1971 Peymont, Braen “Paese Sotto Inchiesta” on Flirt Records

The mighty Flirt library series spans eleven excellent releases, although this one is probably my favorite. That’s probably because I’m a big fan of French/Italian outsider composition, otherwise known as Musique Concrète, which is basically sounds and samples from the natural world or particular cultures woven into layered studio production. Placebo is an excellent example of this, as is Barney Wilen’s “Moshi” and Umiliani’s “Continente Nero”.  Think Stockhausen, but with a tighter backbeat. It also helps that Peymont is really Antonino Riccardo Luciani, and Braen is the MIGHTY Alessandro Alessandroni. Worth noting that “Paese Sotto Inchiesta” means “Country Under Investigation”, but is this a contemporary political statement describing the legal issues of Richard Nixon, Mariano Rumor, and Georges Pompidou, or are they talking about, say, an overall look at the music of Australia? Hard to tell.

​This record could be easily described, if you’re fine with the description being totally inaccurate and/or misleading, but otherwise you sort of have to give it a spin yourself. Horror movie psych meets Third Stream piano musings meets aboriginal horizon-gazing meets felt pedal percussion meets Moog blurps meets midnight clavinola meets French Castle chamber music meets jazzy cultish 70’s anti-commerciality. Which is to say, awesome.