/ Musiq XXL /.

Africadelic is the classic 1972 album composed and recorded in the span of one week by Manu Dibango, after the encouraging success of his monster hit « Soul Mokossa. » Here he continues to fuse Afro-Caribbean flavors with the contemporary Latin and funk influences of the day, resulting in a highly soulful, highly danceable album.

After the success of je t’aime moi non plus, Serge Gainsbourg admits: it’s time to get down to real business. And the serious stuff is a concept-album like pop delivers then, from Sgt Pepper’s (Beatles) to La Mort d’Orion (Gérard Manset) to Léo Ferré’s double album Amour Anarchie. The serious stuff is to commit oneself as a full-fledged performer, not to get lost in commissioned works.

The soundtrack of a man and a woman is one of those stories of chance, circumstances, failures… Francis Lai and Claude Lelouch do not meet directly, but through the intermediary of lyricist Pierre Barouh. At the beginning of the sixties, Barouh, also a comedian in his own time, plays in a modest production directed by a young man, crazy about cinema and unusual framing.

« I arrived in America excited about living new adventures after ten years of French cinema with the New Wave ». Fourteen years after his debut as a composer for the image with Henri Verneuil’s Les Amants du Tage (1954), Michel Legrand, still haloed by the tremendous success of Les Parapluies de Cherbourg and Les Demoiselles de Rochefort, set himself the challenge of America.

Within the oh so elusive club of the cult soundtrack, there exists one rare record which provokes a deep fascination and evokes a unique charm for those having heard of it, or those lucky enough to have listened to it (but an exclusive few). A veritable Holy Grail, relentlessly pursued by many, each hoping, one day, to own a copy of this unique and unrivalled work.

Miles Davis was 31 years old when he recorded the soundtrack of Elevator to the Gallows, his first score. In November 1957, the trumpet-player embarked upon a short European tour with pianist René Urtreger’s trio.

About the importance of the first times… With The Virgin Suicides, Sofia Coppola begins her career as a director, Kirsten Dunst explodes in her first major role and Air composes his first soundtrack. Jean-Benoît Dunckel and Nicolas Godin have just completed the American tour of their debut album, Moon Safari, when they cross paths with the daughter of the director of Apocalypse Now and The Godfather.