Ilous & Decuyper “Ilous & Decuyper” {FRA} [1971] @ 160 & 256kbps – (Creative and Unpretentious Hippie Folk)

If you like French 60’s and 70’s music, probably you have noticed that at least 15% of the bands were Folk acts, to be more specific “celtic” folk acts: where Malicorne & Alan Stivell were the “kings” surrounded, among others, by Gwendal, La Bamboche, La Chifonie, Souderline, etc. The rest of the folk acts, looked for its influences not in the dim woods of Normandy, but in the hippie North American folk, with truly impressive results.

Bands like Tangerine (with Valérie Blesh), Mormos (an american-french band ) or the Duo that we reviewed today, seems to be a minority among the rest, but believe me, the achievements are GREAT!

Primarily, Ilous & Decuyper could be described as a French answer to CS&N, but for me that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Their arrangements were more intrincated, meticulously crafted and full of experiments, also they vocal harmonies were very close to the craftsmanship of Brian Wilson.

Dag Erik Asbjorsen points that: “Tracks such as “Vous Mourrez Demain”, “Berceuse” and “Mélancolie” have something in common with the pastoral, lazy atmosphere of the short songs on Pink Floyd’s More and Atom Heart Mother or Mc Cartney’s Ram. “Beurk!” is almost a cross between “Honky Tonk Woman” and “Drive my Car”. A Norwegian nursery rhyme (sung by a female from the Oslo-area, if you need to know!) appeared from some reason at the beginning of “Cor Bucolique”, before giving way to a slow instrumental for French horn (an instrument frequently used by Martin Circus), acoustic guitar and bird song. Throughout there is creative use of studio effects (strange echoes, warbled Leslie sounds and double-tracking). Most important of all, the Songwriting is on par with several major artists.”

With nothing more to add, I just want to let you know another great reason for own an album like this one: They made an AWESOME cover of Eleanor Rigby, ¿need to say more?

Keep Listening!

Links in Comments

Ilous & Decuyper-Eleanor Rigby

10 comments:

  1. Though not entirely related, do you have any Earth & Fire? Such as their S/T or Song Of The Marching Children? I recently acquired one of their later live albums, and I liked the themes and what not, but the quality was awful. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for your contributions! Especially like your more recent Passport add.

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  2. Glad you liked it man. THE FIRST EARTH & FIRE ALBUM YOU COULD FIND HERE IN THIS BLOG, ENJOY:

    http://chrisgoes.blogspot.com/2006/08/earth-fire-selftitled-holland.html

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  3. Hi ProgNotFrogger,
    I love your site...... I don't always comment but just wanna say keep on keepin' on.... ILous and Decuyper is a great LP btw... I also have Ilous's solo LP too.... great stuff....

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  4. Many Thanks Watcher, I totally agree w/you, personally I never heard Ilous solo Lp, but now i will try to find it ASAP.

    I really ppreciate that you take time for this lines!

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  5. Hellow folks!!

    Track 05 - non is corrupted , constant defects ( cause possible is a continuous error synchronization when a user downloaded it from some p2p (ex. typical : soulseek).

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  6. Just came across your blog. You have a great collectio. Anyway you can upload the Ilous & Decuyper LP again. Would really appreciate it. Thanks.

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  7. Very interesting blog! Please, upload Ilous & Decuyper again - I can't find it in other resources!
    Thanks in advance,
    Boris

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  8. just wondering if this could be reposted it sounds great! thanks for the sweet blog

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  9. Hi never been to this blog before. Can someone re-upload the album? Also does this one contain "L'Elu"?

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