Various – Bob Stanley and Pete Wiggs Present Paris In The Spring (CD)

The events of May ’68 are seen as a turning point in France’s social history – pictures of the barricades are still potent images. Lines were drawn politically, culturally, socially, and pop music was not exempt. “Paris In The Spring” is a collection of the new music, put together by Saint Etienne’s Bob Stanley and Pete Wiggs, that emerged from France between 1968 and the mid-70s, an extraordinary blend of several previously independent strains French chanson and y -y , American jazz and funk, British chamber pop – shot through with the era’s underlying mixture of optimism, uncertainty and darkness.

This is the first collection of its kind, released on the 50th anniversary of the Paris uprising. Serge Gainsbourg – a jazz pianist with a chanson past and a pop present – was in a position to play a key role in soundtracking France in flux over the next five years. His “Histoire de Melody Nelson”, with its heavily atmospheric arrangements by Jean-Claude Vannier, was the acme of this new, unsettling French sound. “Paris In The Spring” includes other equally dazzling Vannier arrangements (for L onie) and Gainsbourg compositions (for Jane Birkin and Mireille Darc). Prior to 1968, 60s French pop had been dominated by y -y , the country’s unique brand of upbeat pop, a world of primary colours, mini-jupes and discotheques (a French invention, after all). Its stars either faded fast after May ’68 or adapted to the new era. New bands like Triangle emerged, influenced by Soft Machine and Gong who became regulars on the Paris club scene. French library music from Janko Nilovic and film soundtracks (Fran ois De Roubaix, Karl-Heinz Sch fer) reflected the era’s edginess.