labelled as "krautrock" , or let say - it's a French krautrock. You can easily hear there influences from Terry Riley, very jazzy drumming and guitar improvs, and at the same time almost Magma-like Orffian atmospheres. The six quite short compositions sound all different and absolutely fresh even now! A rare and very successful combination of early spacey psychedelic synth-rock, highest level free-jazz and some neo-classical minimalism. Very recommended!" - Progarchives