comfort - Wild and Fragile

The lost Belgian blueprint of Brussels based jazz fusion and how free form Franco-Flemish punk put Zeuhl school in the Classroom via to the conception of COS.

Emerging from behind the same clouds that kept formative Belgian progressive jazz records like Brussels Art Quintet and Kiosk’s Mona Call in tangible obscurity, these impossibly rare early Euro jazz recordings shed a new ray of light on the intricate foundations of the scene that elevated COS, Marc Moulin, Placebo, Marc Hollander and Telex to Zen master status, while also capturing one of Europe’s best female vocal artists in the midst of her wide eyed and uninhibited prime.

Idiosyncratic, intrepid, psychedelic, scholastic? Affirmative. But not once do these recordings resemble pages of a dog-eared sketchbook. Expertly executed and recorded, this semester of progressive proto jazz fusion symposiums capture the group as they unveil the unique strain of experimental ‘Flower Music’ (a title worthy of a lost Don Cherry album?) that would imminently blossom into the trailblazing COS powerhouse. Listen closely and hear the sound of this outernational mutating quintet as they tear up the rule book and still graduate onto the International jazz rock scene with flying psychedelic colours. Fans of COS tracks such as Mein maschine ist schön and L’Idiot Léon will herein identify the foundations of Pascale Son’s early experimental, non-lyrical and onomatopoeic vocalisations which would earn the band favour amongst early Zeuhl aficionados, thus winning the group support slots with Magma and historically leading directly to the Classroom/COS overnight metamorphosis. These recordings capture that precise chink in time and the eureka moment where Daniel Schell’s experiments become a leading life force. Constantly forward-thinking with a don’t look back mantra, these recordings have remained nestled on old acetates and magnetic tape akin to similar lost Low Country albums such as Alain Pierre’s mythical L’enfant grandit synth opus and Placebo’s coveted Three Days In April TV recordings.

Never before released on vinyl, these tracks provide us with a sonic chalkboard of Daniel Schell’s ambitious musical equations, recalculated by precocious polymaths, then conveyed via Pascale Son’s inquisitive child-like vocal explorations. For those keen to learn the Histoire De Melody COS? The classroom door is open - prepare to be schooled!

lnk.to/Cclassroom

Classroom

Sur deux

Classroom - Sur deux

FKR063X
Andrzej Korzyński 
Third Part Of The Night

Released 29th September 2023

As one of the most triumphant and beguiling directorial debut features to emerge from the fruitful Polish New Wave, Andrzej Żuławski's 1971 film Third Part Of The Night not only earned the 30 year old filmmaker a place next to other radical Polish directors such as Polanski, Skolimowski and Has, but also galvanised a creative bond with long running collaborator and composer Andrzej Korzyński, providing fans of foreign abstract/suspense cinema with a potent creative fusion to match those of Polanki/Komeda, Fellini/Rota and Argento/Goblin, amongst others.

Quite simply one of the heaviest psych rock film soundtracks of all time Andrzej Korzyński's short and unreleased score matched the blueprint that adorned the drawing boards of conceptual French jazz orch rock composers like Jean-Claude Vannier, Francois De Roubaix and Alain Gourageur, creating a soundtrack that unknowingly begs comparison to Masahiko Sato’s Belladonna Of Sadness and Billy Green’s Stone. As one of the first progressive pop writers to come out of the vibrant (but carefully scrutinised) Polish beat scene with his bands Ricecar 64 and later Arp Life (and composing for national heroes such as Czeslaw Niemen, Niebiesko-Czarni and Test) Korzynski’s growing passion for conceptual rock and jazz music soon lead to instrumental composition and soundtrack scores.

His cinematic debuts scoring two consecutive transitional new wave films for Andrzej Wajda (in collaboration with the radical Polski pop groups Trubadurzy and Grupa ABC) also provided Korzynski with another significant cinematic muse in that of the stunning actress Malgorzata Braunek with whom they would both eventually achieve their finest performances under the direction of the ravenous first timer Żuławski. Third Part Of The Night (1971) perhaps epitomises that triangular on-screen unison in its vibrant youth and feeds it through a hallucinogenic mangle finding astonishing beauty (within a repulsive synopsis) against a bleak and shattered backdrop and accompanied by progressive, psychedelic orchestral rock music - elements which would intensify for all three creatives with the next film, Diabel, which was banned by the Polish government the following year until 1988.

Third Part Of The Night also marks the public unison of Żuławski and Braunek whose later private romantic relationship is said to form the basis for another defining Żuławski/Korzyński defining endeavour with the 1981 film Possession exactly a decade later, encapsulating a period that bequeaths a previously unopened vault of some of the composers finest and most inspired sonic adventures.

Third Part Of The Night

W instytucie

Andrzej Korzyński - W instytucie

Beyond the Sphere

Binary Star Dub

The Globeflower Masters Vol. 2 is the slightly edgier and more grown-up sequel to Mark and Glenn's 2021 debut album. For this excursion, the Brighton-based duo wanted to lean a little further into their European film soundtrack influences, with inspiration mined from the works of Stefano Torossi, David Shire, and Roger Webb. This expansion of their sound builds upon the rich tapestry of cinematic funk à la David Axelrod, Serge Gainsbourg and Morricone that fashioned Vol. 1.

The Deluxe Edition of the album features five new tracks, comprising two new original recordings, a piano solo version of the closing track from the original album, and two remixes from Project Gemini and Andres y Xavi.

‘Shaded By Your Side’ takes things right back to the moody, dark and Axelrod-inflected sound of their first album. Much of this track was played in single takes to try and retain as much of the urgency and spontaneity as possible. 

‘Return to Salvador’ is described by the duo as if “Shuggie Otis and Marcos Valle have one too many caipirinhas and decide to visit outer space”. It fuses together Mark's space sounds and floaty pianos with Spanish guitar and busy, melodic bass creating a musical trip from the grounded and earthy sounds of Vol.1’ to the more upwards-looking and musically diverse sound of Vol.2.

The remixes give a different flavour to the release, but both pay homage to the original recordings. Sharing a mutual admiration for each other’s work, it seemed like a natural choice to ask Project Gemini to contribute. Here is what he had to say about his rework, “I’m a big fan of both volumes of Mark and Glenn’s ‘Globeflower’ LP’s and it was a huge honour to get a chance to rework one of my favourite tunes from Vol.2. There are many great layers to ‘A Voyage North’ so it was a lot of fun to choose my favourite elements, then put some Project Gemini flavours and sounds into the mix and create something new whilst hopefully keeping some of the spirit of the original track. A darker, fuzzier take on the album version”.

When Glenn first passed the original album to Steve KIW, his collaborator in Balearic production outfit Andres y Xavi, this was one of two tracks which he picked out as having some particularly Balearic DNA. As such, pushing this concept to its logical conclusion seemed like the obvious thing to do. There’s a shaded sunset sound paired with a 4/4 beat of Latin-leaning.

Glenn Fallows & Mark Treffel - Moogs Over Jupiter

Glenn Fallows & Mark Treffel - A Voyage North.WAV

Glenn Fallows & Mark Treffel - Ely To Chi

Glenn Fallows & Mark Treffel - Echo The Oread

Glenn Fallows & Mark Treffel - Vibe Sharp

As Good As It Gets

The Other Side Of Melancholy

Ambers song Genesha 
Was born out of a new collaboration with Parqushea,
In the midst of our hot tropical summer. So we start the new year off with an ambient chill flow. 
Ambers delicate vocals weave through fields of contrasting atmospheric harmonies. 
Chris's guitar infusions complement the soundscape with Neil Orange Peel's percussion.
Arrangement, & production By Orange Peel
His vision brings all the elements together in a chilled ambient track.

Vocals ,Rhythm Guitar  : Amber Legay
Guitar  : Chris O'Shea
Bass  & Percussion : Neil Parker
Song & Lyrics : Amber Legay
Recording ,Arrangement, & production By Neil Orange Peel

Ganesha

Record label. Record shop. Film label. Since 1989.

Glenn Fallows & Mark Treffel - Echo The Oread

Mr Bongo