Popera Cosmic "Les Esclaves" 1969 Ultra rare and cult French Psychedelic Prog LP. Francois Wertheimer, Guy Skornik.
Ultra rare and cult French Psychedelic Prog LP with arrangements by William Sheller. Lots of great tracks with plenty of Hammond grooves, Sitar, crazed vocals, experimental drug fuelled arrangements and that French progressive and slightly insane touch all over the place..
a lost milestone in French Pop history and one of the most exceptional European musicals from the 70s! ‚Popera Cosmic' in fact was a theatre production and sort of Space-Age Opera originally created for a Pop Ballet. for those who are in the known, this is the French equivalent of and ultimate answer to the famous ‚Trip' album on Telefunken, the Austrian Pop Opera by Silke Schwinger and Fatty George. within its genre it also stands next to funky joints like Lee Gagnon's ‚Jeremie' and the Pierre Cardin produced ballet ‚Je Fus Cet Enfant La'. composed and written by Guy Skornik and Francois Wertheimer, the musicians involved in this project read like a who-is-who in Production music including also Library maestro Paul Piot as orchestral director and William Sheller (‚Lux Aeterna', ‚Erotissimo') as arranger. the result is an avantgardistic Concept album crossing the categories from Fantastic Pop Comedy with a heavy dose of madness to strong Progressive phases with wild Psych Funk overtones. beware of ‚Batman', a killer vocal Funk Rock track and the highly experimental Sitar Groover ‚Aurore Cosmic': from a tremendous B3 organ, furious piano runs, raging fuzz, hallucinated sitar, several drum breaks to weird electronic effects all elements are present here to send your ear's to paradise. ‚Poursuite' is a mighty slice of Blaxploitation Funk and features fullblown dramatic orchestration, big drums, heavy bass, fuzz guitar and scary wordless vocals in best ‚Dirty Harry' veine. more of that, at the end there's even a driving Hammond Funk instro in ‚Indicatif', again backed by funky e-guitar, fat drumming and deep piano riffs. maybe too psychedelic for a wider audience, ‚Popera Cosmic' didn't turn into the expected commercial success and unfortunately most of the anyway limited copies (maybe around 1000) were trashed. a collector's dream and very hard to obtain in both the original LP and 45 format (including two comedy tracks). (CBS France 1969).