Library Composer Puccio Roelens

Recall Puccio Roelens' album Rock Satellite (1977) which was the same as the April Orchestra 13 posted here in the RCA series.  We surely loved that one and didn't blame them for releasing it twice, indeed, even more releases would not have been undesirable.

Quickly, the first 2 albums from Roelens included in this package from 1969 and 1971 are for me ordinary garbage, though occasionally an interesting melody rises up from the green bin's composting & recarbonizing contents.  But in 1976 with Research of Sound [sic] we get to the funky fusion we love so dearly.  The track called Relaxation absolutely kills me with its typical 70s lounge-hound sound:





Starting with that argeggiated harp intro augmented by gentle electric guitar phrases, the melody turns into a lovely flute legato under orchestral string clouds above, all in the key of F major, but at the end of the verse the suspended C7 chord resolves to the D major tonal, a classic, classic seventies songwriting move, evoking the warmth of summer somehow since the 'correct' chord would've been D minor (to stay with the F tone).  The minor becoming its major always feels warmer or smoother.  It's analogous to what happens at the end of "By the Time I Get to Phoenix," that Jimmy Webb classic, where F major resolves to D major.  In that song, it evokes the feeling that he has arrived to his destination whereas the C suspended chords imply the journeying.  Not to detract from the flute's melody in the above sample, which is gorgeous.

The 1980 Balance LP is somewhat more fuzacky, somewhat predictably given the later year.  A track called Barbecue:





Subsequently I found out he made one more interesting album under the aka Jay Richford.
I sure hope I have all his late 70s albums, if not, someone let me know. These are all well worth collecting.