Jean-Jacques Perrey et son Ondioline - New Release Produced by Wally De Backer aka Gotye

Readers of the site should all be familiar with Jean-Jacques Perrey's work. His preferred instrument was the Ondioline. As many of you know, Jean-Jacques Perrey passed away on November 4th of last year. I was actually fortunate enough to see him perform live with Dana Countryman for his 2006 tour.

Wally De Backer aka Gotye has produced Jean-Jacques Perrey et son Ondioline, an archival project featuring Jean-Jacques Perrey's early music with the Ondioline. The release features previously unreleased and rare tracks both on vinyl and digital download.

via Wally De Backer: "I got to know JJ in the years before he passed and this is a labour of love I undertook to pay tribute to his incredible work, specifically with the remarkable Ondioline."

You can read a great article on the Ondioline, Jeen-Jacques Perrey, Wally De Backer and the release at The New Yorker here.

The following are the official details for the release:

"Out on Forgotten Futures on LP/digital

- Never-before-released Ondioline cuts from Jean
- Jacques Perrey’s archive.
- Super rare tracks from early private press releases.
- Meticulously restored and remastered from original sources.
- Includes collaborations with Angelo Badalamenti and Billy Goldenberg.
- 36-page booklet with unreleased archival photos and an essay by Simon Reynolds.
- Compilation curated and produced by Wally De Backer (Gotye)

Jean-Jacques Perrey (1929-2016) was a pioneer of electronic pop music celebrated for his uniquely whimsical sampled soundworld, his groundbreaking style of rhythmic tape editing, and his early use of the Moog modular synthesizer.

From seminal instrumental albums such as The In Sound From Way Out! (1965, with collaborator Gershon Kingsley), to Moog Indigo (1970, featuring the classic cut E.V.A.), Perrey’s inimitable sounds have been sampled by everyone from Fat Boy Slim and Gang Starr to Disneyland’s Main Street Electrical Parade!

Not as celebrated or widely known is the fact that Perrey was the world’s only virtuoso of the Ondioline, the remarkable proto-synthesizer developed by Frenchman Georges Jenny in the 1940s.

Jean-Jacques Perrey et son Ondioline focuses on this early period of Perrey’s musical life, when he traveled the world as the Ondioline’s prime demonstrator, began experimenting with multitrack recording technology, and made demo recordings designed to exalt the Ondioline’s incredible array of sounds and effects.

The compilation features never-before released collaborations with Angelo Badalamenti (Twin Peaks, the films of David Lynch) and Billy Goldenberg (Steven Spielberg’s Duel, Columbo) as well as a collaboration with Dick Hyman which delivers the only piece of music composed by Ondioline inventor Georges Jenny currently on record.

Further gems include a sparkling early version of the beloved Pioneers of the Stars, given a stirring Ennio Morricone-esque arrangement here, as well as choice selections from Musique Electronique du Cosmos, the highly collectible album of library music Perrey recorded in 1963.

Ondioline enthusiasts will be excited to hear a super rare extended demonstration of the instrument, recorded by Perrey in the early 1960s, which also receives its first commercial release on this compilation.

A must for dedicated fans, and a vibrant introduction for new listeners to Perrey’s wonderfully individual style of music, Jean-Jacques Perrey et son Ondioline canvasses his unparalleled mastery of the Ondioline, points towards the exuberance of his later sample and Moog-heavy work, and importantly, illuminates a reflective and melancholy side to his recorded work that expands on his already considerable achievements.

Curated by long-time Perrey fan and recent collaborator Wally De Backer (Gotye), this is the first release on Forgotten Futures, a new record label set up by De Backer to excavate lost works by pioneering producers and musical instrument inventors. De Backer got to know Perrey over the last few years of his life, visiting him a number of times at his home in Switzerland, and coordinating the archiving of his recordings, photos and music scores. Perrey mentored De Backer in the restoration and playing of Ondiolines, and through their developing connection over this instrument, Perrey entrusted De Backer with a number of the rare masters and one-of-a-kind test pressings of Ondioline recordings that form the basis of this compilation.

Tracks:1. La Vache et le Prisonnier 2. Visa to the Stars (commercial arrangement) 3. Chicken on the Rocks4. Danielle of Amsterdam 5. Cigale 6. L'âme des Poètes 7. Dandelion Wine 8. Barnyard In Orbit9. Sérénade à la Mule 10. Mars Reflector 11. Pioneers of the Stars (orchestral arrangement)12. to 38. Ondioline demonstration from Satellite Records acetates"

https://jean-jacquesperrey.bandcamp.com/

Photograph by Anna Webber

via The New Yorker:

"Wouter De Backer, known as Gotye, has a keen understanding of the electronic musician Jean-Jacques Perrey’s discography, and of the nuances it contains."