Celebrating an incredible ten-year anniversary of activity, the Paris based imprint, Souffle Continu, digs deep into the catalog of the seminal French jazz pianist, François Tusques, launching a brand new series dedicated to his ground-breaking project, Intercommunal Free Dance Music Orchestra, delivering the first ever reissues of the band's 1978 LP, “L’inter Communal” and 1983’s “Le Musichien”. Joyous explosions in sound, drawing on diverse musicianship and numerous traditions from across the globe, all guided by Tusques’ radical left-wing politics and belief in collectivism, both are absolute revelations that pull the rug from beneath long-standing historical notions of what was transpiring within the French underground at the time.

Since their humble launch in 2014, the Paris based imprint, Souffle Continu, has assembled a discography that is second to none, bringing together some of the most important gestures of the historic French avant-garde. Particularly focused on efforts of free improvisation that sprang from the country across the 1960s and 70s, artefacts from the vaults of seminal imprints like Futura, Saravah, Un-Deux-Trois, and Palm have formed an axis around which their cause has spun. Now, in celebration of their ten years of activity, Souffle Continu dives slightly off of their own beaten path, diving into the catalogs of two under-celebrated imprints, Disques Vendémiaire and Edizione Corsica, and coming up with the first two releases in a brand new series dedicated to Intercommunal Free Dance Music Orchestra, the seminal, politically charged ensemble helmed by none other than the French jazz pianist, François Tusques, between the early 1970s and the mid-1980s.

By the time he set out to found the Intercommunal Free Dance Music Orchestra in 1971, the pianist, François Tusques, had already made history by contributing the first gesture of free jazz laid to tape in France in 1965, as well as collaborating with a wide range of luminaries like Barney Wilen, Don Cherry, Kenneth Terroade, Steve Potts, Alan Silva, Michel Portal, François Jeanneau, Bernard Vitet, Beb Guérin, and Alan Shorter. It was during this period that Tusques began to search for other avenues of creative possibility, with the new project - calling a diverse range of artists from different communities into its ranks, and incorporating nearly as many musical touchstones into its forms - offering the way forward.

Incorporating a transnational cultural position and a deeply political consciousness - often referencing the Black Panthers party and playing for labor unions, within a sound that incorporated jazz, free jazz, folk elements, and Afro-latin, Arabic and South-American touchstones - by the time of 1978's “L’inter Communal”, originally issued by the fledgling Disques Vendémiaire imprint, the band had been running for seven years and committed two full-lengths to tape. “L’inter Communal”, however, is the perfect place for Souffle Continu to launch their reissue series dedicated to the project. Of all their releases, it is arguably the clearest illumination of the exuberant “social function” that embodied their sound, with the band made up (in different configurations) of Michel Marre, Jo Maka, Adolf Winkler and Jean Mére on brass; Sam Ateba, Kilikus, Francine Villers, A. Mako, and C. Marre on percussion; Tusques on piano; and the Spanish singer Carlos Andreu on vocals, which was described by their leader as a griot “who created a new genre of popular song improvised with our music, based on events going on at the time”.

Compiled from live concert extracts captured between 1976 and 1978, “L’inter Communal” is a fascinating real-time evolution in the history of jazz, perhaps not entirely unrelated, considering Tusques’ similarly radical politics, to Cornelius Cardew’s shift away from explicit avant-gardism, toward popular forms. Here we encounter Intercommunal Free Dance Music Orchestra locked in stellar group collaboration, rendering joyous music that draws upon numerous latin and Afro-Caribbean traditions of jazz, as well as traditions of France, Spain, the Americas, and Africa, while threading in remarkably prescient topics - an homage to one of the leading figures of the Chilean revolution, and a victim of Pinochet, among others - delivered by Carlos Andreu’s vocals.

Filled with body swaying grooves, infectious polyrhythms, and towering instrumental interplay by an astounding group of artists, Intercommunal Free Dance Music Orchestra’s “L’inter Communal” is an absolute revelation that stands the test of time and lives in the present like few other records of its era can.

Similar to 1978’s “L’inter Communal”, the Intercommunal Free Dance Music Orchestra’s fifth outing, 1983’s “Le Musichien”, draws its material from live concert outings, but is a slightly more laid back and infectious affair, while still following the illuminating path of what the band’s leader, François Tusques, conceived as a “people’s jazz workshop”, featuring a diverse group of musicians from varying backgrounds.

The first side features the stunningly beautiful, nearly 20 minute composition, “Le Musichien”, recorded in 1981 at the then famous Paris address, 28 rue Dunois. The piece features Tusques on piano, singing an “afro-Catalan tale” with his partner Carlos Andreu, both backed by Jean-Jacques Avenel, delivering a killer, slow bassline as a throbbing spine, with Kilikus on percussion, Sylvain Kassap and Yebga Likoba on saxophone, Ramadolf on trombone. Infused with slow hints of Latin grooves and African jazz, it is a breezy, laid back and intoxicating affair that takes the listener on a rambling journey into the inner realms of lyricism and focus. While far from the free jazz fire within which Tusques began, amongst the dancing constellations of tones and rhythms, and remarkable vocal delivery of Andreu, it’s hard to think of a more enduring artefact within the venerable pianist’s entire catalog.

The second side of 1983’s “Le Musichien” similarly features a single piece, “Les Amis d'Afrique”, recorded at "Festival des tombées de la nuit" in Rennes during July of 1982. Dipping into the modal territory of jazz that was explored by the likes of figures like John Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders, it encounters Intercommunal Free Dance Music Orchestra - this time featuring a line up of Tanguy Le Doré on bass, Bernard Vitet on trumpet, Danièle Dumas and Sylvain Kassap on saxophone, Jean-Louis Le Vallegant and Philippe Le Strat on bombards, and François Tusques on piano - locked in the staggering pulses of a new imagining of electric fusion, charting new territory every step of the way that inexplicably manages to hit at the very same grooves that it deconstructs in real time. As thrilling as it is puzzling, it’s one of those rare compositions that takes multiple listens to truly unlock its secrets and depths.

A true wonder of French 1980s jazz exploration, while “Le Musichien” would be Intercommunal Free Dance Music Orchestra’s last recording outing during the band’s tenure, its potency endures into the present day like few records of its era.