A keyboardist who uses all the possibilities of his synthesizers with finesse and intelligence to create a varied and inventive electronic music.
| LP | La séquence du Holter | (AGE 175) | 1982 |
Jean-Luc HAMONET is a talented multi-instrumentalist (guitar, sax, flute) and with the aid of the group which accompanies him (amongst which are the three members of ALGUE) plays a melodious, ethereal, sophisticated and pleasant rock. He offers a solely instrumental music built around the guitar chords, the quiet flowishes of the flute or the sounds of the organ, in a musical tradition very close to CAMEL at the beginning of its career. He elaborates a sometimes delicate, fragile, or rather energetic but always elegant music.
| LP | Mélodie, mélodie rock | (KO/821203) | 1983 |
Madagascan jazz-rock played by saxophonist Richard RAUX (ex MAGMA and RHESUS 0) and his brother Patrice; pure swing, colourful and warm music. An African flavour is mixed to their compositions which are dominated by the majestic saxophone and flute of Richard RAUX, wonderful and inspired musician.
| LP | Hamsa | (Fiesta 360.068) | 1976 | |
| LP | Hamsa Music | (Mercury 6313 142) | 1981 | |
| LP | Feel good at last | (Freelance FRL 004) | 1984 | (under his own name) |
The former keyboardist with the excellent group TRAVELLING has not abandoned the world of music and has recorded four albums, two piano solos, one tending towards current jazz and one in a quartet with Daniel HAAS (former ANGE bassist). On this album, his keyboards create an impressionistic and suggestive music, with an atmosphere in turn serene, nostalgic and dreamlike which is sometimes evocative of CATHARSIS or FUHRS and FROHLING.
| LP | Couleurs du temps | (Crypto ZAL 6468) | 1978 |
| LP | Mécanique mentale | (Crypto ZAL 6497) | 1980 |
| LP | To jazz or not to jazz | (Y.H. Impro 001) | 1983 |
| LP | Soleil noir | (Y.H. Impro 002) | 1984 |
One of the mythical groups from the early '70's. Throughout their career they played numerous concerts and festivals throughout France including one festival which featured the whole ARCANE label (headed by ANGE). Greatly influenced by ANGE they left a legacy of one single before disappearing in 1978 as a result of the media's incomprehension.
| SP | Le chemin de l'oubli/Le chemin de l'oubli 2eme partie | (7763) | 1974 |
Dashiell HEDAYAT, alias MELMOTH, produced his second album following "La devanture des ivresses" along with a group renowned for its folly, the group GONG, which managed to bring out the best in this underground poet's delirious and surrealistic texts.
| LP | Obsolète | (Shandar 10.009) | 1971 |
One of the most original national groups, along with MAGMA, to have emerged from the French progressive trend. HELDON offers an electronic sound which is repetitive, jerky, violent, often verging on the unbearable. Its music is inhuman describing a world of machines and robots and based on the agressive and oppressive rhythms of synthesizers and sequencers. Richard PINHAS makes sharp and frenzied interventions on guitar into this resultant rhythmic web.
| LP | Electronic Guerilla | (Disjuncta 000001) | 1974 |
| LP | Allez Teia | (Disjuncta 000002) | 1975 |
| LP | It's always Rock'n'Roll | (Disjuncta 000006/7) | 1975 |
| LP | Agneta Nilsson | (Urus Records Disjuncta 000 011) | 1976 |
| LP | Un rêve sans conséquence spéciale | (Cobra COB 37002) | 1976 |
| LP | Interface | (Cobra COB 37013) | 1978 |
| LP | Stand by | (Egg Records 900 578) | 1979 |
| SP | Soutien à la RAF/Baader Meinhof Blues | (Disjuncta 101) | 1975 |
| SP | Perspective 1 Bis complément/Perspective 4 Bis | (Urus Records Disjuncta 102) | 1976 |
One of the few French groups (with EVOHE, PATAPHONIE and some others) who subtly mixes the influence of the Canterbury school with their own personal and original musical ideas.
| LP | Il y a des jours | (AYAA DT 0385) | 1985 |
| 1 titre sur la compilation 12 pour 1 | (AAA A01) | 1982 |
A disconcerting record which can be classed with the most original experimental attempts made by groups such as MOTHERS, FAUST and even HELDON. A strange and surrealistic atmosphere; disturbing, humorous music. A record which belongs in the category of marginal, delirious works.
| LP | Gwendolyne | (Frigico Records 3004) | 1979 |
It's almost a big band whose inspiration is drawn from French satirical rock groups: MARCOEUR, MAHJUN, ETRON FOU. Good compositions whose the vocal parts sometimes evoke ZAPPA. HERBE ROUGE shares with ZAPPA the same derision, the same liking for pastiche, musical diversion and humoristic and surrealistic lyrics. The brass section sometimes plays movements and developments in the same vein as some bands or frenzied orchestras like Willem BREUKER.
| LP | Côté cour, côté jardin | (Scopa Invisible 10003) | 1978 |
This young pianist is fond of musical adventures, playing in different contexts and different musical forms, recording first in duo, then with a big-band and finally in trio and, in spite of the diversity of the musical shapes he tried successfully to produce a music with regular quality and to assert himself by his talents as a pianist and composer.
| LP | Horizons | (Philoé Music VK 1282) | 1982 | (-avec le vibraphoniste Andy EMLER-) |
| LP | Live in Paris | (Philoé Music VK P1283) | 1984 | |
| LP | Trio | (Philoé Music VK 1284) | 1985 |
This formation of 5 musicians offers a progressive, very polished, energetic and powerful jazz-rock in the same vein as ABUS DANGEREUX, but with more instrumental research, the use of humour and the integration and influence of New Music. HIATUS plays an elaborate jazz-rock built on very complicated themes on which the guitar, sax and keyboards create surprising musical developments. The group is fond of sudden breaks in rhythm and complex developments. An original and inventive jazz-rock.
| LP | Avant-demain | (HI 5893) | 1984 | (Cryonic MAD 3014) | 1985 |
Roland HOLLINGER has abandoned the new floating synthetic rock or agressive electronic music played by HELDON and proposes an electronic original, suggestive, imaginative music which creates many different climates, successivly serene and calm atmospheres, sound and mental landscapes. He uses many electronic instruments and is helped by a second keyboardist and François LAIZEAU on the drums.
| LP | Bardes Thodol | (Scorpios SC 109 407) | 1978 |
A group whose music is inspired by MAGMA around the time of its first album: the same atmosphere, the same fondness for broken rhythms and the use of a language, the sound of which is not dissimilar to the one used on KOBAÏA. If this very strong MAGMA-influence is not taken into account, HONEYELK is a very convincing group whose music is rich, inventive, polished and technically excellent. Apart from a slight lack of character, this is a very good album, unrecognized and rare.
| LP | Stoyz Vi Dozévéloy | (Oxygène OXY 047) | 1979 |
Experimental music within the limits of rock, free jazz and contemporary music. A mythical record - with a limited value- on the Futura label.
| LP | Gestation sonore | (Futura SON 03) | 1971 |
This big band is composed of musicians from Lyon and Grenoble and led by Pierre DREVET (trumpet) and ex-SPHEROE, André MANOUKIAN (keyboards). This band is surely the best that has appeared on the funky jazz-rock scene in France these past years. Its main ingredients are a tonic rhythmic section, fiery brass section, inspired soloists... and Cathy VALDEZ's extraordinary voice.
| LP | Horn Stuff | (Adda Records 81009) | 1981 |
| LP | Horn Stuff + Cathy VALDEZ | (Metro Records JB 102) | 1983 |
A mixture of progressive and jazz-rock signed by an old hand at French rock: Jean-Pierre MASSIERA.
| LP | L'étrange Mr Whinster | (Eurodisc 913063) | 1976 |
These former ARTCANE musicians have moved away from too evident KING CRIMSON influences and kept only the ethereal and majestic aspect of their music. The keyboards are sometimes acoustic, sometimes synthetic, creating a slow, quiet atmosphere halfway between ENO's background music and the spacious and serene themes favoured by VANGELIS.
| LP | Un certain pays | (Cryonic MAD 3016) | 1985 |
An album of varied compositions and different influences signed by a pleiad of sessionmen (Bunny BRUNEL, Tony BONFILS, André CECCARELLI...) whose music drifts from one style to another throughout the whole album offering a mixture of funk, swinging jazz, disco and Oriental and African style melodies. A bizarre and impersonal record.
| LP | Human Egg | (Crypto ZL 37156) | 1978 |
An another keyboardist who proposes a melodic and very rhythmical electronic music in the same vein as Jean-Michel JARRE, VANGELIS or Frederic MERCIER.
| LP | Benoît HUTIN | 1982 |
CHUTE LIBRE's former keyboardist re-surfaced with a solo album divided between a modern and exuberant electric jazz and an intimist and lyrical acoustic jazz.
| LP | Six Songs | (JMS 030) | 1983 |
Philippe BESOMBES's experiences with a structured and coherent group which is more than just a gathering of friends. Even though the keyboards dominate, the other musicians are equally capable of showing off their talent to produce a varied music, sometimes floating, sometimes closer to an electronic rock in the manner of Jean-Michel JARRE or which at times even develops exotic sounds.
| LP | Hydravion | (Cobra COB 37.012) | 1978 |
| LP | Stratos Airlines | (Carrère 67350) | 1980 |
With HYPOTHETICAL PROPHETS, Bernard SZAJNER carries on in his own personal musical direction offering a sound in the same vein as his solo albums, namely an electronic music which is powerful, hypnotic and extremely original.
| LP | Around the World with the Prophets | (CBS EPC 25116) | 1982 |
| Maxi SP | Wallenberg/Budapest 45 | (Hyp Rec 2VG2) | 1982 |
| SP | Back to the Burner/Back to Siberia | (Hyp Rec) | 1979 |
| SP | Back to the Burner/Back to Siberia | (CBS 8550) | 1980 |