Broadcast about the French underground 68-77

[Soleilzeuhl]

An interesting broadcast from FRANCE CULTURE, a national radio :

http://www.franceculture.fr/emission...unk-2014-02-12

While mostly interesting for the French speaking, there are nice bits of music.
Fascinating to hear (from Richard Pinhas himself) that the first HELDON LP (back then 100% self-produced with no distribution) sold 19.000 copies during the first few months !! Times have somewhat changed since then...

A.

[N_Singh]

The most fascinating musical thing about France '68 (May '68 national strike, et al) for me is the strange soundtrack it served for a Vengelis record. I forgot which one, but I heard it years and years ago. He recorded a lot of protests and dialogues and used them on the record.

[Scrotum Scissor]

He recorded a lot of protests and dialogues and used them on the record.

The whole of Aphrodite's Child were residents among the "artists in exile" commune in Paris at the time, due to the military coup-d'etat in 1967. Several other seminal Greek musicians stayed there as well during this period, most notably Theodorakis of course, but also pop/rock acts like Axis, Poll and Kastas Tournas. As for "field recordings" from the riots, Daevid Allen famously included a substantial bunch of them already on Bananamoon.

The French underground phenomenon was unique and really fascinating, and just as rewarding IMO - artistically and musically speaking - as the one in West Germany. Some of the most idiosyncratic artists and works in all of rock/pop history emannated from this time and place, and most of them reached that level of aesthetic introversion through a sense of politicized awareness. They were quite fruitfully anarchic days, I think - and the sales reports on that first Pinhas/Heldon release just go to show.