André Hodeir is a fascinating figure in French Jazz. Think of him as sort of a more adventuresome Gil Evans. Musician, composer, arranger, and author. He wrote numerous books on Jazz aesthetics that were published by Grove Books in the 1960s. Hodeir is also a challenging artist to find record wise. Even in Paris I had trouble locating his works, but now, with the internet, it's a tad easier, but not a whole lot of recordings are readily available. One of the hard finds for me, is this record, the soundtrack to Charles Belmont's French film "L'écume des jours." It's based on a fantastic Boris Vian novel ("Foam of the Daze" which I published through my press TamTam Books).
Header uses jazz as a foundation, but he also had an interest in Musique Concréte practices as well. "L'écume des jours" in parts, is almost electronic in that he processes the children's vocals into a hypnotic and haunting sound. There is nothing on this French EP that is predictable. Incredibly melodic in parts, but also obsessed with the sound process as well. Hodeir was a genius and very worth while to locate his recordings. I think I have most of his work in my collection, as well as a huge Boris Vian presence in my sound and book library.
