Guy Chalon & Yuri Korolkoff ‘Mai 1968′

01 Jacques Sauvageot + Alain Geismar + Daniel Cohn-Bendit (6:30)
02 Manifestations Etudiantes et Témoignages sur la Répression (6:33)

Yuri Korolkoff: location recordings & sound montage
Guy Chalon: interviews

7” single. No label [Acousti], no release date [1968].

Probably released in 1968, along Guy Chalon’s 2 documentary films on May 1968, this single describes itself on the cover as ’sound excerpts from a worker’s film with collaborator Guy Chalon‘. Actually, Chalon, a documentary film maker and May 1968 activist, directed 2 films on May 68 in Paris, inspired by marxist propaganda movies: ‘CCP’, a short collage of b&w photographs denouncing the cops’ violence (pictured above), and the 30′ ‘La Société est une fleur carnivore’, b&w, 26′, both realised on the spot in May 1968. This is probably a promo single for the former. Yuri Korolkoff was a film technician and sound engineer running his own independent ‘Acousti’ company. Please refer to this picture galery for more May 1968 flavor. The 2 tracks are montage of riots field recordings and activist interviews, with the occasional official blunt politician for counterpoint. Recording quality is impressive and the cut-up technique is faultless, comparable to what Xavier Garcia is doing nowadays with radio archive recordings. Sound quality is baffling and the result sounds extremely lively with a sense of actually being there. Riot sounds are so incredible at times, it seems the microphone is set on the pavement between students protesters and the riot police. The A side features excerpts from 3 interviews with ‘68 french activists, but the final mix also embarks street field recordings, passers-by, shoutings and political sloganeering. The B side has more interviews as well as explosion sounds and worker’s union chanting. It’s time to reacquaint yourself with the rebel in you.

Download.