Prince. 1982 FLVM
UMR review
Priority: 2
The AC's notes: "The whole presentation of this LP is bound to cause confusion. The front cover has absolutely no text on it, while the back cover is basically the same as the front, but with just "Prince" printed on the top. Only the insert has any information on it, but it only lists the track titles and musicians. There's no release date printed anywhere on the LP. I knew from the sound, style and place of origin that it was probably an early 80s album, but I couldn't be certain until I found Desbouis' own Myspace page, which confirms that it was recorded in late '81 and released in '82. This is definitely one of the rarest of these French electronic prog LPs, so I could certainly envision a scenario where years back some prog fan finds the LP, but it's missing the insert. It then enters into circulation via tape trading, with no real information other than that it's called "Prince"... ...This would also explain why, aside from the fact that it's always been very hard to find to begin with, that it's remained so obscure. Because if people really knew that it had Stella Vander singing on it, I'm sure it would have been a much better known item in the prog underground for years now, due to the general obsession with all things Magma."
And here is his original notes regarding the music: "Extremely obscure French electronic prog album, and quite similar to other efforts of this type from the late 70s/early 80s underground scene. The main difference here is that none other than Stella Vander is on board to provide vocals on some of the tracks, which is a very nice addition. The whole album has a sort of floating, spacey vibe that's somewhat trance-inducing. It's high quality stuff, and definitely recommended to fans of the genre. Unfortunately, it's also one of the rarest LPs of this kind. Desbouis had previously played in a band named Aum, and is still musically active to this day."
2/15/12 (new entry)
And here is his original notes regarding the music: "Extremely obscure French electronic prog album, and quite similar to other efforts of this type from the late 70s/early 80s underground scene. The main difference here is that none other than Stella Vander is on board to provide vocals on some of the tracks, which is a very nice addition. The whole album has a sort of floating, spacey vibe that's somewhat trance-inducing. It's high quality stuff, and definitely recommended to fans of the genre. Unfortunately, it's also one of the rarest LPs of this kind. Desbouis had previously played in a band named Aum, and is still musically active to this day."
2/15/12 (new entry)
6 comments:
http://celatoucheaufond.canalblog.com/archives/2009/10/16/15462960.html
Appears to be a soundclip for the Prince Project here.
-Wallace
Hey Wallace. Long time! How's things at the Zoo? You reminded me to check in.
Thanks for the comment.
- Tom
Wow! The AC strikes again...what a treasure! As always love those comments and stories...keep them coming :)
Thanks a million
you know, I've had this as 'prince' as well and guessed it was from the early eighties, and I've listened to it many times in the last few years, without realizing the beautiful female singer was of course stella, of whom I'm a huge fan!! thanks for pointing out the story behind this huge gem. I do hope it gets released properly, perhaps by musea?
Hi Tristan Stefan,
Good to hear from you. Great reviews over at Prog Not Frog! You have a couple over there I need to pull down as well that I've never even heard of. If I can ever get out from under this stack, I'm going too!
I wish Musea would get back into cool reissues. Maybe our best bet is Soleil Zeuhl and only because of the Stella Vander connection. I hope so! Frances Grosse was in touch with me about a year ago and looking to start up again, but it seems to fallen by the wayside (sigh).
Thanks for the comment!
- Tom
looks like we've been playing "blog-tag" for some time... of course as you've noticed we've used your reviews as a touchstone for what to seek out in a lot of cases.
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