dimanche 31 août 2008

Bernard Xolotl and Daniel Kobialka - Procession (1983, rip of the 1993 CD)




Okay, let's start the third week of my blog with an almost forgotten gem, by French electronic composer Bernard Xolotl (born 1951). As a teen, he discovered electronic music through the works of musique concrète French school, with composers such as Pierre Henry or Pierre Schaeffer. Pink Floyd, Klaus Schulze and Ash Ra Tempel, Riley and La Monte Young were Xolotl's main inspiration during the early seventies. In the late seventies, Xolotl, who created his studio in California,  was a forerunner of the forth-coming "new age scene" through his work with Cyrille Verdeaux (Prophecy, 1980). Procession could be considered as one of his most innovative works. He used, among others, PPG Wave 2.2, Yamaha C60, Arp Analogic synthesizer, vocoder, Korg Monopoly etc. Violin player Daniel Kobialka joined him for this project.

Procession was released as a cassette, and in 1993, was released again as a CD, with some additions and editing, by German company Erdenklang.

Procession is pure "kosmische musik", very close to Klaus Schulze's Dune and X albums, wherehe worked with cello player W. Tiepold. Procession could be a French interpretation of what the Berlin School was about... 

I rediscovered Procession during recent archeological excavations in my CDs collection... And I still love Procession's mood, sound, atmospheres, climates... Space music, with vintage synthesizers, symphonic climates mixed with a violin solo voice, analogic sequencers mirrored through echoes...

It is a very Schulzian album, and at the same times, it is also a step in the history of Californian new age music. 

It is space music at his best....

Close your eyes, you are in outer space...

links: mp3 / 320

password: olduvai

1 commentaire:

cdeck a dit…

thanks...I'll give it a listen, I've never heard of him, it should be a good listen. Again thanks congrats on 3rd week of your blog, hope you have many more. I do check it almost everyday...Cdeck