Dollar Bin Delights: Olivier Bloch-Lainé's "Des Mots"

Here's the scoop...

The first time I came across this non-descript looking Francophone curio by composer, producer and sound engineer Olivier Bloch-Lainé – who founded La Frette Studios in Paris back in 1980 – I flipped right past it. But something about that Marginal logo on the top right corner of the Jean Michel Folon illustrated sleeve brought me back. There was something strangely familiar about Marginal. 

Claude Delcloo

Thinking about it some more as I flipped the record over to look for clues, there it was again on the bottom left corner. It suddenly hit me – also carrying the CBS Records' Marginal trademark of quality was the excellent West African Cosmos record which I picked up back in the early 80s prior to the Afro funk collector boom and also the under-appreciated Quebecois disco gem "En Plein Orgasme" by Pierre Beauregard, Denis Violletti and Adrienne Ste-Claire. They were all released as part of a short-lived series curated by forward looking French jazz percussionist/producer Claude Delcloo (of the Full Moon Ensemble, Jacques Coursil Unit, Arthur Jones Trio, Burton Greene Ensemble, etc) focusing on left field French fusionary experiments circa 1975-76 which went well beyond the conventional chanson pop/rock norms of the period. This was going to require closer examination. 

On the back cover, there credits listed a number of impressive French jazz/fusion players namely Ergo Sum bassist Marc Bertaux (Tania Maria Quartet, Lubat, Louiss & Engel Group, Synthésis/Spiral Quaret drummer Christian Lété and his Claude Cagnasso Big Band cohort Jean Schultheis,  but the standout names were guitarist Jean-Pierre Alarcen of Le Système Crapoutchik along with his Sandrose bandmate, synth ace George Rodi of Arpadys notoriety and numerous sound library recordings for Mondiophone/Crea Sound Ltd. With Rodi contributing Fender Rhodes or Arp Odyssey on most tracks was a good sign. 

Olivier Bloch-Lainé

Admittedly, the concept of a young sound engineer determined to record an album singing his own compositions isn't typically a recipe for success but these were clearly not the sort of characters someone hires to knock out a quick and dirty vanity project. And the results turned out to be far better than most people would've expected. Despite the varied backgounds of the contributing players, the whole thing hangs together remarkably well with a dreamy vibe throughout. The larger orchestrations recall Jean Claude Vanier's work with Serge Gainsbourg and Bloch-Lainé isn't an especially brilliant singer but he has a compelling  delivery – think Nino Ferrer on Métronomie – and he makes good use of the wordless vocals of his accompanying singers Anne Vassiliu and Danièle Chadelaud. 

There doesn't seem to be much collector awareness of Olivier Bloch-Lainé's "Des Mots" right now and other than a couple of tracks appearing on two or three NTS shows dabbling in 70s French prog over the last five years, not much profile at all for such an impressive debut album. Some savvy archival label owner should consider getting in touch with our man Olivier about a 50th anniversary reissue which would go over quite well right about now. And who knows, a recording studio operator like Monsieur Bloch-Lainéhe may be sitting on a wealth of similarly engaging but unheard material from the era collecting dust in storage room unless he was short of audio tape and recorded over all of his demos and outtakes Have a listen to Des Mots below.