THEME 02 : FRANÇOIS DE ROUBAIX

The second theme has been picked, and  it definitively start to look like a real challenge!

François de Roubaix was a French composer. Unfortunately, he had a very short life and quit us in 1975 after a diving accident. He was 36.

Even with the current soundtracks revival and reissues of many euro-cult composer's work, I'd say François de Roubaix is still very much overlooked. Yes, he is recognized in close-circle enthusiast and in France, but he hasn't got the same attention as some others and no record label have made a serious attempt to put out a consistent discography of his work for film, television, documentary and publicity.

Surely, he was a real pioneer for many reasons. He was gifted with a real talent for creating original melodies and chord progressions, and he probably got from Morricone the idea to work with sonic textures using many different instruments and devices, from the Jew's harp to the EMS synthesizer.

But also, he was a precursor of the home studio recording, playing effectively many instruments with a great sense of experimentation and exploration and doing all the recording in his apartment. Ironically, he was not totally recognized by his fellow contemporary film composers, being an autodidact and a bit of an outsider.

How to approach a François de Roubaix theme? Already after picking this theme, I start looking closely to his music trying to identify some characteristics, typical chord progressions, instrumentation, style, etc... So many stuff is going. That's when I say he is overlooked. His music is very heterogeneous, yet you can definitively say there is a 'François de Roubaix' sound. Even if it's full synthesizer beat or folk jazz tune, there is something you know it's him. And that's what I will have to nail in 2 or 3 minutes ! Theme 02 is on its way !!!

Fascinating documentary (in french)

Theme 01 : GIALLO

Here we are, the new Orgasmo Sonore project is launched with the first theme picked : 'GIALLO' !

Some little hands have helped me to pick the first out of 22 themes and it was the word 'Giallo' who came out of the box. It was really a random choice, and I must say I'm happy to start with this theme, as you know the Italian 'yellow' drama music is not so stranger to me.

The term 'giallo' was first used to refer to a italian genre of litterature, typically thriller with cheap yellow book cover, as 'giallo' means 'yellow' in Italian. It also refer to a sub genre of exploitation italian crime movies that had their glory days between 1965 and 1980. What makes it a musical theme is that such specific movies called for an atmospheric and mysterious type of music and maestros like Ennio Morricone, Bruno Nicolai, Stelvio Cipriani or Gianni Ferrio have established the standard.

The great Bruno Nicolai elevated the genre to higher peak, and one could argue he may even have surpassed Ennio in the field. The third album of Orgasmo Sonore was specifically dedicated to the giallo film music of Nicolai. 

The music for giallo film is often a mix of dark jazz with chamber music instrumentation (harpsichord, strings, harp, mandolin), with classical influences that will sometime sound baroque, sometime avant-garde.

In some case, the erotic side of these films called for more sensual music but always with the mysterious touch and baroque instrumentation. For some people, this was maybe italian soundtrack at its height.

So this will be the first theme of this new project, a great way to start the year! I will have until Sunday January 18th to compose a totally original song influenced by giallo music and publish it on my Soundcloud. I take a little more time for this first theme just to start things properly, It will after goes each 2 weeks' Sunday to reveal and post other themes.

You can see a full list of the coming themes here

See you on January the 18th !