RICHARD PINHAS

It´s been a while since I been searching for this album, I will not charge my rating with that, therefore I stay on the pure pleasure of the unknown and rate it as such.

More like Heldon , thank all gods less than Fripp, although John Livengood saves it all, Richard Pinhas stays close to his own language, obviously influenced by King Crimson but he overcomes this obstacle by following the tune and less falling off the wagon and plagiarizing King Robert Fripp.

Electronics and experimatation brings the Cyborg Sally´s spirit out of it. Some cybernetic male vocals enhance the robotic feel, Livengood´s keys help a lot with the futuristic and menacing environments and also with the peaceful ones and Pinhas a more violent performer paints out a contrast between both sides. Expect also electronic percussions here and there by the way.

Richard Pinhas & John Livengood -"‎Cyborg Sally" (1994), is deep, daring and inventive but not enough to step away from the Crimson King´s domain, yet it is worth your while, not a must but you will surely find some very pleasant moments and better yet a favorite and memorable track. As for me I will keep it.

Now! In this Prog world´s universal criteria a 3 star rating + my review is fair.

Bleak, industrial, avant-garde, experimental, noise, punk, extreme, heavy, this 2014 release from Richard Pinhas and Oren Ambarchi is all these things and yet so much more. This is not music for the fainthearted, and indeed many of those wouldn't even describe this as music ' I can imagine parents the world over screaming at their children 'What is that noise?' which is something I heard plenty of times in my youth, and now get told the same thing by my children. But in many ways this album is noise, but noise with a purpose. The two guitarists are deploying feedback as musical notes, looping their instruments so that drummer Joe Talia is all over his kit trying to keep it all together and also making himself heard, and for the most part failing in both tasks.

There is even a 'second circle' of musicians who add their parts, but the attention is drawn always to the sonic maelstrom being created by the two guitarists who have obviously never heard of the concepts of using space as an additional instrument, or having light and shade to create dynamics. This is a nihilistic over the top bleak rendition of the world, with the musicians allowing their nightmares to have full rein. This is music which hurts, which could be used as an aural assault weapon, and Ambarchi allows himself to have fun away from his normal projects with the likes of Sunn O))) and Attila Csihar while Pinhas continues on the road he has taken since he started Heldon in the early Seventies, and the result of this collaboration is something I found both incredibly compelling and repelling at the same time. This may not be an album I can see myself returning to often, and there is no possibility ever of singing the songs around the house as there aren't any, but there are times when this is the perfect reflection of the world we live in, and the only album which will do.

You'd think growing older might mellow an artist out, or that they'd prefer to play things nice and safe, but not so French musician Richard Pinhas, founding member of legendary Seventies electronic project Heldon. His LP contribution to Record Store Day 2019 is `Live at Bam Balam', recorded on two separate dates between 2016-18 in Bordeaux, France, and it's home to two side-long, fully improvised pieces of guitar, electronics and delay, all twisted together into a feral drone of delicious stormy noise.

Churning electric guitars snarl into sucking vacuums of wicked distortion, chiming electronics spiral into the heavens, and jagged shards of crystalline beauty slice the senses. Fleeting moments break into Robert Fripp-like splintering pierces and the cluttering violence of the wilder Seventies King Crimson improvisations, and even ambient reflections are laced with a subdued trace of dangerous unease. Slow to unfold and constantly evolving, the two long-form pieces here reveal endless dark mystery and a scuzzy contemplative atmosphere.

Audiophiles beware - this recording comes close to an `Official Bootleg' kind of sound quality, so those wanting pristine recordings of a modern standard should keep well away. But the sonic murk gives the performances a tough and honest grit, and it helps make `Live at Bam Balam' a welcome Record Store Day release, and another fascinating addition to the eclectic and daring discography of Richard Pinhas.

Three and a half stars, but four for Heldon/Pinhas freaks.

Forty years on from his debut, Richard Pinhas is still producing challenging music, and on this 2016 album combined with two icons of the Japanese avant-garde ' drummer Tatsuya Yoshida, mastermind of warped-prog legends Ruins, and Masami Akita, a.k.a. noise guru Merzbow. Although they have performed and toured together, this is the first time the trio had made it into a studio and actually recorded. What we have here are four 'songs', with Pinhas providing guitar and synth guitar, Merzbow electronic noise, and Yoshida bashing the hell out of a drum kit. It is really hard to understand who is leading who, as in many ways it is Yoshida who is at the forefront of what is going on, while the other two are fighting instruments to produce something that is avant garde, challenging and quite unsettling.

This is bleak, disconcerting music depicting a post nuclear age, where life is cheap and short. It is compelling, disturbing, disconcerting and polarising. This isn't music for everyone, and there will be many who feel this isn't even meeting the definition of the term, but I found it interesting and engaging even if I don't want to play it all the time.

In 2015, to tie in with the 50th anniversary of Frank Herbert's classic 'Dune', Cuneiform Records undertook the first-ever vinyl reissue of Richard Pinhas's second album, 'Chronolyse'. Back in 1974, Pinhas received his PhD in Philosophy from the Sorbonne, where he had studied with French philosopher Gilles Deleuze and written his dissertation, 'Science-Fiction, Inconscient et Autres Machins', on the intersections of time, time manipulation, science fiction and analogue electronic music. That same year he founded Heldon, a band that fused his searing guitar with experimental electronics to revolutionize rock music in France. Pinhas had been deeply affected by Frank Herbert's Dune novels and the complete universe that they contained, and wanted to dedicate a full solo album to Dune. Acquiring a Moog P3 and a new Polymoog to accompany two Revox A700s he had installed in his home Heldon Studio, he spent January to June 1976, recording direct to tape. Originally, he had thought to do an all-Moog album, but instead, he went into the Davout Studio with his guitar and his Heldon colleagues, Didier Batard (drums) and Fran'ois Auger (bass) to record their instruments over the Polymoog track.

The result is something that sounds as if it has come straight from Germany as opposed to France, as this is incredibly reminiscent of Tangerine Dream and early Kraftwerk. There are repeated rhythms and melodies, and with just minor tweaks one can imagine this being a hit in dance clubs through Europe. These repetitions are quite hypnotic, and are used as a base for other melodies to be placed over the top as the music drills into the psyche of the listener. I find it strange that I am coming to this album so late after the original release, as any of this style of keyboard music should be searching this out.

As the first Richard Pinhas solo work, Rhizosphere works as a natural bridge between the music Pinhas created with Heldon and the music he would make in the future. A transition album.

We're still treated to treated electronics, but without a guitar, the aggression is scaled back on Rhizosphere. The first side flows nicely with shorter pieces, for me the highlight is the languid Trapeze/Interference.

Side B is a sidelong electrosuite that is quite repetitive and not all that engaging.

Somewhat mediocre but mildly pleasing for electrofans. The CD release includes a seperate unreleased Live album from 1982, which bumps the mediocrity level to respectably competent.

"Cold" is an adjective which could often be ascribed to Richard Pinhas' music, whether you're talking about his solo electronic works or his band work with the likes of Heldon. A master of creating alienating, chilling atmospheres already, on Iceland he really takes that to the next level, producing a frosty masterpiece which will convince listeners that the dread fimbulwinter that precedes Ragnarok is upon them. CD rereleases tack on the 25 minute bonus track "Wintermusic", a rather dispensable Fripp & Eno-esque drone piece which fails to capture the raw intensity of the original album and can safely be skipped; it's the core Arctic blast of the original tracks which really stands out.

Thunder and lightning! But then again....

My first encounter with Tatsuya Yoshida, who co-composes, "Welcome... ... In The Void", 2014, alongside Richard Pinhas, is through this same record.

Drummer Yoshida finally was the one to subdue a bit, Pinhas' frantic obsession with Robert Fripp's self-named "Frippertronics". I mean, he uses them more than Fripp himself, who now constructs a more refined kind, named "Soundscapes".

But no matter how much I appreciate and still want to appreciate Richard Pinhas own guitar language, it is always surrounded by this "cloudy aura" of sounding like a Robert Fripp's involuntary (?) clone.

Well, as told, Yoshida's thunderous and creative drumming kind of balances and keeps Richard, most of the time, busy doing what he does best, the daring and whirling guitar soloings mixed with an ever changing palette of strumming colors, like his great Heldon or his best early solo efforts. But although owning his own style, he falls off the wagon more than once. Damn!

Welcome.....in the Void, consist of 2, 30 min long each, non-stop, progressive psychedelic electronics. There are extraordinary sections, of tumultuous and deep, dynamic inspiration, when both musicians form a perfectly balanced communion of excesses, going both ways of their performing skills.

But inevitably, I can not keep my mind off, the constant and alien apparition of Pinhas' "Frippertronics".

Therefore, ***3, "Good! One way trip" PA stars.

Initially recorded in 1976 before "Rhizosphère", "Chronolyse" is in fact Richard Pinhas's solo debut. Not as varied and inspired as HELDON's music, the first half of the record is dominated by synthesizers, whereas the second half displays an atmosphere similar to the french electronic band's, however lighter. As you may have noticed, the tracks name are a tribute to Frank Herbert's Dune.

"Variations Sur Le Theme de Bene Gesserit" consist mainly in the same minimalist loops played at different tempos with the Moog and passed through two Revox echo generators. There are seven variations listed, but I personally really count only five of them. The very fast 1st and 4th variations create a pulsating hypnotic effect. On the contrary, the 2nd and 6th variations "Variation II" are much slower. The theme resemble a little the one used for the "Bolero" suite on HELDON's album "Stand By", one year later. The 3rd variation is mid-tempo, while the 5th one is the most original by mixing slow and fast sequences. The 7th variation is the longest and maybe the most interesting, as it features additional sound effects. "Duncan Idaho" consists also in a slow electronic loop that may have been used as a draft for HELDON's "Bolero" suite too. A little repetitive, but enjoyable.

The 30 minutes epic "Paul Atreides" sounds more like typical HELDON. The reason is that band members Didier Batard, at bass, and François Auger, at drums, participate at this track. Pinhas also adds guitar and mellotron to weave landscapes devastated by war, like on planet Dune. Although a bit long and dissonant, this futuristic drone composition is more varied, disturbed and immersive than the other ones. Nice. Where did I leave my spaceship?

Despite lengthy passages, "Chronolyse" is overall pleasant and more convincing than Richard Pinhas' first official solo release, "Rhizosphère". If you enjoy HELDON or repetitive electronic music, then this album is quite recommended.

'Rhizosphere' is machine music that sounds like it was recorded by one of those Drones on 'Tatooine' from 'Star Wars' in 1977.

Unlike his concurrent 'Heldon' band - there are no guitars used at all. This is purely electronic with a complete absence of vocals. 'Rhizosphere' displays all the technology and gadget twisting of 'Jean Michel Jarre' from the previous year with his groundbreaking 'Oxygene'. Thankfully it's mostly a lot darker in execution.

'A Piece for Duncan' verges on New Age Ambience in the style of Steve Hillages 'Rainbow Dome Musick'. Squeaks and bloops playfully doodle around the surface as a simple pretty echoing keyboard patters out a relaxing little tune.

Quite frankly, this whole album is far more listenable and pleasing than 'Heldon' to my weak and feeble ears that have been damaged beyond belief during the past 25 years of listening to 'difficult' music. As you can see it also displays a bizarre and wonderful front sleeve. It's meaningless, of course, but represents a surrealistic approach to the recording.

Swirling keyboards make up 'Claire P.' with a hypnotic and kaleidoscopic feel throughout. This is quickly followed by 'Trapeze Interference'. Being much darker and quite sinister, it's actually similar to early 80's Industrialists 'Konstruktivists' with its wind-tunnel, doom laden chords.

The 18 minute 'Rhizosphere' is a large slab of electronica played with a huge amount of heavily treated percussion, where every sound is squashed through electronic effects. Mostly 'flanger'. It is however, just a greatly expanded version of the excellent introductory track. It's all very 'Klaus Schulze' circa 1976. On a negative note, it gets too repetitive over it's lengthy duration with too few changes in direction to hold the listeners attention. The gradual but dramatic change in tempo is the only thing that warrants such a long track. Unfortunately it drags things down a bit.

At just 39 minutes running time some may feel a bit cheated out of their hard earned pobblebeads in purchasing such an album.