Sunday, February 11, 2007

Spacecraft-Paradoxe,LP,1978, France,(NWW list!)

Obscure french guitar/synthe duo: John Livengood (Red noise) on synthe and Ivan Coaquette on guitar (Clearlight, Delired cameleon family, Musica electronica viva). They released this unique record in 1978, actually a live album, featuring pieces from 1973, 1975 and the CD version features a 1977 bonus.
As the pieces tittles suggests, Spacecraft music is highly cosmic, astral and overall, acid. The first piece sends the listener in the third dimension without preamble. It evokes Gong, Clearlight, thanks to galactic synthe work. The music is not structured, it’s purely experimental. The dark mood may also evoke Heldon. Ivan Coaquette guitar interventions are quite rare but qualitative: he has a unique cosmic sound which sounds like no other. The last piece (bonus) “Pays De Glace” is a fascinating experimental hypnotic repetitive tune which is so weird and cerebral that it may be anguishing.
The sound quality is average on this record, suffering from a muffled sound. One of the most acid, dark and atypical record from the whole progressive.

Another review
Fitting somewhere between pre- Zuckerzeit Cluster, Atem period Tangerine Dream, The BBC Radiophonic Workshop, and Heldon comes this French private-press album (rescued from total obscurity by Spalax) of psychedelic, electronic space rock full of fizzy analog righteousness, tape echo, and arpeggiated bliss, accented by heavily phased guitars and other effects. Two ponderous guys with stacks of electronic gear and effects = pure cosmic drift. The "rock" link is tenuous, as there is no percussion to be found, only the propulsive tapping and modulation of analog rhythm machines and oscillators. This is a prime example of a long-lost obscure album finding it's own niche among all the other contemporary space heads of the mid-to-late 70's.
It's not terribly original or ambitious, (and can seem dated - but that's part of the appeal to me) but for what it is and how it's done, it's quite impressive. I'd imagine Pete Kember (Sonic Boom/Spectrum) has wrapped his ears around this once or twice...and maybe even borrowed some ideas along the way.

get it here

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

WOOHOO!!!, I've been hanging to hear spacecraft for ages, and I'm not disappointed, nice sounds! Very Heldon-esque in parts...

Anonymous said...

thanks so much for the spacecraft. a friend was just telling me how good it is, and he's right...its awesome.

Gianni aka Cesare Barbetta said...

fantastic cosmic trip!!!
thank you

Anonymous said...

Would you be willing too repost?
Thanks, Jon