Michel Madore's Le Komuso a Cordes from 1976

From discogs:

This is truly an obscure and lost gem of space fusion, of the Gong, Clearlight and Carpe Diem variety. While those other acts were French (well, Gong was partially French, but still), Michel Madore came from Quebec, so you can say this is the French-Canadian take on that brand of space rock. He only released two albums, Le Komuso à Cordes being his debut. None of his two albums have ever been reissued on any format, so that means you have to search out the original LPs. What you get here is lots of jazzy drumming, spacy synthesizers, sax, acoustic guitar, and even the occasional use of ocarina and cimbalom (Hungarian dulcimer, John Leach used one as heard on the Alan Parsons Project's Tales of Mystery & Imagination and I Robot). This would have been right at home on Musea Records. Unlike Gong, Madore don't take to quirky humor, so no Pot Head Pixies here, of course, so this music is on the more serious side like Clearlight and Carpe Diem. Plus it's all instrumental. I noticed there doesn't seem to be a lot in the way of this kind of space rock in Canada in general, so it's nice to see Michel Madore do such music. I really have a difficult time describing each song, they all have that similar approach, although I find it amusing that "L'Avant-Dernière" bears more than a passing resemblance to Dave Mason's "Shouldn't Have Took More Than You Gave". Those acoustic guitar passages bear an uncanny resemblance. Big difference here is this is all instrumental and prog all the way (Dave Mason's song is folk rock that reminds me of The Band - probably the reason he left Traffic, a song like that would have been out of the question on a Traffic album, even though a live version of that song with him and Traffic did appear in 1971 on Welcome to the Canteen). I wouldn't doubt Michel Madore heard the Dave Mason song in particular, it has received some radio airplay back in the day. I am also partial to the atmospheric "Ballad", which emphasizes acoustic guitar and string synths, with ocarina giving it an almost ethnic feel to. Also "Stanley", especially some of those amazing spacy synths to die for. I really love that 1970s vibe this album gives off.

The back cover depicts Michel Madore with the most seriously wild hair ever, who puts Giorgio Tsoukalos (of the TV series Ancient Aliens and In Search of Aliens) completely to shame. I have no idea if that was an artist way over-exaggerating his hair or that was his hair, but the back cover of the Canadian version of his second album La Chambre Nuptiale shows a regular photo of him, and his hair is still quite wild (still puts Giorgio Tsoukalos to shame), but nothing like on the back cover of Le Komuso à Cordes.

After a second album in 1978 (which was released on Kebec-Disc in Canada and in 1979 on EGG in France), Madore apparently moved to Paris and involved himself in artwork and sculpturing. Probably just as well, given the 1980s were not so friendly to this kind of music.

I am utterly amazed at the amount of obscurities I run across, stuff still lurking in the dark, only available as hard to find LPs with no sign of a reissue in sight, and it just blew me away! If you like the brand of space rock mentioned, this album is a must. but approach the next album, La Chambre Nuptiale with caution, as it's a much less accessible progressive electronic album (with no outside help, all instruments played by Michel Madore here) with an ominous vibe going through it, and the music goes at a more Klaus Schulze-type of pace (lots of droning string synths). I still enjoy that one, but it's approach is definitely not for everyone.


I am always stunned by the opening track with its odd polytonal chords, its bizarre progression for chord to chord via electronic intensity and chamber instrumentation (fake oboe?), the synthesizers singing to each other in all kinds of different timbres, plus imaginative composition, the way it so beautifully builds up over the course of only 7 minutes to a tear-filled dramatic ending on, of course, a dissonance:





An absolutely unique masterpiece, just incredible.  As mentioned above, some reminiscences of Gong or perhaps the first Picchio Dal Pozzo (minus the silly vocalizing), but very tight from beginning to end with just great composition and fusion, as they say: all killer no filler, for real, dis da OG.

The second album, called the nuptial chamber, reverted to standard-issue German Tangerine Dream-like lazy sleepy electronica with the ten-minute long chords and is totally forgettable for that reason.

I would also draw your attention, so to speak, to the beautiful cover and back cover art up above (minus that awful photo).  Finally, the word Komuso refers to a sect of buddhist monks who had baskets on their heads.