On October 20th 2017, a piece of history will be revived. Serge Gainsbourg and Jean-Claude Vannier’s previously unreleased collaboration will be restored and distributed on the 100th anniversary of the Finders Keepers’ Record label.
The album was created for the 1969 film Les Chemins Des Katmandou (otherwise known as The Pleasure Pit). The adapted film about hippies and heroin, was directed by André Cayatte and starred Pascale Audret, Jane Birkin, and the aforementioned artists Serge Gainsbourg. While Gainsbourg did have a notable role as a villain in the movie, the music he created with Vannier was thought to be lost in a fire and never made it into the movie.
Despite this terrible setback, the two continued to collaborate on the 1971 album Histoire de Melody Nelson and the 1972 album L’Enfant Assassin Des Mouches. The albums were full of avant garde mixes of rock funk and classical sounds. Both had noteworthy solo careers, but together they brought a creative and one-of-a-kind touch to music.
According to Far Out Magazine, the album was discovered in 2014 after the death of their copyist/transcriber, Daniel Marechal. Marechal’s daughter came across her father’s old luggage, which happened to be filled with old tapes. One of the tapes had the historic album on it.
A teaser for the never-before-heard album has been released. The teaser is a tasty mix of classic 1960s bass and percussion, sophisticated string arrangements and jazzy brass. The rest of the album will be out in October.
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