Jac Berrocal: RFI

I was very excited to find out that a song ("Rock'n'Roll Station") I remember hearing on the radio in high school was buy him, so I paid a lot of money for a copy of "Paralleles." I only recently recovered the city which disappeared into someone else's collection under mysterious circumstances. At any rate, I haven't really been able to listen to it. It seems like a bunch of European guys without a lot of musical skill, but with a fondness for free jazz and rock, and an ample supply of drugs. I think it's pretentious crap. "We even worked on LP records that were never issued." Wow, dude! I'm not a huge fan of free jazz (and even less so of free improv), but even some of the stuff I don't like by, say, Albert Ayler or the Art Ensemble of Chicago, seems a lot more substantial than what I hear here.

Incidentally "Rock'n'Roll Station" is more of a repetitive spoken word track than anything to do with free jazz.

Julio to the thread to disagree with me.

oh jac`s music, at least the small portion of it that I`ve heard, sounds absolutely brilliant to my ears. I`ve known him via steve nurse with wound who is a great fan of him ( nww has an album called rnr station).

'paralleles' is not a free jazz alb or a free improv alb. its kind of like 'dada jazz' (just saying this because he 'plays' a bike on one track).
though i haven't heard as much of his stuff as albery ayler's so I won't make big claims for it as yet. but I disagree with rockist's assessment.

gareth: spend 10 quid on paralleles. and if its crap, then its you've only lost 10 quid (OK so i don't know yr financial situation).

I've only heard Musiq Musik (Fractal, 017) CD, which is pretty nice in a faux-Algerian sorta way (tho at 29 minutes or so it's too short).

*revive*

I'd like some information of this fellow, and this thread is a bit spotty. Paralleles generally gets mentioned 1st, so is it the consensus of this forum that it is the best, or the best starting point, or what...?

La Nuit est au Courant is nice. jazzier and less untethered than Paralleles but still quite offbeat. there's a decent rarities collection, Fatal Encounters, that's good for an overview of Berrocal solo, with the RIO-ish Catalogue (Artman/Pauvros/Berrocal) and in obscure projects dating back to the early '70s. the first Oblique Strategies-inspired session CD on DSA, with Berrocal joining Jaki Liebezeit, Pascal Comelade and fellow French oddballs Pierre Bastien, Amaury Cambuzat (Ulan Bator) and Dominique Repeçaud (Soixante Étages), is also worth hearing.

how's the "Flash!" 10" on Alga Marghen?