Zeuhl 5

Seasons greetings!

There is a cracking little record shop in Ledru-Rollin (near to Bastille) whose name escapes me. Lots of rare krautrock and prog.

About 2 minutes from the old Rough Trade shop. Also near a very tidy Vietnamese restaurant (since banned). Their Chardonnay made me regress in time and imagine that I had become a Marcel Ducschamp fixated Alain Prost impostering as a painter/decorator with a serious Jackson Pollock complex.

Happy New Year to you Yuko and to all other members here!

Yuko, I received this week something you might be interested in:

Speed Limit - s/t

Look



See the lineup?

I also bought Troisieme Rive - Banlieues, Memoriance - L'Ecume Des Jours, Arachnoid and Dun (finally to change the mp3's).

I will purchase more French goodies in January (Oniris, Chene Noir, Komintern etc).



    

Edited by avestin - December 31 2006 at 09:58

BTW, I found this article that might be very interesting. It's in French, so I don't understand much of it myself, but a lot of RIO/Zeuhl bands are mentioned, as well as other experimental rock groups:

http://carnetsnoirs.free.fr/bonus/cn_grandsanciens.pdf

(I also posted this in the RIO Drop-In Centre.)

avestin wrote:   See the lineup?

Wow avers! I see! Where did you dig this up? On my most wanted list. cd reissue?

	Capsicum Red
	Captain Beefheart
	Chamberpot
	Checkpoint Charlie
	Théatre Du Chêne Noir
	Chillum
	Henri Chopin
	Chrome
	Cohelmec Ensemble
	Jean Cohen-Solal
	Collegium Musicum
	Roberto Colombo
	Companyia Electrica Dharma
	Comus
	Cornucopia
	Crass
	Creative Rock
	Cromagnon
	David Cunningham
	Cupol
	Dadazuzu
	Wolfgang Dauner
	Martin Davorin Jagodic
	Debris'
	The Decayes
	Dedalus
	Deep Freeze Mice
	Deutsch-Amerikanische Freundschaft
	Dharma Trio Listed under "Dharma Quintet" (the trio became a quintet in 1971)
	Dies Irae
	Dome
	The Doo-Dooettes
	Philippe Doray / Thierry Müller
	Roger Doyle
	Jean Dubuffet
	Dzyan
	Eiliff
	Emtidi
	Eroc
	Etron Fou Leloublan
	Exmagma
	Family Fodder
	Patrizio Fariselli
	Faust
	Luc Ferrari
	Fille Qui Mousse
	Floh de Cologne
	The Flying Lizards
	Foodbrain
	Förklädd Gud

	Lily
	Limbus
	Bernard Lubat
	Alvin Lucier
	Magical Power Mako
	Magma
	Colette Magny
	Mahjun
	Mahogany Brain
	Radu Malfatti Listed with Stephan Wittwer (cf. Thrumblin, FMP)
	Michael Mantler
	Albert Marcœur
	Mars
	Maschine No.9
	Costin Miereanu
	Min Bul
	Mnemonists
	Modry Efekt (a.k.a. Blue Effect or M. Efekt)
	Moolah
	Anthony Moore
	The Mothers of Invention
	Moving Gelatine Plates
	Fritz Müller
	Thierry Muller Also see Ilitch.
	Musica Elettronica Viva
	Music Improvisation Company
	Mythos
	Napoli Centrale
	Negativland
	Neu!
	New Phonic Art
	Nico
	Night Sun
	The Nihilist Spasm Band
	Nine Days Wonder
	Nosferatu [DEU]
	Nu Creative Methods
	Oktober [DEU]
	Yoko Ono Also listed under "Plastic Ono Band"
	Operation Rhino
	Opus Avantra
	Orchid Spangiafora
	Out of Focus
	Ovary Lodge
	Tony Oxley
	Parker / Guy / Lytton & Marilyn Crispell Listed Parker & Lytton
	Pataphonie
	Jean-François Pauvros Listed Pauvros & Bizien
	Pere Ubu
	Pierrot Lunaire

	Thrice Mice
	Throbbing Gristle
	Tokyo Kid Brothers
	Tolerance [JPN]
	Tomorrow's Gift The band also included a member of Sphinx Tush, who were listed separately (though they only released two compilation tracks)
	Trans Museq
	Uli Trepte
	Twenty Sixty Six and Then
	Univers Zero
	Christian Vander
	The Velvet Underground
	VERTØ
	Patrick Vian
	L Voag
	Michel Waisvisz
	Igor Wakhevitch
	Ned Sublette and Lawrence Weiner Lawrence Weiner (Some sources misspell this entry "Lawrence Wiener")
	James Chance & the Contortions Listed under "James White & the Contortions"
	Whitehouse Earlier incarnation "Come" also listed
	Wired [DEU]
	Trevor Wishart
	Woorden
	Robert Wyatt
	Iannis Xenakis
	Xhol Caravan
	Ya Ho Wa 13 / Ya Ho Wa
	La Monte Young
	Frank Zappa
	ZNR
	Zweistein [DEU]

From that insanely long list I'm currently obsessed with Igor Wakhevitch

Igor Wakhevitch was an obscure French composer who apparently took pleasure in messing with peoples’ heads. He had studied with Terry Riley, Olivier Messiaen and famed stage director Pierre Schaeffer, as well as having ties with the Soft Machine and Salvador Dali. I would say that his very odd mastery of noise, experimental classical and synthesizer technology was none too compromised by his mental state.



Logos '70 (debut)
With such a background, and a concept based on Greek legend, Logos "Rituel Sonore" amounted to a revolutionary creation for a 1970 release. Even if you know works like Pierre Henry’s The Green Queen, which was weirdly comprised of rock and avant-garde musics fused together, you’ll still be in for a surprise. Here we have a soprano singer, strange orchestral textures and percussives (drums, cymbals, gongs, etc.) blended with effects and processing. As the ominous percussion sets off with drum-rolls and ritualistic tension, the mood is of a looming anticipation of what is to come. here we go through phases of weird swirling effects, vivid reverb and atmosphere. The tension becomes overpowering, yet we are led on. Here we have the key to Igir Wakhévitch’s sound, in a tension that becomes awe-inspiring.
The climax of the whole opus comes with "Danse Sacrale" , an extraordinary psychedelic instrumental performed by Triangle (one of the earliest French psychedelic bands) that has to be heard to be believed. A great band in their early days, this goes to prove that Triangle were not just Pink Floyd cum Traffic copyists. This all amounts to a unique fusing of psychedelia and the avant-garde, and an awesome experience !




Docteur Faust '71
-This is the most obscure album of the lot. I’d never hit it before this release. Aptly in tune with the title, it is also one of the strangest. Docteur Faust was created for a festival in Avignon, and was later choreographed. Though, the mind boggles as to how anyone could dance to this. "Full of fury and energy" to quote a reviewer at the Avignon festival, it certainly is !
On one hands this is a more balanced blending of classical and dramatic musics, yet also it is much more extreme. There’s a wealth of sonic collage, dense musique-concrete, and bizarre musics that collide and fragment against rock structures. There’s also moments of pure classical avant-garde moving into ensemble pieces feeling like Henze meets Ligeti or Xenakis. The use of electronics is really vivid too. There are no rules or boundaries in what makes up a Wakhévitch composition ! The rock elements return throughout this album and, although not credited, I would guess that again Triangle members are featured. The guitar reminds of Alain Renaud, and percussion is quite distinctive, backed-up with weirdly treated organ. Although a short album, it is so engrossing and weird that it would be too-much if it were much longer.




Hathor '73
Dating from 1973, shortly after working with Terry Riley on his Happy Ending soundtrack,
there’s an obvious big advance in Hathor "Lithurgie du Souffle Pour la Résurrection des Morts", with greater use of keyboards, synthesizers, and looping techniques. But Hathor is no mere synth album, far from it, but is Igor Wakhévitch’s most powerful opus. Making use of the Paris Opera choir (no-less), along with weirdly processed vocals, his usual off-the-wall electronics, and even drum/sequencer drives unprecedented in any form of music before this. It’s another sonic roller-coaster ride, in which we experience an ominous bellowing God-like voice heralding something visionary.
As with his previous albums, Hathor contains a number of separate tracks that continue or segue from each other, amounting to what feels like one work. Here, we have surging electronic and percussion drives, a climax sparked off by lightning, thunder-crashes, a wealth of weird contorted voices, and much much more. Here tension gives way to intense power resulting in a kind of dark Vangelis - on the edge ! With a weird Gothic choral number and another electronic rock opus to follow Hathor really flies ! Only the closing coda offers relief, with a reflection on obvious Terry Riley influences, and hinting at the albums to come. All text is taken from Fractal Records


I have his four first albums. (Fourth being a completly avantgarde piece for written for ballet called:  Les Fous d’Or) Avantgarde, Progressive Electronic, Krautrock and occult mass in one. Especially these three has enough prog(rock) relation to be considered here. My current favorite composer. Not as difficult as it may look. Lots of dark beauty, and plenty og melody and quite a bit of rock. 

Rocktopus, I'm definitely going to have check out some Igor Wakhevitch, sounds like my area of music.

It is. Pm me (btw:you're full)

This one is absolutely brilliant! The reviewer forgot to mention some very funny farting sounds, almost a solo!



A very eclectic French underground album. It starts off with a perverted, avant-garde waltz and after, they take you on a rollercoaster of styles. A dazzling collage of seemingly contradicting musical forms comes along. Among them are Soft Machine-styled jazz rock, chamber rock, French chanson, gypsy music, a touch of Zappa, folky parts and psychedelic acid-rock. Despite the experimental, uncompromising atmosphere, the concept in its entirety works excellently, in my opinion. The concept of the album as a whole is probably best compared to the early Mothers of Invention albums, although Zappa's collage style was infused with different musical influences (no Varese, doo-wop or free jazz influences on Komintern's album). The diversity of styles and the occasional goofiness may get on some people's nerves, but I think that Le Bal du Rat Mort is an excellent and unique album. Gnosis2000

Oh and by the way, I added Abus Dangereux :
http://www.progarchives.com/Progressive_rock_discography_BAND.asp?band_id=2799