Alpha Du Cantaure - 1979 - Contact

Alpha Du Cantaure 

1979

Contact

01. Contact 12:10

02. Petite Fee 9:50

03. Maxima 18:05

04. Fusion - Meringue 4:30

Bass – Olivier Koechlin

Drums – Jonathan Dickinson

Guitar – Jean-Pierre Richard

Enregistré à St-Gratien au Centre Culturel «Le Forum», le 12 Mai 79 [Recorded at St-Gratien at the Cultural Centre «Le Forum», on 12 May 79]

Imagine if Jimi Hendrix played in front of a jazz rhythm duo. Wild fuzzy wah wah guitar screaming over stand-up bass and scattered jazz drumming. If only the guitarist played that way for the entire duration - that would be some album! There's also some typical jazz guitar and on those cuts, you'll be wishing you had your Grant Green albums handy instead.

This obscure French Jazz Rock group was formed in 1973 by guitarist Jean-Pierre Richard and Gilles Robert, apparently an ex-drummer of Komintern.They were part of the Front de Liberation de la Rock-Music movement in early-70's along with Lard Free and Maajun, but they suffered from line-up changes, as Robert left the group in 1975 and reputedly members of Pataphonie and Red Noise came and go.By late-70's Richard was supported by Olivier Koechlin on acoustic bass and Jonathan Dickinson on drums and the trio recorded the album ''Contact'' in 12nd of May 79' at Centre Culturel ''Le Forum'' in St-Gratien near Paris, released the same year on Spirales.The album contains four instrumental tracks, three of them are over the 9-min. mark, combining the free possibilities of Jazz, the delicacy of Funk abd the power of Rock Music to come up with multi-inspired pieces, twisting from electrified moments to virtuosic solos to laid-back jazzy improvisations.As a whole the album is pretty sterile, though the performances individually are quite nice with a high level of technique, offering strong rhythmic parts and some sort of psychedelic influences at moments.The general feeling ends up to be closer to jamming sessions with little structure around, but ''Contact'' is highlighted by some nice guitar workouts by Richard and the competitive rhythm section.Perception and Exmagma are the closest reference points in term of abstract textures and the fact there is a well-hidden psychedelia behind these pieces.Of course the solos are often too long and one-dimensional with the overall mood not getting away at all from the jamming attitude.The two shorter tracks contain also a few Latin-spiced overtones, propably the only moments the group moves a bit far from its unstructured lines.Apparently the activities of Alpha du Centaure were put on hold after this release, pressed in only 500 copies.You know what you get by purchasing this album.Partially psychedelic, partially experimental Jazz Rock, executed on guitar, bass and drums.Possibly good enough only for Jazz Rock lovers.