Patrick Vian, "Bruits et Temps Analogue"
This reissue offers the chance to hear another obscurity from the NWW list. With perfect backing, Vian plays synths, sequencer and piano, to create an exotic, space-age soundtrack that is quite distinct from his more raucous music with Red Noise.
Patrick Vian’s only solo album sounds as carefully structured as Kraftwerk but with plenty of spontaneity, too. The influence of former Gong (and Miles Davis) drummer Mino Cinelu adds a deft touch that is complemented by the playfulness of Georges Grainer on such instruments as Fender Rhodes electric piano, noise, and scissors. For all that, the opening piece, "Sphere," explores an devilishly scratchy riff set in motion by Bernard Lavialle’s guitar. The record is a prime example of the brilliant and adventurous music of its time, all too often ignored for falling outside the easy spotlight and rock categorizations of the dominant UK and US markets. A limited edition of 500 vinyl copies are probably all snapped up by now, but CD and digital download are available.
The electronics and futuristic atmospheres of Bruits et Temps Analogue are a departure from the proto-punk aggression of Red Noise. That group played its first gig in the Sorbonne during the 1968 student occupation, with Patrick Vian on guitar. He later wrote some of the music for the now seemingly lost 1975 film Hu-man starring Terence Stamp and Jeanne Moreau, with the former cast as an actor placed in various dangerous situations throughout time where his fate is decided by viewers.
Red Noise's Sarcelles-Lochères began with the sound of a toilet flushed. Perhaps Vian learned at an early age the desirability of playfulness and polymathic experimentation. His father, Boris, was a contemporary of Camus and Sartre, musician, inventor, actor, critic, engineer, and writer of such works as Froth On A Daydream and (as Vernon Sullivan) I Spit On Your Graves. That latter work, which he reputedly wrote in 15 days to prove he could churn out a best-seller, would inadvertently trigger his early death. Rising from his seat a few minutes into the film premiere of his book to yell abuse, the elder Vian suffered cardiac arrest after blurting out "These guys are supposed to be American? My ass."
 
