Valerian and Laureline : Jean-Claude Mezuieres - Pierre Christin

JEAN - CLAUDE MEZUIERES

Jean-Claude Mezieres (born 23 September 1938) is a French comic strip artist and illustrator. Born and raised in Paris, he was introduced to drawing by his older brother and influenced by comics artists such as Herge, Andre Franquin and Morris and later by Jije and Jack Davis. Educated at the Institut des Arts Appliques, upon graduation he worked as an illustrator for books and magazines as well as in advertising.

Returning to France, Mezieres teamed up with his childhood friend, Pierre Christin, to create Valerian and Laureline, the popular, long-running science fiction comics series for which he is best known and which has proved to be influential to many science fiction and fantasy films, including Star Wars. Mezieres has also worked as a conceptual designer on several motion picture projects – most notably the 1997 Luc Besson film, The Fifth Element – as well as continuing to work as an illustrator for newspapers, magazines and in advertising. He has also taught courses on the production of comics at the University of Paris, Vincennes.

PIERRE CHRISTIN

Christin was born at Saint-Mande in 1938.
After graduating from the Sorbonne, Christin pursued graduate studies in political science at SciencesPo and became a professor of French literature at the University of Utah,Salt Lake City. His first comics story, Le Rhum du Punch, illustrated by his childhood friend Jean-Claude Mezieres, was published in 1966 in Pilote magazine. Christin returned to France the following year to join the faculty of the University of Bordeaux. That year he again collaborated with Mezieres to create the science-fiction series Valerian and Laureline for Pilote. The first episode was Les Mauvais Reves (Bad Dreams).

VALERIAN AND LAURELINE

Valerian and Laureline (French: Valerian et Laureline), also known as Valerian: Spatio-Temporal Agent (French: Valerian, agent spatio-temporel) or just Valerian, is a French science fiction comics series, created by writer Pierre Christin and artist Jean-Claude Mezieres. First published in Pilote magazine in 1967, the final installment was published in 2010.

THE STORY

The original setting for the series was the 28th century.

Humanity has discovered the means of travelling instantaneously in time and space.

The capital of Earth, Galaxity, is the center of the vast Terran Galactic Empire.
Earth itself has become a virtual utopia with most of the population living a life of leisure in a virtual reality dream-state while ruled by the benign Technocrats of the First Circle.

The Spatio-Temporal Service protects the planets of the Terran Empire and guards against temporal paradoxes caused by rogue time-travellers.

Valerian and Laureline are two such spatio-temporal agents.

However, since the end of the story The Rage of Hypsis (Les Foudres d'Hypsis) in which Galaxity disappears from space-time as a result of a temporal paradox the pair have become freelance trouble-shooters travelling space and time offering their services to anyone willing to hire them while also searching for their lost home.

In the first two albums Valerian travels through time in a two-seater device, the XB27, which transports him to the various relay stations that Galaxity has hidden throughout time (e.g. in Bad Dreams (Les Mauvais Reves) the relay is hidden below a tavern).

In subsequent stories Valerian and Laureline use the saucer-shaped Astroship XB982 (which made its debut appearance in 1969 in the short story The Great Collector (Le Grand Collectionneur).

The astroship is able to travel anywhere using a spatio-temporal jump, a sort of hyperspace drive enabling near-instant transportation anywhere in space and time.

VALERIAN

Valerian was born on Earth, in Galaxity, capital of the Terran Galactic Empire in the 28th century.

He joined the Spatio-Temporal Service in the year 2713. He has been trained to think that Galaxity is always right – even when he receives orders that go against his morals he will, reluctantly, follow them.

He much prefers to be a man of action than sitting around pondering what course to take next.

The early stories present Valerian as a typical square-jawed hero figure, who is strong and dependable (although an early running joke was that despite being a time-traveller he is always running late, especially when summoned by his boss).
However, as the series progresses, he is increasingly portrayed as somewhat knuckle-headed.

In World Without Stars (Le Pays sans etoile), he gets recklessly drunk on the colonists' home-made booze, in On the False Earths (Sur les terres truquees), the historian, Jadna, views him as useful only as cannon fodder and nothing else while in Heroes of the Equinox (Les Heros de l'Equinoxe), he comes across as woefully inadequate compared with the champions he is competing against.

Although devoted to Laureline, he has been led astray by other women, such as in Heroes of the Equinox and Brooklyn Station, Terminus Cosmos.

When Galaxity disappears in The Rage of Hypsis he contemplates following his fellows into oblivion, much to Laureline's horror. Even afterwards, he feels the loss of Galaxity much more than Laureline, as it is his birthplace.

LAURELINE

Laureline is a peasant girl from 11th century France.
In the debut adventure, Bad Dreams, she rescues Valerian from the enchanted Forest of Arelaune.

When she accidentally discovers Valerian is a time-traveller, he is forced to bring her back with him to Galaxity where she is trained as a Spatio-Temporal Agent and assigned as his partner.

In the early stories Laureline generally sits in the background while Valerian saves the day in whatever situation the pair have found themselves in, but her position changes as the series develops.

World Without Stars, in which the two characters are separated for most of the adventure, allows Laureline to step out from under Valerian's shadow for the first time and she proves to be more than an equal to Valerian in ensuring that their mission succeeds.

N0 1. " Metro Chatelet - Direction Cassiopee "
@ Dargaud Edition 1980
Published in Greece : January 2004 by Mamouth Comix .

N0 2. " Brooklyn Station - Terminus Cosmos "
@ Dargaud Edition 1981
Published in Greece : November 2004

V.A : Must - The Absolute Feeling 1995

Must is an amazing compilation of electronic, experimental, ethnic, jazz world music released in Greece in 1995 by Virgin Music .

TRACKS

01. William Orbit - Water From A Vine Leaf
02. Kid Frost - La Raza (Instrumental)
03. Urbanator - Cats
04. Abdel Kabirr & The Soto Koto Band - Kelefa (Instrumental)
05. Working Week - Storm Of Light
06. Massive Attack - Save From Harm
07. Grid - Ice Machine
08. David Sylvian & Robert Fripp - Darshan (Remixed by The Grid)
09. Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan - Mustt Mustt (Lost In His Work)
10. Material - Ineffect
11. Fun-Da-Mental - Tribal Revolution
12. Brian Eno & David Byrne - Help Me Somebody


WILLIAM ORBIT

William Orbit (born William Mark Wainwright, 15 December 1956) is an English musician, composer and record producer. In the early 1980s, he formed synthpop act Torch Song with Laurie Mayer and Grant Gilbert. In 1987 he released the first of his Strange Cargo album series, containing ambient music.
By the 1990s and 2000s, Orbit had started to work with bigger name artists, producing songs on Ray of Light and Music by Madonna, 13 and Think Tank by Blur and Saints and Sinners by All Saints.
In 2012, Orbit did a talk with Khalil Fong and Pharrell Williams at the Liberatum Hong Kong International Festival of Culture. In 2013, he started his own YouTube channel to experiment with filmmaking and to release new music .

KID FROST
 

In the mid-1980s, Frost released several pre-gangsta 12" singles on Los Angeles-based labels Electrobeat and Baja. In the late 1980s, Kid Frost moved to Virgin Records. Virgin released his biggest hit, "La Raza". His debut album, Hispanic Causing Panic was released in 1990. He also established a Latin rap supergroup called Latin Alliance, which released their only album, Latin Alliance, in 1991. His second album, East Side Story was released in 1992, which featured appearances from MC Eiht, A.L.T. and Ganxta Ridd from the Boo-Yaa TRIBE.

URBANATOR


Michal Urbaniak (born January 22, 1943) is a Polish jazz musician and composer born in Warsaw, playing mainly the violin, lyricon and saxophone during concerts and recordings. He played a central role in the development of jazz fusion in the 1970s and 1980s, and has introduced elements of folk, R&B, hip hop, and symphonic music to jazz.
In 1974, Urbaniak formed the band Fusion, and introduced melodic and rhythmic elements of Polish folk music into his funky New York based music. Urbaniak followed his musical journey with very innovative projects like: Urbanator ( first band fusing rap & hip-hop in jazz), "Urbanizer" (project with his band and 4 piece R&B vocal group - 1978) and UrbSymphony, (where on Jan. 27th 1995 jazz group with rapper and Apple computer played concert and recorded cd & dvd with 60 piece full symphony orchestra) Since 1970 Urbaniak is playing on a custom-made, five string violin furnished especially for him, violin synthesizer called "talkin'" violin, soprano, alto and tenor saxophones and on lyricon (electric sax-like horn) .

ABBEL KABIRR & THE SOTO KOTO BAND

Danceable and festive, the sound of Gumbay Dance! adds a distinctive world flavor to any music collection.

This new sound and direction in African music is a complex mixture of Mandingo, Wollof, Fula and Creole musical cultures of the Gambia. Tribal drum rhythms and exotic instrumentation create an irresistible world of emotion, exuberance and exaltation which generate the urge to dance, dance, dance! Gumbay Dance! also displays the dynamite vocal prowess of Abdel Kabirr who is a commanding presence on the tracks which include singing. And five instrumentals round out this exciting release, an authentic taste of music from another continent, proudly dipping into the roots of African music in a contemporary setting.

WORKING WEEK

Working Week were a British jazz-dance musical ensemble, active in the 1980s and 1990s.

Working Week were formed in 1983, by guitarist Simon Booth and saxophonist Larry Stabbins, out of the ashes of the proto new wave jazz-pop band Weekend, which ceased to exist when singer Alison Statton left to become a schoolteacher. Weekend also paved the way for other Brit jazz-pop bands that followed such as Everything But The Girl and Swing Out Sister. The duo released their debut single "Venceremos - We Will Win" the following year, a tribute to Chilean protest singer Victor Jara featuring vocal contributions from Robert Wyatt and Tracey Thorn from Everything but the Girl. It became the band's sole entry in the UK Singles Chart, where it peaked at #64. Singer Julie Tippetts provided vocals for the follow-up "Storm of Light".

MASSIVE ATTACK

Massive Attack is an English musical group formed in 1988 in Bristol, consisting of Robert "3D" Del Naja

and Grant "Daddy G" Marshall. Their debut album Blue Lines was released in 1991, with the single "Unfinished Sympathy" reaching the charts and later being voted the 63rd greatest song of all time in a poll by NME.[2] 1998's Mezzanine, containing "Teardrop", and 2003's 100th Window charted in the UK at number 1. Both Blue Lines and Mezzanine feature in Rolling Stone??'?s list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.[3][4]
The group has won numerous music awards throughout their career, including a Brit Award—winning Best British Dance Act, two MTV Europe Music Awards, and two Q Awards.[5][6] They have released 5 studio albums that have sold over 11 million copies worldwide.

GRID

The Grid are an English electronic dance group, consisting of David Ball (formerly of Soft Cell) and Richard Norris,[1] with guest contributions from other musicians. They are best known for the hits "Swamp Thing", "Crystal Clear", "Rollercoaster" and "Floatation".

DAVID SYLVIAN & ROBERT FRIPP

David Sylvian

David Sylvian (born David Alan Batt, 23 February 1958) is an English singer-songwriter and musician who came to prominence in the late 1970s as the lead vocalist and main songwriter in the group Japan. His subsequent solo work is described by AllMusic critic Jason Ankeny as "a far-ranging and esoteric career that encompassed not only solo projects but also a series of fascinating collaborative efforts." Sylvian's solo work has been influenced by a variety of musical styles and genres, including jazz, avant-garde, ambient, electronic, and progressive rock.

Robert Fripp

Robert Fripp (born 16 May 1946) is an English

guitarist, composer and record producer.
As a guitarist for the progressive rock band King Crimson, Fripp has been the only member to have played in all of King Crimson's line-ups from the late 1960s to the early 2010s. He is the driving creative and political force of the group, bearing responsibility for line-up changes and ending and resuming the group at various points.[citation needed] He has also worked extensively as a studio musician, notably with singer David Bowie on the albums "Heroes" and Scary Monsters, and contributed sounds to the Windows Vista operating system. His complete discography lists more than seven hundred releases over four decades.[5]
He is ranked 62nd on Rolling Stone magazine's 2011 list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" after having been ranked by David Fricke 42nd on its 2003 list. Tied with Andres Segovia, he also is ranked 47th on Gibson.com's "Top 50 guitarists of all time".
His compositions often feature unusual time signatures, which have been influenced by classical and folk traditions. His innovations have included Frippertronics, soundscapes, and New standard tuning.

NUSTRAT FATEH ALI KHAN

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan (13 October 1948 – 16 August 1997) was a Pakistani musician, primarily a singer of Qawwali, the devotional music of the Sufis. Considered one of the greatest voices ever recorded, he possessed an extraordinary range of vocal abilities and could perform at a high level of intensity for several hours. Extending the 600-year old Qawwali tradition of his family, Khan is widely credited with introducing Qawwali music to international audiences. He is popularly known as "Shahenshah-e-Qawwali", meaning "The King of Kings of Qawwali".
Born in Faisalabad, Pakistan, Khan had his first public performance at age of 16, at his father's chelum. He became the head of the family qawwali party in 1971. He was signed by Oriental Star Agencies, Birmingham, England, in the early 1980s. Khan went on to release movie scores and albums in Europe, India, Japan, Pakistan, and the US. He engaged in collaborations and experiments with Western artists, becoming a well-known world music artist. He toured extensively, performing in over 40 countries.

MATERIAL

By the mid-'90s, Material was simply another word for Bill Laswell, so as Laswell's fascination with ambient mysticism grew, so did Material's tendencies in that direction. After 1991's dark and reggae-inflected The Third Power, Hallucination Engine's long, spacy jams aren't exactly a dramatic departure, but the combination of Wayne Shorter and various North African elements is certainly interesting. In fact, the array of guest musicians is more diverse than ever: Trilok Gurtu, Jonas Hellborg, Zakir Hussain, Bootsy Collins -- the list goes on and on and even includes William Burroughs (who intones a hilarious list of "Words of Advice" over a churning mid-tempo funk groove).

FUN-DA-MENTAL

Fun-Da-Mental is a radical, multi-ethnic, British, Islamic world fusion and ethno techno band formed in 1991. The style of the group mixes Eastern and Western musical and cultural influences, featuring British dance club electronics, Indian, Afro-Caribbean, and worldbeat samples. Thematically, Fun-Da-Mental is concerned with social justice, particularly in regard to Britain's treatment of its Asian and Afro-Caribbean citizens. The core members of the group consist of Aki Nawaz (who uses the stage name "Propa-Gandhi") and Dave Watts (who goes by "Impi-D"). Nawaz (who was a member of Southern Death Cult using his proper name Haq Qureshi) formed the group along with Man-Tharoo (also known as Goldfinger), DJ Obeah, and Bad-Sha Lallaman. They played the Notting Hill Carnival in August 1991. The group later added lyricist Amir Ali, percussionist Inder Matharu, guitarist Count Dubulah, and Watts, but lost Man-Tharoo, DJ Obeah, and Lallaman. MC Mushtaq and Hot Dog Dennis joined the group prior to their first full-length release, 1995's Seize the Time on Mammoth Records. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.

BRIAN ENO & DAVID BYRNE

Brian Eno

Brian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno, born 15 May 1948 and originally christened Brian Peter George Eno), professionally known as Brian Eno or simply Eno, is an English musician, composer, record producer, singer, and visual artist, known as one of the principal innovators of ambient music.
Eno was a student of Roy Ascott on his Groundcourse at Ipswich Civic College. He then studied at Colchester Institute art school in Essex, England, taking inspiration from minimalist painting. During his time on the art course at the Institute, he also gained experience in playing and making music through teaching sessions held in the adjacent music school. He joined the band Roxy Music as synthesiser player in the early 1970s. Roxy Music's success in the glam rock scene came quickly, but Eno soon became tired of touring and of conflicts with lead singer Bryan Ferry.
Eno's solo music has explored more experimental musical styles and ambient music.

David Byrne

David Byrne (born 14 May 1952) is a Scottish-born American musician who was a founding member, principal songwriter, and lead singer and guitarist of the American new wave band Talking Heads, active between 1975 and 1991.
Since then, Byrne has released his own solo recordings and worked with various media including film, photography, opera, fiction and non-fiction. He has received Grammy, Oscar, and Golden Globe awards and been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.


Label : Virgin
Format : CD Compilation
Country : Greece
Released : 1995
Genre : Electronic, World music
Style : Synth-pop, Experimental, Ethnic
Country : Greece

MP3 @ 320 MB  :  Size  :  139 MB

Paralleles de Montsegur : Vinyl, 7", 45 RPM, Limited Edition 2008

In the year of our Lord , in 1986 , while the land of Languedoc is invaded by bellowing hordes , hollering their war cry "Death to Pasqua" , five faidits, Cathar Knights , offer with their contradictory faith a dark , cold Rock pregnant with reveries and other tales .

Thanks to many preaches given in the remotest part of the South of France , they find their audience in faithful believers whose numbers constantly grows from then on .
Their musical and lyrical universe talks to the heart and invades the soul of those who suffered at the time that the French stage was a one way of thinking only and who couldn't free their mind from the mainstream music

Quickly their words spread all over France and even beyond its border and find an ever increasing echo umtill a day a label from Paris is enthralled by the poisonous charm of those dark preachers at the time when alternative music is king . It is in 1990 . Thus the name of esperit will be carved in stone and for eight chapters , as all the creations of those Cathar Knights , riding as The Paralleles de Montsegur . Those five knights have created a unique alchemy in France .

1991 is a turming point in their epic . After tremendous high deeds , and the loss of two of its members , the Paralleles de Montsegur recruits a faydit , a Cathar knight and hardens their discoure .

Four new chapters will be carved in stone heralding a tour which their sermons discourse .
Inns , castles , of tournaments the four knights preachers make the most of they incounter up to the border of self destruction , faithful down to their faith .

Thus the Paralleles de Montsegur entered the legend and they died without having denied their faith .
15 years later the faith is rekindled in the souls and the hearts of numerous old school fans but also of new ones .

MEMBERS

Patrick Conte : Vocals
Pascal Damour : Guitar
Jean-Marc Tribillac : Bass
Nicolas Barrot : Drums

Lyrics By – Patrick Conte

Label : ειρκτή eirma 01
Format : Vinyl, 7", 45 RPM, Limited Edition, Numbered
Number : 042 from 300
Country : Greece
Released : 2008
Genre : Rock
Style : New Wave , Dark 

TRAXS

A1.Au Fil Des Armes    
A2.L'Hote Animal
  

B1.N'Ecoute Pas La Mer    
B2.Pierrot De La Lune

L'HOTE ANIMAL  : ANIMAL GHOST  Lyrics in English

Hail to you animal ghost
Take care of me , don't harm me
my body in disgrace will make room for you
my mind will make room for you too .

From the cup between my hands I hold fire
From my cup between my lips I drink fire .

Never mind who I am , animal ghost
Good use I'll do of your lethal liquid .
There's enough room in my body for you
my mind thanks you .

From the cup between my hands I hold fire
From my cup between my lips I drink fire .

Your poison burns my guts and destroys my flesh
your poison burns my temples and destroys my flesh .
Animal ghost stamps , stamps , stamps .

Have mercy animal ghost
cursed poison you hurt me so
my body in disgrace has given in
my body in disgrace has given in .
My mind begs for mercy .

From the cup between my hands I hold fire
From my cup between my lips I drink fire .
Your poison burns my guts and destroys my flesh
your poison burns my temples and destroys my flesh .
Animal ghost stamps , stamps , stamps .

FLAC : Size : 93,1 MB

O.S.T : Birdy : Peter Gabriel 1984

Birdy is a 1984 American drama film directed by Alan Parker (Pink Floyd - The Wall ) and starring Matthew Modine and Nicolas Cage. It is based on the novel of the same name by William Wharton, although the film is set in the Vietnam era and not during the Second World War.

Two teens, Birdy (Modine) and Al (Cage), become friends at school and serve in Vietnam. Birdy has long been disturbingly fixated with birds and his Vietnam experiences push him over the edge: returning from the war, he is hospitalized for a psychiatric assessment and Al tries to reach him before he'll be separated from Birdy, leaving him alone and lost. As the story develops, flashback scenes show their lives as teens in a working-class neighborhood of Philadelphia in the United States in the 1960s, and their developing friendship and viewpoints.

This soundtrack is Peter Gabriel's first foray into movie scores but it is a really good soundtrack that stands on it's own.
The movie itself is just amazing and the soundtrack perfectly fits in the weird tone of the movie.
Be warned: The soundtrack is very gloomy and may leave you depressed.

As some are aware of, five of the songs life up parts of tracks from Gabriel's third and fourth CDs and the album label arns that this record contains no lyrics. The remaining seven are extraordinarily haunting and beautiful.

The best of the original tracks is "Floating Dogs" which is a very scary but beautiful track that becomes a very twisted trancy piece.
Do not let the fact that this is overshadowed by "PassioN". "Birdy" is a really excellent score and should be included in any Gabriel fan's collection.

TRACKS

Side One

01.At Night 2:38
02.Floating Dogs 2:55
03.Quiet and Alone 2:30
04.Close Up (from "Family Snapshot")  0:55
05.Slow Water 2:51
06.Dressing the Wound 4:06

Side Two

07.Birdy's Flight (from "Not One of Us") 2:58
08.Slow Marimbas 3:21
09.The Heat (from "The Rhythm of the Heat")  4:41
10.Sketch Pad With Trumpet and Voice  3:05
11.Under Lock and Key (from "Wallflower")  2:28
12.Powerhouse at the Foot of the Mountain (from "San Jacinto")  2:19

Format : Vinyl LP
Made in : Greece
Label : Charisma - Virgin Records
Year : 1984

MP3 @ 320 : Size : 81.3 MB
Flac  :  Size : 170 MB