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LP
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PHI 6332017LP
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Exact repro edition. First-time vinyl reissue of two extraordinary documents from Catherine Ribeiro + Alpes. Born from the tumult of the '68 riots in France, Ribeiro + Alpes defined a uniquely Gallic take on the progressive psychedelia of the time. This is ecstatic music fusing European medieval traditions with the contemporary free jazz of the era. Ribeiro, with her confrontational and surrealistic poetry, along with Patrice Moullet's invented instruments, defined a genre unto themselves and created some of the most original music of the early '70s with these two masterpieces. Ame Debout breaks much new ground for 1971, with Alpes joined by Gong keyboardist Patrice Lemoine and his bassist brother Jean-Sébastien. Rather than trying to fuse recognizable musical styles with vocals, Ame Debout illustrates Alpes's relationship with Ribeiro as something instantly more elemental and complicated. The music launches immediately into a radical sound world of acoustic guitar, bass, stabbing and soaring organ, scuttling percuphone, and celestial cosmophone. The album retains a repetition stretched across tracks and time that shifts ever so slightly but rarely responds directly to Ribeiro's vocals. The band's instrumental work drifts hazily beneath Ribeiro's swells, supporting her harmonically but never displaying enough ego to act as anything other than a platform for her existential angst, as if to conjure her id onto tape. These elements converge on Ame Debout, transforming a largely improvised combination of instrumentation and vocals into the utmost emotional expression. Included on the legendary NWW list. Remastered sound. One-time limited pressing of 500 copies.
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