|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
LP
|
|
MMLP 015LP
|
Monster Mélodies presents an unpublished recording of Opus Minor, an underground Parisian group with undeniable musical qualities, who gave numerous concerts during its brief existence from 1970 to 1973 but never had the opportunity to publish its recordings. The record consists of an instrumental track, seven songs sung in French and three more songs in English, in which the band, beyond its influences, creates its own musical universe. In September 69, at the École Normale Supérieure of Cachan (ENS), three student teachers meet: Jean-Claude Lardrot, Jean-Louis Grassi, and Guy Aicart. They decided to start a rock band called Opus Minor. The first, who had taken piano lessons and played in his teens as a singer-guitarist in bands, focused on the keyboards and the vocals. The second, who had already participated as a guitarist in short-lived, country-folk bands, focused on the bass and the vocals. The third discovers his passion for the drums. A first guitarist joins them but is soon replaced by Philippe Marcenac, a student in architecture at the Beaux-Arts in Paris. A fifth accomplice, Daniel Reynet, takes care of the sound system and the technical and material matters. At student house parties, Opus Minor played covers of Cream, John Mayall. During the summer of '70, inspired by the hippie movement, the band members got a taste of community life playing every night in a club of a holiday village in the Hérault. The band then composed its first titles in English and French, in which we find the post-May '68 spirit. In 1971, Opus Minor won a student group contest organized by RTL and starts to perform often in various Parisian prestigious schools. Invited in June of the same year to the festival of Auvers-sur-Oise organized by couturier Jean Bouquin, Opus Minor and four other bands performed just in time before the rain and everything sank in the mud. For a year they rented a suburban house in Villepinte to practice every weekend, and they'd go back to their rehearsal studio in the basement of ENS Cachan. This is where, from April 28th to May 1st of '73, the original compositions finally published on this album were recorded. But the same year, three of the band members are appointed to teaching positions located in different provinces too far away, which resulted in the band coming to an end. Gatefold sleeve; Includes two posters; Color vinyl; Edition of 1000.
|