Transversales Disques France Vinyl & CDs

Review: Earnest, atmospheric, romantic-gothic guitar pieces from Alain Goraguer, whose Rare Soundtracks & Lost Tapes hears a collection never heard before on vinyl. Goraguer is best known as a collaborator and ghostwriter of Serge Gainsbourg, as well as the scoring composer for the surrealist sci-fi animation film Fantastic Planet. At around the same time of the making of these two indelible compositions, Goraguer also wrote two similar, but less publicly-oriented scores, both of which appear on this record in a back-to-back fashion. An array of breathy flutes, eerie backing synth counterpoints, and shaky percussions all combine to cloud the glasses on this beautifully bittersweet album-length hypnosis.

Review: The original soundtrack composed and performed by Jean Michel Jarre for the 1973 French movie 'Les Granges Brulees' (The Burned Barns), directed by Jean Chapot, hears a reissue. The soundtrack was originally released in 1973 by Eden Roc and features experimental electronic music influenced by Jarre's work at the G.R.M (Groupe de Recherches Musicales). Now re-released by Transversales Disques, its various concrete meanderings and mysterious polyrhythmic resonances continue to beguile.

Review: French composer Jean-Michel Jarre, world renowned for pioneering electronic music on a grand scale, emerges here in his formative years, already pushing at the edges of sound. Created in 1972 while working at the Groupe de Recherches Musicales, this early studio project captures a young innovator experimenting with an EMS VCS3 and a Farfisa organ. Tracks like 'Music Box Concerto' and 'Synthetic Jungle' weave eerie melodies into mechanical rhythms, while 'Rain Forest Rap Session' and 'Exasperated Frog' embrace playful abstraction. Jarre himself called it a "pirate record," assembled in his student room and smuggled from GRM's studios after hours. A raw, unfiltered glimpse into his early creative instincts, it foreshadows the expansive, cinematic style that would later define his career.

Review: Gifted multi-instrumentalist Rahsaan Roland Kirk at the height of his powers, backed by his Vibration Society, including long-term cohorts pianist Ron Burton, powerhouse percussionist Joe Habao Texidor, Dick Griffin on trombone, drummer Jerome Cooper and Vernon Martin on double bass. Five impeccable pieces are laid out and played out by the circular-breathing prodigy here, from the opening serenades of 'Sweet Fire' to the funking upstart seduction, 'My Cherie Amour'. A closing slave song satire, 'Volunteer Slavery', hears the stritch player go ham on a rapidly tempo-upping soul build, his singular sax seeming to dance and resound in every corner and cranny of the stereo field.

Review: Thelonious Monk's Live in Paris (1966), a previously unreleased recording, captures the jazz icon in his element. Released by Transversales Disques, this lost ORTF session finally sees the light of day, offering a rare glimpse into a performance at Studio 104, Maison de la Radio. Featuring Monk's legendary quartetiCharlie Rouse on tenor sax, Larry Gales on bass, and Ben Riley on drumsithis recording is a treasure for jazz fans and historians alike. Monk's unique approach to piano shines through, as the quartet navigates his complex compositions with finesse. Rouse's tenor saxophone dances alongside Monk's dissonant harmonies, while Gales and Riley provide the rhythmic backbone that keeps everything grounded. This first-ever official release is a historical gem that transports listeners to a defining moment in Monk's career.

Review: Here's something to set the pulse racing of any serious jazz enthusiast: a recently rediscovered recording of a live performance made by the Pharoah Sanders Quartet at the Grand Auditorium at Studio 104, Paris, in 1975. The tenor saxophonist is undoubtedly the star of the show throughout, though the fluidity of the double bass playing, the loose-limbed drumming and the rush-inducing breeziness of the piano parts - especially on "Love Is Here" parts one and two, which reminded us of another Sanders classic "You've Got To Have Freedom" - are all equally as ear-catching. Musically, it's as inspired as you'd expect, nestling somewhere between the great maestro's greatest "astral jazz" recordings and more traditional forms of jazz.

Review: You had us at hello. Or at least you had us at weird French sounds from the 1970s, a decade that played a pivotal role in modernising musical processes, techniques and instruments, among other things. With names like Gilbert Becaud & Christian Gaubert, Jean Schwarz, Jacky Chalard & Gilbert Deaez and Alain Goraguer, those more in tune with this era in Gallic sound culture will know this is going to be a varied ride. Hence we open on 'The Organization', a piece that nods to the classical heritage of screen scores and captures the laidback attitude of the late-1960s perfectly, before moving through a wealth of styles, including proto-New Wave, post-punk, Kraut and meditative moods. For want of a better description. Nothing you won't have encountered before, but certainly pushing in new directions at the time.