Zeuhl on a limb, the innovative Orient-Express

Cocktail Molotov + 5 bonus tracks

by Orient-Express

Reissue of the 1980s cassette only release, plus 19 minutes of rare quality bonus material, by this groundbreaking French experimental RiO / Zeuhl type fusion duo. Issued in 2015 as a 50 copy CDR edition, and now on Bandcamp download.

From Audion #5, page 20, review by Alan Freeman...
Despite their name, Orient Express are typically French in every way. They play a music that has grown through French rock and jazz cultures since the late sixties, an explosive cocktail of diverse and exciting ideas, through which this exceptionally talented duo challenge the listener and succeed with impeccable virtuosity.
Pascale Jakubowski (seemingly the leader) plays piano and bass clarinet, she’s also an exceptionally talented vocalist capable of performing virtually every type of vocal utterance one can imagine. Erik Baron plays bass guitar and is indeed adept at making it sound like anything from a cello to a Chapman Stick. They are also aided by all manner of devices, drum-computer, etc. In the booklet that accompanies the cassette, the two musicians quote their influences - Pascale comments that the use of text on Eno & Byrne’s My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts inspired her vocal technique to a great extent, as well as ethnic chants, the experimental use of phonetics by the likes of Tamia, Meredith Monk, etc. Her bass clarinet playing reminiscent of Michel Berkmans (I know he pays bassoon and oboe, but the style is similar), though she doesn’t quote any such influence. Erik quotes people as diverse as Klaus Schulze, Stockhausen, Magma and Bela Bartok, as having influenced him over the years.
Requiem opens the tape with orchestral sounds, strange vocals and percussive bass, and moves through glissandi and abstract phases, with some fascinating vocal gibberish. Orient Express follows with some manic piano attacks, akin to Art Zoyd (or ultimately Stravinski), building up in a crazed rhythmic fashion, backed by cacophonous echoed drum- machine and glissando bass. On Inarticulomortis Pascale lets rip, with multiple tracks of her voice reciting nonsensical things like "a ning-nang-ning-na nong..." over Stick style bass, as they say - weird but wonderful! On the other tracks we are taken through many moods, both violent and spooky, with never a dull moment anywhere. Thoroughly inventive music that should appeal to all lovers of RIO and/or modern avant-garde rock.