ART ZOYD – Musique Pour L'Odyssée (1979-2008) Two Version | FLAC (image+.tracks+.cue), lossless

Released almost three years after Art Zoyd's first LP, Symphonie Pour le Jour où Brûleront les Cités,Musique Pour l'Odyssée (Music for the Odyssey) presented a slightly different version of the band. The nucleus of Gérard Hourbette (violin), Thierry Zaboïtzeff (bass guitar, cello, vocals), and Jean-Pierre Soarez (trumpet) is joined by percussionist Daniel Denis (who would remain a core member of the band for two decades), oboist/bassoonist Michel Berckmans (of Univers Zero and Von Zamla), saxophonist Michel Thomas, and a second violinist, Franck Cardon. This lineup recorded an album much more cinematic than the first. The 17-minute epic "Musique Pour l'Odyssée" is very moody, going from climactic passages to near silence (something pushed even further on "Bruit, Silence -- Bruit, Repos"). Its slow development and ritualistic percussion accompanying prehistoric grunts gives a first example of the surrealistic soundtrack side of the band's music, which will become the center of its production in the 1990s (Faust, Haxan). "Trio 'Lettre d'Automne'" is a quiet string trio bringing the album to an end on a weaker note. Less impressive than its predecessor, Musique Pour l'Odyssée remains a very honest item in Art Zoyd's discography and the title track alone is worth listening to the album. This LP was reissued in 1999 on a two-CD set together with Symphonie Pour le Jour où Brûleront les Cités and Génération Sans Futur. In 2013, Sub Rosa released an edition of Musique Pour l'Odyssée with seven bonus tracks. François Couture  
Tracklist :
1.    Musique Pour L'Odyssée: Odyssée / Falaise / Combat / Etrave / Combat / Voile / Odyssée 17:05
2.    Bruit, Silence - Bruit, Repos 10:44
3.    Trio "Lettre D'Automne" 7:01
Performer [All Instruments], Recorded By – Thierry Zaboitzeff
– BONUS TRACKS –
4.    Ba Benzele 8:04
Credits :
Bass, Cello, Voice – Thierry Zaboitzeff (tracks: 1 to 3)
Composed By – Gérard Hourbette (tracks: 1, 3), Thierry Zaboitzeff (tracks: 2, 4)
Oboe, Bassoon – Michel Berckmans (tracks: 1 to 3)
Percussion – Daniel Denis (tracks: 1 to 3)
Saxophone [Soprano, Tenor] – Michel Thomas (tracks: 1 to 3)
Trumpet – Jean Pierre Soarez (tracks: 1 to 3)
Viola – Gérard Hourbette (tracks: 1 to 3)
Violin – Franck Cardon (tracks: 1 to 3) 

ART ZOYD – Génération sans futur (1980-2008) Two Version | FLAC (image+.tracks+.cue), lossless

Génération Sans Futur (Generation Without a Future), Art Zoyd's third LP, comes back to the sound (and lineup, plus Daniel Denis) of the group's first Symphonie Pour le Jour où Brûleront les Cités. The 17-minute "La Ville" is a powerful epic including Thierry Zaboïtzeff's prehistoric grunts, complex time shifts, and a tribal/ritualistic feel once again close to the spirit of Magma. But unlike "Musique Pour l'Odyssée" (title track of Art Zoyd's second album), the music here is fast-paced, less atmospheric, more organized. It plays on the tension that will remain the basis of Art Zoyd's originality: a tribal, atavistic feel contrasting with contemporary classical aesthetics. Actually, Génération Sans Futur may be leaning more toward the contemporary side, as exemplified by pieces like "Divertissement," "Trois Miniatures," and the manic "Speedy Gonzales." "Génération Sans Futur," on the other hand, taps into a more visceral progressive rock format and percussionist Daniel Denis actually gets to play drums for a couple of minutes, giving the piece an unusual drive. A strong album, Génération Sans Futur would soon be eclipsed by Art Zoyd's next release, the band's two-LP classic Phase IV. Génération Sans Futur was reissued in 1999 on a two-CD set together with Symphonie Pour le Jour où Brûleront les Cités and Musique Pour l'Odyssée. François Couture 
Tracklist :
1.    La Ville    16:51 

2.    Speedy Gonzales    2:57
3.    Divertissement    6:44
4.    Trois Miniatures    5:15
5.    Génération Sans Futur 9:42
– BONUS TRACKS – Archives 2 (1984-1987)    
6.    Ex Tractu Do Inocauit    2:56
7.    Le Combat Des Dragons - 1    2:46
8.    Le Combat Des Dragons - Final    1:52
9.    Malbodium - Sommeil Du Noble    0:42
10.    Malbodium - Entrée    1:33
11.    Malbodium - Eglises    1:18
Credits :
Guitar – Alain Eckert
Piano – Patricia Dallio
Saxophone [Saxes] – Gilles Renard
Trumpet [Trompette Si B] – Jean-Pierre Soarez
Violin, Viola [Alto] – Gérard Hourbette
Violoncello [Violoncelle], Bass, Vocals – Thierry Zaboitzeff

ART ZOYD – Phase IV (1982-2008) 2CD | Two Version | FLAC (image+.tracks+.cue), lossless

Drummerless French contemporary music ensemble Art Zoyd pursued a unique and evolving artistic vision during the '70s and '80s, and the uncompromising classic 1982 opus Phase IV is justifiably considered one of the group's peak accomplishments. On this sprawling fourth album -- a two-LP set produced by Henry Cow/Art Bears' Chris Cutler, engineered by the great Etienne Conod, and released on Recommended Records -- the Rock in Opposition co-founders marry dark, unsettling atmospherics à la Univers Zero to precise minimalist constructs with hints of Philip Glass or Steve Reich. One hears antecedents to Phase IV in the lengthy tracks penned by Gérard Hourbette or Thierry Zaboitzeff on the group's preceding albums between 1976 and 1980, with their layered motifs, bold and crisply defined rhythmic attack despite the lack of drums, and fits of urgency amidst the general disquiet, but the band could occasionally seem surprisingly lighthearted on those discs, veering into expressive chamber music, uptempo jazziness, and Samlas or Gong-style oddball vocals rather than the more typical ritualistic Magma-esque chanting. Phase IV found Art Zoyd pursuing a more unified aesthetic. Reduced from the sextet configuration heard on 1980's Génération Sans Futur to a quintet with violinist/violist Hourbette, electric bassist/cellist Zaboitzeff, and trumpeter/flügelhornist Jean-Pierre Soarez the only holdovers, Art Zoyd were now solidly a vehicle for the compositions of Zaboitzeff and Hourbette, the latter of whom also played piano and synthesizer for the first time, joining incoming pianist/keyboardist Thierry Willems (saxophonist Didier Pietton was the other newcomer, replacing Gilles Renard).
The stunningly adept Zaboitzeff's 14-plus-minute "État d'Urgence" begins the album with a tense pulse and rising horns that emerge from an intro fanfare and undercurrents of agitated crowd noise; later on, a thick bass drone, insistent keyboard figure, and guttural vocal give way to riffs and phrases employed by the bandmembers with phenomenal dexterity and unflagging momentum. The craziness escalates with shouted voices, cacophonous keys, and squealy free jazz sax, but the underlying pulse is unrelenting as the dynamic draws down to animated percolations before gradually gaining force beneath Soarez's multi-tracked canonical trumpets. For all its shifts in tempo and dynamics, "État d'Urgence" remains cohesive in its rigorous adherence to structure, astringent harmonics, and meld of electric and acoustic timbres -- and the same can be said of Phase IV as a whole. Wailing sax and horns and ghostly string overtones occasionally draw from the world of creative improvisation, but they're pitted against bass and keys that refuse to budge from their implacable course, whether glacially paced or more frantic. Yet unexpected moments of lyricism and beauty also emerge, notably in Zaboitzeff's alternately lovely, cinematic, and exuberant "Ballade," a four-minute track sandwiched amidst a handful of short pieces on the album's second side. Best of all are the moments when, as in Hourbette's "Vue d'un Manège" or "La Nuit," Art Zoyd open the door to consonance and achieve expansive vistas in sound while never sacrificing the darkness at their music's heart. Dave Lynch  
Tracklist 1 :
1.    État D'Urgence 14:35
Composed By – T. Zaboitzeff
2.     Naufrage 6:43
Composed By – G. Hourbette
3.    Dernière Danse 4:35
Composed By – T. Zaboitzeff
4.    Et Avec Votre Esprit 5:18 
Composed By – G. Hourbette
5.    Ballade 4:05
Composed By – T. Zaboitzeff
6.    Deux Préludes 2:15
Composed By – G. Hourbette
7.    La Musique D'Erich Faes    0:14
Tracklist 2 :
1.    Chemins De Lumière 15:16
Composed By – G. Hourbette
2.    Du Sang Sur La Neige 4:18
Composed By – T. Zaboitzeff
3.    Vue D'Un Manège 4:12
Composed By – G. Hourbette
4.     La Nuit 13:06
Composed By – G. Hourbette
5.    Les Larmes De Christina 3:44
Composed By – G. Hourbette
6.    Manège (1975) Live 12:38
Bass Guitar – Thierry Zaboitzeff
Cello, Violin – Franck Cardon
Composed By – F. Cardon, G. Hourbette, T. Zaboitzeff
Trumpet – Jean-Pierre Soarez
Violin – Gérard Hourbette
Credits :
Bass Guitar, Cello, Guitar, Voice – Thierry Zaboitzeff (tracks: 1-1 to 2-5)
Piano, Keyboards – Thierry Willems (tracks: 1-1 to 2-5)
Saxophone – Didier Pietton (tracks: 1-1 to 2-5)
Trumpet, Cornet, Percussion – Jean-Pierre Soarez (tracks: 1-1 to 2-5)
Viola, Violin, Keyboards – Gérard Hourbette (tracks: 1-1 to 2-5)