Robot music

Friday, 9 February 2007

Marthy Coumans is one of the most passionate record collectors that i have ever met. And he is also one of the nicest record collectors that I have met. We have been exchanging tapes and CDr’s for 15 years (or maybe longer) and I keep his tapes in the box that I will take with me if ever the Dutch dikes will break. Every now and then he calls me, to tell me about a recent find. Usually a record that he had to travel 500 kilometres or more for, bought on a flea market in a place that you cannot even find with a navigation system. But I must admit, it pays of: his collection is amazing. But I prefer to receive a CD with some highlights every now and then, and to get these wonderful phone calls.
Tonight he called because of an LP he bought in France (!!!) this Sunday. He played some songs for me over the phone and read the text on the cover. To me surprise I found some photos in my mailbox tonight, and that is the reason why I tell you all this. Ofcourse you want to hear the music too, but I am sorry, I don’t have it myself yet. If Marthy sends me a CD, I will post a song in this blog, I promise you.
The LP is called Les Robots Musique And I will try to summarise the text on the back of the cover: “During the second world war a French musician was imprisoned in a German camp. There he had a vision of an orchestra where all the musicians were robots. After the war was over he sought the help of an electrical engineer and together they created… Les Robots Musique!”
Based on what i heard through the telephone, it sounds a bit like the famous DeCap organs, which in the 60’s and 70’s were very popular in Belgium. It were mechanical organs, the size of a truck, and they were used to dance to, in café’s that could not afford an orchestra. But I while I was listening to the two songs that Marthy played for me over the phone, I was making dinner for three children, who were watching television with the volume at ten, so i was surprised to find that when i listened to the MP3 that he mailed me the next day, it did sound eh… like a DeCap Organ.