Pierre Henry / Michel Vitold / Silvia Montfort L'Occident Est Bleu / L'An Cinquante-Six

Reissued for the first time! Plus 2 Bonus Tracks! Pierre Henry is most popular among rock fans for his collaboration with the English band SPOOKY TOOTH in 1969 but already had a great reputation as composer and performer in the field of modern classics, musique concrète and pioneering electronic avant garde. And so it is obvious that there have been quite a few albums by him and in cooperation with other artists not necessarily from the field of music. This record at hand dates back to 1958 and has been issued in an utterly limited quantity of 333 copies which nowadays go for 400,00+ EUROS among collectors. It features sound contributions by Pierre Henry, spoken word performances by popular French actors Michel Vitold and Silvia Montfort basing on two texts by fellow actor and singer Claude Pascal. It can be rather seen as an audio book than a regular music record backed with sounds. And the musical part of this album is even quite intense with a haunting atmosphere. If you understand French fairly well it will certainly bring you even more joy. This is a haunting affair, droning and disturbing at times. The drone music, the musique concrète shows the roots of what should become cosmic music in the late 60s and early 70s performed mostly by artists such as TANGERINE DREAM. And indeed there are a few moments here that remind me of the classic „Zeit“ double album by Edgar Froese and his mates. You have to engage in this record if you want to really enjoy it for this is just utterly strange. A sound experiment, a twisted and creepy manifestation of weird thoughts in something that is loosely connected to music. A challenge for sure. But if you love the obscure and have a heart for avant garde music you are welcome to this first ever reissue of a long time vanished record.