Armande Altai's 1979 Atavisme with Joel Dugrenot, by request

 

This album has always been a big favourite of mine, mentioned in connection with Prince Desbouis back here, because it greatly resembles that one with the female vocals (Stella Vander of course in that one) and spacey, extraterrestrial themes.  Here, the music is from zeuhl bassist Joel Dugrenot, a genius of composition who made the amazing, amazing albums See, Boomerang, and Mosaiques, and this one you could add to those as his fourth masterpiece.

With regards to Armande Altai, bio:

French singer, actress and singing teacher, born in 1944 in Aleppo, Syria. She began her career as an avantgarde singer in the early 70's and appeared in musicals and rock operas. Her third album, released in 1983, was produced by Martin Hannett. She re-surfaced in the early 00's on the French reality television show "Star Academy" where she was a vocal coach for three seasons.

It goes without saying this her first album is the only one worth hearing, for us at least.  The second immediately after she moved into new wave and more simple music.  But this one really is full of gems and wonderful songs, all with that incredible out of this world, outer space, starry, cosmic feeling typical of the seventies when, as I said so many times before, we were promised space travel within our lifetimes for everyone (not just Elon and Jeff Bezos' wife) like Stanley Kubrick depicted in the masterpiece 2001 movie.

For ex., the message from space is:

Her glam rock style of singing, admittedly, is one of the few drawbacks / negative points to this LP. Note that keyboards are by Manuel Villaroel, who was in avant garde jazz outfit Septet Machi-Oul and Skuas (eg. Traversee album).  The saxes, flutes, etc. are done by our beloved Francois Jeanneau.  I posted so much stuff from him, here before, up to that Pandemonium CD, and it's all worth hearing!

I just love the sheer dreaminess that went into Le Chant de la Mer (Song of the sea):

When I listen to that track again I'm just stunned by the way the arrangements and instruments take you in so many directions, evoking the sea in so many ways and waves.