Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark
Architecture & Morality

To write these few lines, we spoke to saxophonist François Jeanneau, an old friend of Jacques Thollot who also played on several of his albums, including the “Watch Devil Go” which interests us here. He told us a story which, according to him, sums up the personality of Thollot. A noted studio had reserved three days for a Thollot recording session. The first morning was devoted to sound checks and putting some order in the score sheets which Jacques would hand out in a somewhat anarchic manner. Then everyone went for lunch. When the musicians returned to the studio, Thollot had disappeared. He wasn’t seen again for the three days. When he reappeared, he had already forgotten why he had left, The music of Jacques Thollot is in the image of its’ author: it takes you somewhere, suddenly escapes and disappears, returning in an unexpected place as if nothing had happened.Four years after a first album on the Futura label in 1971, Jacques Thollot returned, this time on the Palm label of Jef Gilson, still with just as much surrealist poetry in his jazz. In thirty-five minutes and a few seconds, the French composer and drummer, who had been on the scene since he was thirteen, established himself as a link between Arnold Schoenberg and Don Cherry. Resistant to any imposedframework and always excessive, Thollot allows himself to do anything and everything: suspended time of an extraordinary delicacy, a stealthy explosion of the brass section, hallucinatory improvisation of the synthesisers, tight writing, teetering on the classical, and in the middle of all that, a hit; the title-track - that Madlib would one day end up hearing and sampling.“Watch Devil Go” was in the right place in the Palm catalogue, which welcomed the cream of the French avant-garde in the 70s. But it is also the story of a long friendship between two men. Jacques Thollot and Jef Gilson had known and respected one another for a long time. Though barely sixteen years old, Thollot was already on drums on the first albums by Gilson starting in 1963 and would play in his big band (alongside François Jeanneau once again), ‘Europamerica’, until the end of the 70s.In a career lasting half a century and centred on freedom Jacques Thollot played with the most important experimental musicians (Don Cherry, Sonny Sharrock, Michel Roques, Barney Wilen, Steve Lacy, François Tusques, Michel Portal, Jac Berrocal, Noël Akchoté...) and they all heard in him a pulsation coming from another world.Jérôme "Kalcha" Simonneau

Dark Fields stands out from the barrage or recent Spanish experimental-industrial underground re-issues as one of the most obscure and surrounded by mysticism.One massive track with no cuts, recorded in 1979 under the motto "a silence that makes dogs bark" and released by Klamm in 1983 in a tiny edition of 300, the trio disbanded shortly after finishing the recording and never looked back.Darker than tar atmospheres with Resident's like vocals, this is the brainchild of Caballero T's obsessions with Brian Eno's work, who found the perfect partners in Tres' psychotic vocals and the studio wizardry of Señor Nada. Reissued by Madrid's Equilibrio, who already gave us Randomize's ¿Como se divertirán los insectos? Not for the faint of heart. [info sheet from distr.]

Debut album from Kenya born, Berlin based percussionist, vocalist, DJ, producer and “musical witchdoctor” Alai K, combining music from eastern Africa, ancestral customs and the rituals of danceOn moving to Berlin, Alai went raving regularly and became enamoured with underground dance music culture. “I love techno and believe that African drums influenced the percussion and programming: lt’s coming from the same place; with both you get extended periods with no chorus or verse, just occasional chanted or chopped vocals. In Africa people play drums and dance for hours, which is the same experience as western electronic music”, says Alai.Alai started living and recording in Berlin 3 years ago, in a one- room flat shared with his family. He would constantly be in flux, setting up his small studio in the kitchen, then packing it away again when they needed to cook. He later hooked-up with a notable Kenyan percussionist based in Hamburg called Izo Anyanga, and over several trips down the autobahn they jammed acoustically, with just drums, marimba, xylophone, and some good weed. The vibe was huge, and the pair decided they wanted to make a record, which could easily transpose for performance to a crowd. Music from eastern Africa, ancestral customs and the rituals of dance are deep in Alai’s DNA. His great grandmother was a singer and composer, and his father was a professional drummer, who alongside friends and family would play spiritual music from Bajun like Ndurenge, Kirumbizi and Bati, all night long, to uplift the spirit, or remember the dead.

Depuis maintenant quelques années, L’Impératrice s’est imposé en tant qu’ambassadeur de la disco-funk revival à la française. Révélés au grand public avec leur troisième EP Odyssée (chroniqué ici), le sextet parisien est passé d’illustres inconnus à un grand groupe détonnant. Et c’est dire qu’ils étaient vraiment attendus au tournant avec leur premier album. Et bien, rassurez-vous ou plutôt devrais-je dire prenez garde car Sa Majesté débarque sous vos ondes avec Matahari.

A1 132 - A2 128 / B1 130 - B2 83