Cacophonic HHV Records 8 Items

Cacophonic present this outstanding, commonly undetected Pierre
Henry film score, providing fans of early electronics, femme vocal
manipulation and horror soundtracks with an indespensable ‘dream
record’ that ticks every box and crosses out every line in the rule
book.

The lesser-spotted jazz atoms that formed the fusion of Futurist Flanders! It might sound like an ambitious claim but having been a firm fixture at the top of many European jazz collector want lists over the past decade Finders Keepers wouldn't be alone when proclaiming this extremely rare, lesser-known two-track 7" from 1969 as one of the best jazz 45s of all time! Alongside Polish pianist Krzysztof Komeda's soundtrack 7" for the film Cul-De-Sac and ranking closely with François Tusques' commemorative Le Corbusier exhibition 45 (featuring Don Cherry) this format-specific release known only as Brussels Art Quintet might well sit at the top of the podium while striking similarities and arguably combining the best stylistic traits of both aforementioned contenders.

This is all speculative and clearly a matter of individual opinion but it's not often that one should find a recording from this era, comprising such high production qualities, keen compositional values and robust craftsmanship spread across two equally spellbinding individual tracks, all of which awards this record justified hyperbole albeit subject to a 50 year delay. It is safe to say that this unique release is "rare" on many levels. Like all privately pressed art projects this 45 comprises some serious outsider art trappings. However, on closer inspection it also stands as a pivotal record in the micro-genre of Belgian jazz, pin-pointing an early axis for some vital progressive jazz players who went on to become sturdy pillars of the central European happening.

Essentially as a five-piece, the short-lived Brussels Art Quintet neatly combines members of both the mythical Babs Robert Quartet (early exponents of Belgian spiritual jazz) and key players from the leading progressive jazz/rock/funk unit known as COS (formally Classroom) who would stand as close affiliates of the likes of Marc Moulin, Kiosk and Placebo through the 1970s. Reproduced in close collaboration with COS leader Daniel Schell, who, under the early guise of Daniel "Max" Schellekens, authored both tracks that make up this facsimile 45 single, this one-off single includes the only known output by the Brussels Art Quintet thus marking the essential in-road to instantly start and complete your entire BAQ collection not without reliving the early germination of the froward-thinking jazz fusion that came to shape Belgium's truly unique movement.

Further concrète explorations from the second generation of forward-thinking sonic auteurs that would push the boundaries of experimental music known collectively as the Groupe de Recherches Musicales - founded by the father of musique concrète, Pierre Schaeffer - which has influenced generations of artists across the world.
Undoubtedly one of the most influential experimental and electroacoustic musicians, Pierre Schaeffer is also credited as being the father of the theory of musique concrete as well as later coining the term itself. Having found a job in 1936 at Radiodiffusion Française (later Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française or RTF) as an engineer, Schaeffer developed a newly found interest in music and with the blessing of his superiors made the most of his access to the Radiodiffusion Française studios, utilising his abilities as an engineer to experiment with sound whilst collaborating with musicians and composers that passed through the station’s hallowed doors. In 1942 Schaeffer and influential theatre director, producer and actor Jacques Copeau founded the Studio d’Essai (renamed Club d’Essai in 1946) as part of RTF in order to experiment with radiophonic techniques. Drawing on the works of French filmmaker, critic and novelist Jean Epstein, Schaeffer would occupy his time and his mind with the manner in which sound recordings “revealed what was hidden in the act of basic acoustic listening” and in 1948 formally set about his research in ernest – the results of which were presented as a series of studies known as Cinq études de bruits (Five Studies of Noises) during a concert in Paris.

This record represents an important milestone in the development and progression of musique concrète.
Featuring early works from some of the most importand and respected experimental composers of the 20th century, including Luc Ferrari, Michel Philippot and François-Bernard Mâche overseen by Pierre Schaeffer, the father of musique concrète.
Beauttifully remastered with the original liners notes translated here for the first time

As Finders Keepers disobedient little-sister-label reaches her 20th (release) anniversaries
Cacophonic Records are proud to present a record that will not only leave rare record
collectors salivating but will open ambitious ears to a truly pioneering album from the seldom
celebrated and individualistic micro-genre that is French free Jazz. Comprising some of the
earliest uninhibited performances from key musicians behind records by Serge Gainsbourg,
Jef Gilson, Triangle, Don Cherry, Barbara and countless other groundbreaking European jazz
records and freakish films, this LP captures the birth of an exciting movement that would
soon earn its Parisian birthplace as the go-to European spiritual home of improvised and
avant-garde music. Spearheaded by polymath pianist and composer François Tusques this
1965 French LP coined the phrase “free jazz” before the American genre of the same name
had fully taken shape and packed its suitcase; laying the foundations (alongside Jef Gilson’s
Enfin!) for a unique satellite brand of jazz that would later provide visiting afro American
avant-gardeners with a vibrant Parisian platform. Having recorded a very rare single in
celebration of the architect Le Corbusier in late 1964 Tusques was lucky enough to play
live with Don Cherry (a key player on Ornette Coleman’s 1961 Free Jazz LP) thus planting a
pedigreed seed for this vibrant cultivar.
With this record we not only hear the unique differences within the Gallic approach to the art
form (combining masterful sombre cinematic changes with aerated free-form percussion and
erratic reed and brass) but we also get to witness the early lesser savoured secret ingredients
that would carry France’s mainstream pop culture into truly uncharted and unrivalled
territories throughout the following decades. Best known to faithful Finders Keepers fans as
the soundtrack composer to the horrortica films of Jean Rollin, Tusques is joined here by sax
and flute player Francois Jeanneau, who’s electronic jazz album Such A Weird Plane” would
later lead to his own band Triangle gaining recognition as France’s leading French language
prig-jazz-rock act. Featuring three players from the aforementioned Enfin! LP by French jazz
pioneer and producer Jef Gilson, Free Jazz combines the skills of Jeanneau, with clarinet
player Michel Portal (Gainsbourg Percussions/Claude Nougaro) and trumpeter Bernard Vitet
(whose avant-garde appearances on the Futura label are indispensable). In addition to this,
Free Jazz also boasts the inclusion of Tusques’ sidekick and double bass master Bernard
“Beb” Guérin (of Sonny Sharrock Monkey-Pockie-Boo infamy) who had also appeared on
the earlier Don Cherry/Le Corbusier recording providing further kudos to this LPs historical
importance.
It is by no coincidence that this carefully selected ensemble would around this time become
enlisted as the backing group for politically driven singer-songwriter Colette Magny (an action
which would arguably later influence Brigitte Fontaine’s choice to adopt The Art Ensemble Of
Chicago as her backing band after the Actuel records Pan-African Jazz festival and record
series). The fact that Colette Magny would provide the art direction for this very LP is a cute
small-print signifier of this LPs intended manifesto status. This album also captures a rare
glimpse of percussionist Charles Saudrais in free-form mode after his departure from the
Barney WIlen Quartet (Moshi) - an inclusion that would surely galvanise the relationship
between WIlen and Tusques resulting in the follow-up record Nouveau Jazz for actor Marcel
Mouloudji’s privately funded Disques Mouloudji label (on which both rare LPs were originally
pressed).
This glimpse into a seldom documented underground of a domestic, revolutionary,
uncompromised spiritual art-form successfully reveals the other-side of abstracted French
music which alongside musique concrète, protest pop, symphonic rock and Zeuhl-skool
electronic prog created a homegrown, self-contained music industry that went on to influence
a universe of Gallic magnetic inspiration. “This is free jazz, Jim; but not as we know it.”

The first-ever dedicated album release by pioneering female Italian film music composer/arranger/multi-instrumentalist Giulia De Muittis (aka Mrs. Alessandro Alessandroni). Rare undercover pseudo-ethnological studio sessions made under her experimental alter ego Kema (The Pawnshop/Abnormal Sensations) combining the ethos of Can’s Ethnological Forgery Series (EFS) with the studio trickery of Delia Derbyshire and unshakable credentials as one of the founding figures of Giallo film music and Italian psych soundtracks.

Perhaps best known amongst fans of Italian production music and Giallo movie soundtracks as the wife of the legendary Alessandro Alessandroni, composer, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Giulia De Muittis was an equally formidable force who emerged from the formative years of the aforementioned anti-genres and rose to a monarchic status within the country’s vibrant, and seldom rivalled musical secret society. The cliché “behind every successful man, there is a strong woman” might not do Alessandro and Giulia’s long-running creative unison justice but one thing that rings true that in the shadows of Senor Alessandroni’s limelight (illuminated by his work with Ennio Morricone for the films of Sergio Leone and Dario Argento) remained a darker musical feminine force which in time has come to represent the duo’s finest and most sought after sonic artifacts. In a career that spanned four decades until her untimely death in 1984 Giulia’s collaborative work as a reliable creative all-rounder and pop polymath has stood the unshakable test of time like few other musicians resulting in projects like The Pawnshop, Femina Ridens, Revolver, Questo Sporco Mondo Meraviglioso, The Night Evelyn Came Out Of The Tomb, Angoscia, Inchiesta Giudiziaria and Witchcraft ‘70 (Angeli bianchi Angeli neri) earning increasing “Most Wanted” status on the collectors’ market. It is of no coincidence that Giulia’s nom de plumes, Kema and De Muittis, have in recent, more educated years, become trusted seals of approval which connect top choice composers such as Raskovich (aka Sorgini), Stelvio Cipriani, Morricone, Braen (aka Alessandroni) Amedeo Tomassi, Piero Umiliani and Bruno Nicolai amongst select others. It is, however, De Muittis’ seldom heard self-initiated solo work for small independent Italian library music imprints that reveal a unique multi-instrumentalist female composer working at her most intimate and uncompromised best.

Filed neatly and undisturbed within the micro-genre of 1970s Italian artsploitation, amongst
films soundtracks such as Girl With The Crystal Plumage, A Quiet Place In The Country and
House With The Laughing Windows, this obscure library LP is one of the few fully formed
concept albums from the recently reappraised discography of Rome’s most versatile and
adventurous female production music composer Daniela Casa. Once destined for a shelf life
within the storage rooms of defunct TV studios and educational facilities Daniela’s previously
strictly commercially unavailable music has in recent years been given new focus at the
hands of open-minded disc detectives and sonic salvage hunters earning Casa’s distinctive
feminine take on experimental instrumental mood and movie compositions a place next to
her widely respected masculine counterparts such as Alessandro Alessandroni, AR Luciani,
Pierro Umiliani, Morricone and Nicolai.
Sharing tight studio space and strict syndication schedules with all of the aforementioned
artists (under commission from Romano Di Bari’s fervently independent Flipper music factory)
Daniela Casa embraced a liberating wind change in affordable music technology which opened
doors for uninhabited solo compositions in home studios taking advantage of communal
recording consoles and domestic synthesisers which nurtured a lesser-documented creative
family tree (or rather secret society) and paved the way for individualistic projects from the
likes of Magnetic System’s Fabio Frizzi and Goblin’s Claudio Simonetti. Here, on this repress
of the impossibly rare, one-time subscription-only album, Arte Moderna, we find Daniela at
her versatile best creating a wide thematic suite (based on paintings and sculptures in an
abstract art gallery) for which she would deploy mostly organic and acoustic instruments
to construct a set of unorthodox compositions straddling avant garde, free jazz and Giallo
tension (with some brief moments of brooding electronics and italian pop).
Veering from her stylistic pop interests (which clearly included a fondness for the music of
Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin) Daniela Casa’s Arte Moderna saw her adopt a less era
specific approach combining neo-classical elements and piano improvisations akin to the
likes of France’s Francois Tusques or Burton Greene, or America’s Mal Waldron without
compromising her strong narrative personality for this unique abstracted picture music.
Unintentionally but profoundly political in her prolific existence Daniela Casa’s contribution
to a predominantly male industry earned her a small clutch of inspired idiosyncratic Italian
female bedfellows such as Nora Orlandi, Giullia De Muittis (aka Kema), Fiorella Fratini, Emma
De Angelis and Maria Teresa Luciani, who, with faceless anti-celebrity as its essence, never
benefitted the wider critical focus that much of this music now duly commands on the
collectors circuit.
Finders Keepers Records, in continued collaboration with the Di Barri company, with the
Casa/Ducros family blessing, are now proud to shine new light on this sonic sculptures and
provide a fresh context where educated music listeners are ready to fill the gaps between
Delia Derbyshire, Ennio Morricone, Suzanne Ciani and Harry Partch and patronise a very
welcome considered alternative to the recent rise in popularity of Italian Giallo soundtracks
from a seldom savoured feminine creative vantage point. Daniela’s musical paintings can
now be unveiled to the public for the first time, with Modern Art sounding as contemporary
as it did when it was recorded forty years ago. The gallery is now open for limited sittings,
discerning ears and open minds.

Often overlooked for over half a century while misfiled amongst exploit bellydance
records and holidaymaker souvenirs this one-off twelve track album is the only
existing full-length record by the best-kept mutant musical secret of the Armenian
American diaspora, oud pop maestro Charles ‘Chick’ Ganimian.
One of the earliest examples of any kind of recorded fusion between rhythm heavy
pop music and traditional Turkish music, Ganimian’s developments in New York
City - with his sadly unrecorded turk jerk combo The Nor-Ikes (New Dawn) combo
- ran almost simultaneously alongside the rising Anadolou Pop scene in Turkey,
resulting in his short lived powerhouse of Kif proto-rock under the changing names
of Ganim’s Asia Minors, Ganimian & His Orientals and Ganimian & His Oriental
Music Orchestra. Combining a line-up of mostly unknown musicians from his local
community (where he was worked as a butcher), Ganimian, in a short unison with
ATCO records, was fortunate enough to accommodate jazz guitarist Al Schactman
as part of his studio personnel (launching the career of this Nina Simone regular)
as well as French born Armenian folk singer Onnik Dinkjian and reid player Steve
Bogoshian (both from the band The House Of The Seven Uncles) as well as the
esteemed Turkish raised Kanun player Ahmet Yatman. As one of the very few early
American recorded authentic Middle Eastern fusion record Come With Me To The
Casbah has piqued a refined interest in a new generation of progressive world
music collector resulting in a distinct drought in original Ganimian pressings on
the collectors’ market earning Chick’s name a rising placeholder on the want lists
of DJs, vinyl hounds and ethno psychedelia collectors.
This LP includes all of Ganimians recordings including the rare singles for Atco
and East West which sit awkwardly next to bizarre and unique takes on popular
American standards enhancing the exciting freak factor of this record which simply
could not be made by today’s stifling self-aware anti-standards. Aside from rare
(poorly recorded) private family tapes this album is the only chance to hear the
music of this lost enigma of early world music, Eastern fusion and a missing kink
in the fabric of New York pop music history captured before his short stint as an
exotic Herbie Mann sideman which proceeded his migration into obscurity and
his well-imparted tragic struggle with alcohol dependency depriving pop culture
of a forward thinking pioneer who paved the way for the more credible exponents
of the cross-continental Indo fusion enigma such as

Vinyl with a dent on the first track