Browse by Artist: BESOMBES, PHILIPPE

Artist:	BESOMBES, PHILIPPE
Title:	Cesi est Cela
Label:	MIO RECORDS (ISRAEL)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.00
Catalog #:	MIO 010CD

Third volume in MIO's Besombes reissue program, following Libra & Pole. First time on CD. Features recordings made in France 1972-1979. "A chemist by training, Philippe Besombes was engaged in the French avant-garde scene from the early 1970s. Abandoning his doctoral degree for his pioneering work with new electronics in different musical contexts, he supported himself through the seventies creating the sounds for theater and ballet, and was a well-known audio engineer in the French contemporary concert scene. Perhaps best known for his group Hydravion, Besombes still records and releases music at his studio in Versailles. This 1976 release includes early ballet music that was originally recorded between 1974-1975 for several contemporary ballet groups in Paris. The recording was assisted by Jean Louis Rizet, with whom Besombes was then working in his recording studio. Bonus tracks include 2 early pieces from 1972 (recorded during his time engineering for Stockhausen, Nono and others at the Festival d¹Art Contemporain de La Rochelle) and thirty additional minutes of unreleased ballet music from 1975, which is among his best work for theater."

Artist:	BESOMBES, PHILIPPE
Title:	Libra
Label:	WAH WAH RECORDS (SPAIN)
Format:	LP
Price:	$28.00
Catalog #:	LPS 081LP

"When the bunch of filmmakers known as The Pattern Group (Roland Moreau, Georges Perdriaud and Jean Talansier) did Libra, their second movie, in 1973 they thought it would be a good idea to use bits from Pink Floyd's Ummagumma and Atom Heart Mother to create its soundtrack. The movie, a 90-minute film with no dialogue, depicts the story of four youngsters living in communion with nature, an idyllic life that is drastically changed when a U.S. satellite crashes in the area and attracts the attention of journalists and TV crews that come to destroy the peace of the place. Obviously, the Pink Floyd bits had been used without permission, and The Pattern Group saw they needed an original soundtrack if they wanted the film released without legal trouble. They approached Jean-Michel Jarre, who declined the invitation to create the new soundtrack, but suggested instead Philippe Besombes. Besombes was a sound explorer who walked similar paths as other avant gardist young musicians from his generation such as Richard Pinhas (Heldon), Paul Putti (Pôle), Jean Louis Rizet or Jean-Michel Jarre himself (way before he became the famed wizard of commercial synth music as we know him today). Besombes was requested to produce a soundtrack 'in the style' of those Pink Floyd tracks used. However he came up with that and more. Always aiming to find new ways of musical expression, he produced music that fitted perfectly in what the filmmakers needed but which was totally of his own. Surrounded by a cast of friends, he locked himself in the basement of his girlfriend's father (who even ended up providing the financial funds for the project to reach an end!) and taped the amazing sounds that form the Libra soundtrack, a landmark in French electronic tripping music. The soundtrack was recorded in 1974, and it was released as a vinyl LP on the Tapioca label in 1975. It has since become a highly sought-after LP among collectors of electronic music worldwide, and gets its first vinyl reissue on Wah Wah in a deluxe edition that features a lavish 12" sized, six-page booklet with plenty of photographs from the era and information on the making of Libra in texts written by Philippe Besombes himself and Raul G. Pratginestós."

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