Igor Wakhevitch |
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Rocktopus
Forum Senior Member Joined: March 02 2006 Location: Norway Status: Offline Points: 4202 |
Topic: Igor Wakhevitch Posted: September 01 2007 at 17:48 |
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I say its about time to add my hero. Composer Igor Wakhévitch. He's Kraut, Space/Psychedelia, Eclectic, Progressive Electronic and maybe most of all Avantprog. As cool and genious as Christian Vander! I'd be honored to write some kind of bio, although I'm not worthy. I consider the three first and his last album masterpieces of a unique kind of 70's progressive (the two titles stuck inbetween are four-stars. While my impression of the opera poem Etre Dieu is that its a unlistenable mess). This introduction and the reviews are written by Alan Freeman, and taken from John Coultheart.com 'An unclassifiable talent, Igor Wakhévitch could be seen as the French equivalent of someone like Ralph Lundsten, or an explorer like Franco Battiato, a pioneer who proliferated in the Seventies with a series of highly original and unusual albums. Igor Wakhévitch’s roots are obscure, though his name implies he is obviously of Russian ancestry, and apparently his father was a celebrated theatre set-designer. It was obviously in the setting of the theatre that Igor Wakhévitch saw new potentials in music. He was something of a genius as a young musician. By the age of 17 he had already won the first prize for piano at the Superior Conservatoire in Paris. But, not content to stay in the classical world, he moved on. His academic qualifications served him well. In 1968 he was working at the Groupe de Recherches Musicales (then directed by Pierre Schaeffer) with access to some of the most advanced studio equipment around. There he learnt his craft as a sound designer, as a master of studio trickery and musique-concrète techniques. The perfect foil for his own musical talents, and as a way to play with the possibilities of sound and other musical forms. This fertile environment, at studios that were regularly visited and/or used by the likes of Pierre Henry, François Bayle, Bernard Parmegiani, et al, was the ideal springboard for the creation of a new form of music. Pierre Henry had already become celebrated for his works combining rock and electronics in the early part of the Sixties, and particularly his music for the avant-garde ballets of Maurice Béjart. Igor Wakhévitch saw this as his oeuvre, being fascinated by the new forms of psychedelic rock that were making shock-waves in France. With the moniker “Ballet for the 21st Century” he worked with Béjart in an attempt to turn this underground pop culture into high art. Inspiration came from Soft Machine and Pink Floyd, and in fact Igor Wakhévitch worked quite extensively with Robert Wyatt and Soft Machine for a while. At this time, Igor Wakhévitch also worked together with Terry Riley learning special tricks about tape delays and looping techniques. All this experience melted into the pot of what became a unique music, with a focus that lay in processing instruments, usually in a melodic framework, blending in rock and diverse classical forms, bringing different unlikely musics together, often in most perplexingly odd ways. Igor Wakhévitch thus became established at Pathé Marconi Studios and also did production work for other studios and labels, and as a result got in touch with the French up-and-coming home-grown rock scene. The seeds were set for a radical and unique new form of music' - Logos - Docteur Faust - Hathor - Les Fous d’Or - Nagual - Let's Start As far as I gather Igor Wakhévitch sees Let’s Start as a return full circle to his roots, though such a progression or connection is hardly logical. There are characteristics and stylisms that one picks up on in Igor Wakhévitch music, but they are very hard to pin-down. Though I had heard rumour of other works, this seems to be his entire published oeuvre. It all amounts to a bizarre and fascinating trip with one of the true revolutionaries in new-music, and a definitive set collecting it all together. The set is presented in a small red box, including a poster (with the album sleeves) and a 24 page booklet (in French, with a number of pictures), along with the 6 individually sleeved CD’s. The original Igor Wakhévitch LP releases, despite being on major labels like EMI and Atlantic, are nowadays all pretty rare and collectable (most are reputedly worth £30+, with Docteur Faust reckoned to be worth £100). Alan Freeman See also:http://www.fractal-records.com/02review/f002.htm http://gnosis2000.net/reviews/wakhevitch.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Igor_Wakh%C3%A9vitch http://www.progresiva70s.com/francia_nz.htm#Igor%20Wakhevitch http://www.babyblaue-seiten.de/index.php?bandId=2673&content=band&left=year&year=1979 http://www.listology.com/content_show.cfm/content_id.22792/Music A link to his triple album opera poem: Etre Dieu |
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Over land and under ashes
In the sunlight, see - it flashes Find a fly and eat his eye But don't believe in me Don't believe in me Don't believe in me |
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Sckxyss
Forum Senior Member Joined: May 05 2007 Location: Canada Status: Offline Points: 1319 |
Posted: September 02 2007 at 03:13 | |
Sounds interesting.. I wouldn't mind hearing some samples
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Rocktopus
Forum Senior Member Joined: March 02 2006 Location: Norway Status: Offline Points: 4202 |
Posted: September 03 2007 at 05:05 | |
I guess reading these reviews makes IW look more obscure and further out in the avantgarde
than his music actually sounds. This is written by John Coulthart (taken from the same page as the reviews), and
his namedropping should you an idea:
'The obscurity of these remarkable recordings can’t solely be due to Monsieur Wakhévitch being French; Richard Pinhas (of Heldon), Bernard Szajner and (of course) Magma, have been given enough attention over the years. So what does this stuff sound like? Thankfully the redoubtable Alan Freeman tackled the problem of describing the albums in Audion (reproduced below), a task I would have found rather daunting. Docteur Faust is probably my favourite, a crazily eclectic and doomy album which lurches from rock freakout to contemporary orchestral/choral to electro-acoustics and back again. Imagine the witch cult from Rosemary’s Baby jamming with Alpha Centauri-era Tangerine Dream while Peter Maxwell Davies and Amon Düül 2 slug it out in the background.' I can't understand how such a great artist with a potentially (relatively) broad appeal can be this obscure. To me this unique artist has a discography with a (higher) quality level of 70's Magma, Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze, Can or Soft Machine. There no reason fans of most of these bands, Progressive Electronic, Kraut, RIO and Zeuhl stuff shouldn't love all his albums. Still the only release existing on CD is that 500 ex. boxset from '98! Docteur Faust and Hathor are just as classic as the best albums by any of the groups mentioned. Like the strongest Art Zoyd and Univers Zero (they must have listened to him) albums, they are darker, scarier and more disturbing than any black metal I've heard. |
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Over land and under ashes
In the sunlight, see - it flashes Find a fly and eat his eye But don't believe in me Don't believe in me Don't believe in me |
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Ricochet
Special Collaborator Honorary Collaborator Joined: February 27 2005 Location: Nauru Status: Offline Points: 46301 |
Posted: September 03 2007 at 05:50 | |
This is interesting, thanks for the suggestion!!
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Yukorin
Forum Senior Member Joined: November 21 2005 Location: Japan Status: Offline Points: 1589 |
Posted: September 03 2007 at 06:10 | |
Gets my vote. Geezer was a genius! |
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Rocktopus
Forum Senior Member Joined: March 02 2006 Location: Norway Status: Offline Points: 4202 |
Posted: September 03 2007 at 06:46 | |
Thanks Yukorin!
I just came home from a premiere of a staged version of Faust (Goethe's version), when I just had to suggest him. It was ok and the Mephistofeles figure was almost as dark, funny and perverted as he should. They had a guitarist on stage playing some devilish bluesrockriffs to add some spice. I couldn't stop thinking about how ordinary it sounded compared to the brilliantly insane darkness on the Docteur Faust album. For Ricochet maybe Let's Start or Nagual would be the ideal place to start? A bit like early Deuter/Klaus Schulze + some Terry Riley, but more a composed feel. BTW: I didn't mean his 70's releases were of a higher quality than Magma etc... No point of compararing. What I meant was: Just about everything in that boxset should have been considered a classic by now. Still he is even less known than than the far too unknown Richard Pinhas/Heldon. Edited by Rocktopus - September 03 2007 at 06:47 |
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Over land and under ashes
In the sunlight, see - it flashes Find a fly and eat his eye But don't believe in me Don't believe in me Don't believe in me |
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Yukorin
Forum Senior Member Joined: November 21 2005 Location: Japan Status: Offline Points: 1589 |
Posted: September 03 2007 at 10:31 | |
I can' t possibly do his music (in)justice but still:
Twittering, beeping, phased electronics pulsating slowly from speaker to speaker with the real beauty of a master and with a sense of knowing of time and space. (and 3D)
How's that?
(Basically, sh*t hot wherever you land. Here is a real unknown)
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philippe
Special Collaborator Honorary Collaborator Joined: March 14 2004 Location: noosphere Status: Offline Points: 3597 |
Posted: September 03 2007 at 11:03 | |
This is a legitimate addition. I think about the progressive electronic subgenre which includes many artists who are between avant garde, electro-acoustic researches and psychedelic synthscapes. |
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Rocktopus
Forum Senior Member Joined: March 02 2006 Location: Norway Status: Offline Points: 4202 |
Posted: September 05 2007 at 04:33 | |
Defenently an artist that makes me wish that it was possible to choose more than one genre here. Its really not that many bands that stuck to one genre throughout their career.
But progressive electronic might be the most suitable. About 60% of his work fits nicely within it. Do you know him well enough to write his bio, Phillippe? And do you want to? You got more of the correct musical terminology, and all that in your vocabulary. I'm just a fan, and an amateur. |
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Over land and under ashes
In the sunlight, see - it flashes Find a fly and eat his eye But don't believe in me Don't believe in me Don't believe in me |
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Apsalar
Forum Senior Member Joined: June 06 2006 Location: gansu Status: Offline Points: 2888 |
Posted: September 05 2007 at 04:47 | |
Great suggestion, I think you know my opinion on him by now. Just revisited Docteur Faust the other day, killer album, it does surprise me he isn't more highly known. I think progressive electronic would be the most comfortable home for him.
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philippe
Special Collaborator Honorary Collaborator Joined: March 14 2004 Location: noosphere Status: Offline Points: 3597 |
Posted: September 06 2007 at 17:58 | |
I will off course make reviews of his albums, about the biography I let you decide because you thought about the addition first. Edited by philippe - September 06 2007 at 18:06 |
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Rocktopus
Forum Senior Member Joined: March 02 2006 Location: Norway Status: Offline Points: 4202 |
Posted: September 07 2007 at 03:51 | |
Then I definitely suggest you write it, Phillippe. I'd just had to copy/rewrite what others have written, and pretend it was mine. (Look forward to try and make some reviews myself)
Does anyone know what happened after Let's Start? Can't find any info about works or albums after 1979. |
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Over land and under ashes
In the sunlight, see - it flashes Find a fly and eat his eye But don't believe in me Don't believe in me Don't believe in me |
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Ricochet
Special Collaborator Honorary Collaborator Joined: February 27 2005 Location: Nauru Status: Offline Points: 46301 |
Posted: September 07 2007 at 05:59 | |
I offered to add them, Rocktopus, if you do not wish to make a bio I will proceed soon enough.
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Rocktopus
Forum Senior Member Joined: March 02 2006 Location: Norway Status: Offline Points: 4202 |
Posted: September 07 2007 at 06:28 | |
I'll make a bio if no one else want to. But I'd prefer someone musically more knowledgdable than myself to do it. Phillippe seemed interested in doing it, and I know he is into IW and his kind of music. Sorry, I didn't know that the one who offers the add is somewhat responsible for the bio (if that's what you're telling me here?). The only thing that matters to me is that he gets added, but I hope that the most suitable for writing the bio is the one that ends up writing it. |
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Over land and under ashes
In the sunlight, see - it flashes Find a fly and eat his eye But don't believe in me Don't believe in me Don't believe in me |
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Ricochet
Special Collaborator Honorary Collaborator Joined: February 27 2005 Location: Nauru Status: Offline Points: 46301 |
Posted: September 07 2007 at 06:31 | |
ah, complications... since both me and philippe are SC, it wouldn't be of any logic for one to write the bio and the other to add the band 'for him'. I'm fine either way, the important thing is IW getting in here. |
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Rocktopus
Forum Senior Member Joined: March 02 2006 Location: Norway Status: Offline Points: 4202 |
Posted: September 07 2007 at 06:38 | |
Agree. You two can take over from here, can't you? Just contact me if there's any need.
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Over land and under ashes
In the sunlight, see - it flashes Find a fly and eat his eye But don't believe in me Don't believe in me Don't believe in me |
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philippe
Special Collaborator Honorary Collaborator Joined: March 14 2004 Location: noosphere Status: Offline Points: 3597 |
Posted: September 07 2007 at 09:21 | |
ok, I will take the time to write the bio!
Vic, maybe you can add IW, that's the first thing to do
thanks!
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