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#98182
LIBRA
Philippe Besombes
1975, Pole
France
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Libra is the score to an experimental feature by the 'Pattern' group, one it seems that is impossible to find (I've tried!), a dialogue-free film about four people living in harmony with nature whose existence is upset by a crashed US satellite!

Whether the film is any good I cannot say, but the freakout electro-psych score by Besombes and a large assembled group of superb French musicians is incredible. Somewhere between acid prog and proto electronica, the tracks on the LP conjure a synthetic science fiction landscape which probably has very little to do with the movie they accompany, and it's just a superb, trippy stand alone album.

The original Pole Records edition can still be found for not too much, and there have been a few nice reissues including a current release on blue vinyl in 2017.

https://www.discogs.com/Philippe-Besomb ... ter/168681

I love this soundtrack, from a very heady era of French experimental/rock/psych which also birthed the likes of Jean Claude Vannier and Jean Pierre Massiera! I would also heavily recommend this to anyone who is a fan of the score for PHASE IV by Brian Gascoigne/Desmond Briscoe/Stomu Y'amashta. Hits that sweet spot pretty hard. There's a good bit of Pierre Henry's classic "Psyche Rock" vibe on many of these tracks as well, leading me to think that they may well have some musicians in common?

I will also say that by Track 4 - Ballad En Velo - you can also discern a pretty clear influence upon AIR and Sebastian Tellier.

Here's an extensive appreciation from Head Heritage:
https://www.headheritage.co.uk/unsung/review/1501/

Here's the full soundtrack:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1h9sC7Gg9qU

Enjoy the trip, circle spinners......you may never return........