Ballads for an absent ghost

 

François de Roubaix (1939-1975) was a french multi-instrumentalist and composer for commercials, TV series, and about 30 feature-length films. De Roubaix had a home studio which he used a lot for both experimentation and final tracks. He freely combined classical (prerecorded) music with electronic instruments, early synthesizers and rhythm boxes.

Notable in his style is his use of folk elements, as well as electronic musical instruments such as synthesizers and early drum machines. He is thus seen as a precursor of the French electronic music; In a decade, he created a musical style with new sounds, until his death at 36 in a diving accident.

François De Roubaix - Les Lèvres Rouges

Sounds from deep soul

 

Ammar Ali Mohamed Ibrahim Ali Al Sherei (Ammar El Sherei) (16 April 1948 - 7 December 2012) was an Egyptian music icon, performer and composer. Sherei was born blind in the village of Samalot, Upper Egypt; he worked as an accordion musician, performed in Cairo's nightclubs and then in the Golden Music Band that was a famous band at that time in Egypt. 

He became a composer in 1975. He played piano, harp, keyboard and oud. Sherei arranged and wrote soundtracks and scores for movies and television series. He composed more than 150 songs for most of the leading music stars of the Arab World, including Warda, Latifa and Ali El Haggar.

Omar El Shariyi - Oriental Music

Nocturnal adventures madness

 

Bruno Nicolai (1926, Rome - 1991, Rome) was an Italian composer, conductor and keyboardist (organ, piano). Notably the composer and director of numerous film and television scores. He also served as musical director for other composers' film scores, prevalently those of Ennio Morricone, Carlo Rustichelli and Luis Enriquez Bacalov. 

Nicolai studied piano, organ and composition at Conservatorio di Santa Cecilia, studying piano under Aldo Mantia, and composition and organ under Goffredo Petrassi. Whilst at the conservatory, he met fellow student Ennio Morricone who also studied under Petrassi. A friendship began that would last many years.

Throughout the 60's and 70's, Nicolai scored a number of films, working several times with directors such as Jess Franco, Tinto Brass and Alberto De Martino for their giallo and exploitation films. During this time, he also composed library music, primarily for his own labels Gemelli and Edi-Pan, but also for other labels like RCA. His big break came in 1965, when he was musical supervisor for the Sergio Leone film "For a Few Dollars More", scored by Ennio Morricone. In 1966, he reprised this role for "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly". Nicolai's last score was for the 1988 TV series "La coscienza di Zeno", directed by Sandro Bolchi.

Bruno Nicolai - Geminus

Hadronic propulsion machines

 

Gil Mellé (1931, New York, New York, USA - 2004, Malibu) was a jazz saxophonist and respected visual artist, best known as a cutting-edge creator of electronically generated music.

His 1970 theme for "Night Gallery" was the first all-electronic main title for a TV series, and his music for 1971 sci-fi thriller "The Andromeda Strain" became the first all-synthesizer score for a feature film;his music lent itself to sci-fi and horror projects, including orchestral scores for the pilot of "The Six Million Dollar Man" and the four-hour "Frankenstein: The True Story" (1973), which he recorded with the London Symphony Orchestra. Melle created landmark electronic scores for sci-fi TV movies including "A Cold Night's Death" and the four-hour "World War III." He wrote and performed music for several telefilms dealing with sensational murders, including "Fatal Vision," Ted Bundy story "The Deliberate Stranger" and "The Case of the Hillside Strangler."

His artistic abilities also led to album-cover paintings for Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk and Sonny Rollins, as well as art-gallery showings in New York. Melle and his group, the Electronauts, debuted electronic jazz at the 1967 Monterey Jazz Festival. The following year, Verve released his "Tome VI," the first all-electronic jazz album.

Gil Mellé - The Andromeda Strain

Polishing the floor at the Crazy Horse

 

The Groovy Sounds Of 1970s Lebanon is a Lebanese World/Folk/Beat compilation made by Cedarphon Label.

 

The Groovy Sounds Of 1970s Lebanon

Anxiety over unrequited love

 

Jacques Denjean (Igny, 1929 - Paris, 1995) was a French singer, pianist, composer, arranger and orchestra director. Jazz pianist of some reputation and much sought-after as a record arranger in the 1960s. As a performer and arranger, he worked with the likes of Dionne Warwick, François Hardy, Johnny Hallyday, and many others. In 1964, he arranged and conducted Luxembourg's Eurovision entry 'Dès que le printemps revient', performed by Hugues Aufray. Founded Studio Frémontel in 1971.

 

 Jacques Denjean - Morbo

Intrigues in the ballroom

 

Rahul Dev Burman (27 June 1939 Calcutta - 4 January 1994 Mumbai) was an Indian Bollywood film composer,; only child of music director S. D. Burman. 

 

Active from the 1960s to the 1990s Burman composed music for over 330 films. Together with Asha Bhosle, his wife (from 1980) and Kishore Kumar they made many super hit songs, he also provided the vocals for some of these compositions. He also composed music for many songs that were sung by his sister-in-law, Lata Mangeshkar.

 

Rahul Dev Burman - Shalimar