Jean-Claude Deblais – Le Miroir Du Fantastique

French film music composer Jean-Claude Deblais started his career playing electric guitar with Jean Cohen-Solal’s experimental jazz ensemble on the Captain Tarthopom LP, 1973, and as accompanying guitarist with singer Jean-Roger Caussimon between 1977-79. In the mid-1970s, Deblais started a collaboration with the Patchwork library music label, for which he took part to several collective LPs (including Children/Games, before 1975, and Flutissimo, 1975). In 1983, he released one LP for the British Shepherds Bush Library Music label, titled The Sound Gallery, with Stephane Gremaud and Fabien Chevallier. In the 1980s, Deblais turned to film soundtracks and music for children’s TV programs (see list below).

♫ Entirely focused on sombre, low resonances and cavernous sounds, Le Miroir Du Fantastique (or, In the Mirror of the Surnatural), published 1977, is a suite of atmospheric instrumental tracks intended for fantastic and horror movies. Deblais plays all instruments, including percussion (marimba, wood blocks, gongs), keyboards (piano and inside the piano, electric organ, synthesizer, even Ondes Martenot on #8 L’Esprit Voyage), strings (electric and bass guitars, banjo on #5 Nevroville), as well as flute. On several tracks, the piano is used to create lugubrious bell tolls produced while striking the bass strings repeatedly, a feature recurring often in the form of repeated, piano chords or string ostinatos, with or without synth drones. Like Guglielmo Papararo & Vittorio Montis’ April Orchestra Lp I posted before, also from 1977, Le Miroir Du Fantastique is influenced by Ennio Morricone’s film music of the 1970s, and I suspect this is exactly the brief Deblais received from the Patchwork A&R team.

01 Les Orgues de l’Épouvante (2:46)
02 Vampires (2:34)
03 Miroir du Fantastique (2:42)
04 Trompe des Cavernes (3:30)
05 Nevroville (2:56)
06 Sorcelleries (2:10)
07 Le Golem (2:55)
08 L’Esprit Voyage… (4:46)
09 Appel des Mutants (3:57)
10 Voix de l’Étrange (3:03)
11 Ondine (2:36)

Total time 33:55
LP released by Patchwork, France, 1977

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Jean-Claude Deblais‘ film music (tbc):
1982 Eden
1985 La Bande à Bédé (TV)
1986 Le Bonheur a encore frappé
1986 Flip Bouc (TV)
1987 Dorothée et la Voiture Rouge (TV)
1988 Go Crazy Go Crazy
1996 Chercheurs d’or (TV)
1997 Blake et Mortimer (TV)
2003 Bang bang je t’aime je t’aime

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Kinothek Percussion Ensemble – Suspense

Kinothek is apparently short for the German word Kinobibliothek, that is, cinema library. The music of Kinothek Percussion Ensemble is indeed intended as film music, but is not overtly library music as such. KPE was a one man affair, that of San Franciscan percussionist and sound artist Dna Hoover. In the late 1970s, Hoover studied sculpture in Virginia and California universities. He created sound sculptures using tape recorders or record players, neon lights, modified ceiling fan, etc. Musicwise, he had a duo with Bill Seaman as Evidence, an had one project with J.A. Deane of Indoor Life. In the 1990s, Hoover worked for film soundtracks or multimedia events. In 1992, for instance, he collaborated with Club Foot Orchestra’s clarinetist Beth Custer for the soundtrack to a film by Peter McCandless called The Braggart, the Soldier, and the Parasite (info from interview in Bananafish #5, 1993).

♫ Though the project is called Percussion Ensemble, this LP is far from what one would expect from a drummer’s solo effort. Instead, Suspense is a collection of elusive and enigmatic tracks recorded with synthesizer (possibly a Fairlight) and percussion, be it sampled or live. A typical track consists in a slow build-up of ambient synth washes, some synth loop, muted sampled percussion, and then live percussion. Some untold drama underlines parts of this music, which could indeed be used in films. In some synthesizer nuances, elaborate arrangements or dark atmospheres, echoes of other Bay Area artists can be perceived, like Philip Perkins’ King of the World LP (1983), Rhythm & Noise’s 1984 and 85 LPs, or even Andy Partridge & Harold Budd’s Through The Hill collaboration (1994).

01 Interruptus (4:03)
02 Snake’s Kin (3:02)
03 Yassou Sazoud (3:24)
04 A Rumble (on the Track) (2:20)
05 Assassin (3:42)
06 Broken Knees (1:50)
07 Gagaku (2:45)
08 Too Many Shadows (2:56)
09 Tsunami (3:27)
10 Vertigo (3:11)
11 Agitated (2:41)
12 Outback (3:08)
13 The Old Man’s Basket (2:55)
14 Arnhem’s Evil Giant (3:03)

Total time 42:24
LP released by Audiox, San Francisco, CA, 1989

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Kinothek Percussion Ensemble discography:
1987 Adventure, LP, Audiox
1989 Suspense, LP, Audiox
1992 Industry!, CD, No Man’s Land

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Tim Souster – Nice and Nasty

Versatile British composer Tim Souster (1943-1994) had a feet in rock criticism; electroacoustic music (in Cambridge’s King College with Roger Smalley); television, film and library music; improvised music (with bands Intermodulation and Ødb); and contemporary music (as a radio producer with BBC3 in the 1960s and as Stockhausen’s teaching assistant in Cologne during the 1970s). In 1974, Pierre Boulez conducted his Song of an Average City for orchestra and tape in London. Souster’s first LP was SW1T DR1MZ in 1977, a unique mixture of avantgarde traits and cheesy synth sounds. See BBC portrait here.

♫ Published 1982, Nice and Nasty started Tim Souster’s collaboration with the de Wolfe library music company. If the cover art is any indication, the music is not intended for romantic interludes and, indeed, the 13 instrumentals on this LP would suit more thrilling, action-packed movies. The music goes from guitar/bass/drums pop-rock efforts to deep, melancholic ambient compositions, like the exquisite #3 Stella’s Theme, reminiscent of Colin Towns’ extraordinary Full Circle film soundtrack, 1979. But the LP also includes a personal take on dub (#10), as well as strange, semi-improvised experiments, or almost contemporary music on percussion in the 2 last tracks.

01 Shakedown (3:33)
02 The Big Wind (2:44)
03 Stella’s Theme (4:52)
04 Still Waters (4:27)
05 Skyfighter (2:52)
06 Thunderscape (3:09)
07 Disco Coda (2:12)
08 Shark (1:55)
09 Mountain (3:01)
10 Rub-a-Dub (2:12)
11 Hamstrings (2:35)
12 Format 1 (2:23)
13 Format 2 (3:12)

Total time 39:07
LP released by Music de Wolfe, UK, 1982

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Tim Souster discography:
1977 SW1T DR1MZ, LP, Transatlantic Records, UK
1977 The Future Is Now, 7” single, Transatlantic Records, UK
1979 w/ Paddy Kingsland: The Hitch-Hikers Guide to the Galaxy, LP, Original, UK
1982 Nice And Nasty, LP, Music de Wolfe, UK
1982 New Music From England, LP, Leonarda Productions, N.Y.C., USA
1983 Action, Not Talk, LP, Music de Wolfe, UK
1983 Sonata/Equalisation, LP, Nimbus, UK (Ambisonic system)
1987 Scream And Scream Again vol.2, LP, Music de Wolfe, UK
1989 Great Moghuls OST, CD, Silva Screen, UK
1999 Electric Brass, CD, Doyen Records, UK
2001 w/ Intermodulation: Performants, in Not Necessary English Music, curated by David Toop, CD, Electronic Music Foundation, USA
2002 The Transistor Radio of St. Narcissus, in Stockhausen: Michael’s Farewell, CD, Deux-Elles, UK
2007 Hambledon Hill (string quartet) in Ghost Stories, CD, Signum, UK

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Augustyn Bloch – Unusual Sounds vol. 2

The son of a parish church organist, Polish contemporary music composer Augustyn Bloch (1929-2006) received his musical education in Warsaw, where he studied organ and composition (info from good bio here). He started his career in the 1950s as a concert organist and composer, broadly in the same family as Penderecki and Szymanowski. He was well recognized by the Polish state during his lifetime, holding official positions at the Polish Radio Theater (1954–77), the Composers’ Union (1977–79, 1983–87) and the legendary Warsaw Autumn Festival. Bloch also received a number of prizes both at home and abroad, including the Polish Ministry of Culture Prize in 1971, as well as prizes in Vercelli, Monaco, Paris and Brighton. He composed for all kinds of formations, from solo piano or organ to orchestral, from opera to music inspired by Catholicism. Bloch was married to soprano singer Halina Lukomska, born 1929, who premiered several of his vocal works.

♫ Subtitled Reflections, the first volume of Augustyn Bloch’s Unusual Sounds series was published in 1980 by German library music company Sonoton. Subtitled The Brain, the second volume, published 1982, collects short sound experiments in the field of contemporary music and musique concrète. Traditional acoustic instruments like piano, flute, trumpet and percussion, are mingled into an unsettling sonic brewage thanks to primitive electronic devices and radical sound treatments. Bloch favors inside the piano playing and percussion sounds from the piano’s structure, while flute parts are usually graced with generous doses of reverb. Several tracks use heavily slowed down or distorted metronome sounds, in a kind of Pierre Schaeffer abstract études from the 1950s – the same process is applied to shrilling cat meows on track #15. Elsewhere, seriously paranoid synthesizer interjections reinstate the menacing atmosphere pervading in the track titles, while some piano parts recall Krzysztof Komeda’s Rosemary’s Baby soundtrack. A fantastic LP, by any standard.

24 tracks
Total time 40:43

LP released by Sonoton, München, Germany, 1982

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Johnny Hawksworth & James Saunders – Ensemble

First renowned as a jazz bass player during the 1950s, British Johnny Hawksworth, born 1924, started composing for television in the 1960s (the famous Thames Television theme, 1968) and published many library LPs in the 1960s and 1970s on De Wolfe and KPM, among others. Apparently a flute player during the 1970s, James Saunders turned to electronic music in the early 1980s with his albums Power Source on Music DeWolfe, ref. 3412, in 1980 (see video below), and Teletex, on Rouge, 1981 (info here).

♫ Ensemble, published 1976, is a collection of instrumental miniatures for bass, guitar, piano and flute. Most tracks evoke peaceful and timeless moments in pastoral or cosy environments, like gardening, at home near the fireplace, a reverie in front of the window, etc. A delicious atmophere pervades these compositions, the quintessence of British mood music.

32 tracks

Johnny Hawksworth, upright bass, guitars, piano, celesta
James Saunders, flute, oboe

Total time 49:22
LP released by Music de Wolfe, ref. DWS/LO 3329, UK, 1976

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Jean-Pierre Drouet & Sylvio Gualda – Pour La Danse

Library LP by two French contemporary music percussionists, Jean-Pierre Drouet and Sylvio Gualda, who both premiered Stockhausen and Xenakis works for percussion in the 1970s. Pour La Danse is a series of miniatures for drums ala Semprun & Christodoulides using a vast collection of instruments from around the world. The album’s title implies these tracks are intended for dancers – and Unidisc published a lot of LPs for dance exercises during the 1970s-80s, generally with piano accompaniment – , but they largely eschew the obligatory square rhythms in favor of evocative atmospheres and textures, akin to painting with percussion, actually.

01 Safari (4:06)
02 Balladine (3:17)
03 Hokuzai (3:14)
04 Fourmillière (3:56)
05 James Band (3:00)
06 Robotic (3:13)
07 Oceanides (3:48)
08 Jardins d’Hafiz (3:07)
09 Gong Stell (4:08)
10 Dissuasion (3:31)

Total time 35:18
LP released by Unidisc, France, 1975

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D. Bradnam & W. Burrows – Open Land

David Bradnum, aka D. Bradman, is an English guitarist who produced several library music LPs in the 1980s. He notoriously paired with Dave Vorhaus on two projects,  the Electro-Graphis LP on Music de Wolfe in 1982 and Sound Conjurer on KPM in 1983. Since then he traveled to Africa several times and pursued composing in his home studio (see official website).

♫ Open Land is an atmospheric blend of Americana ala Ry Cooder’s Paris Texas and lush guitar parts related to My Bloody Valentine or 4AD production styles. These highly evocative instrumental tracks raise pictures of some Big Sky country landscapes. Flute and bass parts nicely complement the gorgeous guitar notes.

01 Soaring (3:16)
02 Blue Hills (2:49)
03 Free Spirit (3:53)
04 Cloud Shadows (3:46)
05 Open Land (3:53)
06 New Light (3:12)
07 Winding (2:59)
08 Reflections In Time (3:04)
09 Turning (3:05)
10 Fluted Air (4:19)
11 Places (3:14)
12 Still Air ( 1:20)
13 End Game (1:22)

Total time 40:12
LP released by Music de Wolfe, UK, 1986

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Andrzej Marko & Andre Mikola – Fly Me to the Sun

Andre Mikola and Andrzej Marko belong to the Polish connection on Coloursound. Mikola was a member of Orkiestra PR I TV Lodzi and  Orchestra Henryk Debich, both proto-funky synthesizer efforts with romantic strings a-plenty. Andrzej Marko is today a noted classical music composer and song arranger in the field of vocal music, Christmas carols and Neapolitan songs.

♫ Resplendent with positive energy and radiant optimism, Fly Me to the Sun is a collection of funky and sunny compositions for synthesizer and live instruments like drums, bass and guitar, the latter recalling the style of Harald Winkler-Rauter on The Denny Motion Group’s LP I posted earlier. The wonderful opener Dhamma includes some grandiose piano chords amid floating ambient sounds ala Steve Hillage. On number 9, Osmosis, one of the stand-out tracks on this LP, a mellow funky beat serves as a backdrop for a fine vintage synthesizer solo. To no surprise, the track has been compiled a couple of times on Polish electronic Jazz/Fusion compilations. The closing track, Solar Heating, is less cheesy thanks to an energetic slapping bass and clever drum machine programming, but here as well the synthesizer sends science-fiction traits over a proto-reggae rhythm.

01 Dhamma (3:25)
02 Circulation (3:37)
03 Magic Scenery (5:11)
04 Longing for Tomorrow (3:37)
05 Nocturnal Flowers (3:41)
06 Fly Me To The Sun (3:51)
07 Birth of a Butterfly (3:48)
08 Riding on a Sunbeam (3:56)
09 Osmosis (4:38)
10 Solar Heating (3:41)

Total time 39:24
LP released by Coloursound Library, München, Germany, 1983

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More Coloursound delikatessen:
The Denny Motion Group – Image >
Gil Flat – Little Children >
Milan Pilar – Nature – Spoiled and Unspoiled >

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