TRAITÉ DE MÉCANIQUE POPULAIRE

Very few people know about this band whose music is a blend of classical, chamber music with jazz and (sometimes) rock

ZNR was founded in the mid seventies by Hector Zazou, who was soon rejoined by Joseph Racaille. They could be qualified as the core of the band, as they played the most important role in the compositional process of ZNR's albums, even if they were helped by André Jaume on saxophones, David Rueff on violin and Patrick Portella on clarinets. Louize Alcazar, herself, took care of all the arrangements. ZNR's music, often wrongly labelled as avant-garde even if it should appeal to admirers of the genre, is one of the most accessible band defined as such. Traité de mécanique populaire was released in 1980 on Scopa Invisible label. Pretty much in the same vein as its predecessor, but lead more by classical instruments played by Hector Zazou and Joseph Racaille, this album consists of a collection of short pieces, all of which are directly related to each other.

Zazou and Racaille were both clearly influenced by modern composers, notably Ravel, Debussy and Satie. The impressive compositional level of ZNR's music, often based on counterpoints, polyphony, modality and dissonance contributed to make it as renowned to the lovers of chamber rock as it is. ZNR always achieves to rouse the listener with the touching melancholy of its music. Traité de mécanique populaire is recommended to anyone who likes progressive music with a classical sensibility and a tad bit of jazz thrown in it.

Popular? No. Mechanical? No. A treat? Definitely Yes

Google says the title of this fine record means 'treaty of popular mechanics'. I prefer to believe it means 'popular mechanical treats'. ZNR's second album is collection of perfect tiny mechanisms, more recognisably chamber music than their first, gentler, with fewer of the surreal sonic shocks. It is again a series of miniatures, this time much more like Racaille's 'Six Petites Chansons' EP. Fred De Fred (Yes, that Fred) does some subtle, quiet spray-canning here and there, and there's also some free jazz sax, but otherwise, no WTF moments. Again, Satie is everywhere. Out of time, durable.

ZNR and the band CLEARLIGHT both evolved out of the band BARRICADE who were an avant band formed in France in the late sixties. We had Cyrille Verdeaux who would form CLEARLIGHT and release their first album in 1975. And we had the two keyboardists and composers from BARRICADE Joseph Racaille and Hector Zazou forming ZNR, or if you will, Zazou aNd Racaille. They released their debut in 1976. This record I'm reviewing is album number two, their final release from 1978. I really hope that on that historic looking album cover, that it's Zazou and Racaille in the picture above the bed.

ZNR released two very different albums with the debut being more of a keyboard album, especially the synths standing out. While this record I'm reviewing is more acoustic and more like chamber music. It is chamber music! We get a lot of short pieces here with nineteen tracks worth over just 34 minutes. There are many reviewers and the like who know way more about music than I do who rave about this record. I personally don't get it. But then this is quite slow moving and acoustic for the most part and I have little patience for that. Some even call this a beautiful album, but again I am missing the boat when it comes to these opinions. Over my head, or my tastes in music are just that different.

The lineup shown here on the site is not right. They are a six piece and they're showing the lineup from their debut and three of those members aren't on this one including the drummer, as there are no drums on this one. We get the two keyboardists, two horn players, violin and guitar. This album is often quite slow moving with sparse sounds. The violin sounds acoustic and traditional sounding and I'm not into it or this record at all. Apologies to chamber music fans. The cover art on ZNR's debut by the way was done by Captain Beefheart. Who knew?