Mar-Vista - Visions of Sodal Ye Mar-Vista

Originally self-produced in 1977, Mar-Vista's only album is one of France's most strange and radical records. Psychedelic electronic music, experimental, and acid folk – a collector's grail (with only 150 copies originally released) for fans of Klaus Schulze, Terry Riley, Neu!, Heldon, and Silver Apples. This reissue includes a second disc of previously unreleased recordings.

The story of Mar-Vista begins in northern France, in Lille, in the early 1970s, with the meeting of two music enthusiasts: Claude Cuvelier and Jean Skowron. They connected through Claude's brother. The duo gradually equipped themselves: a Mini Korg in 1972, a Yamaha synthesizer, a Farfisa organ, and even a drum machine. The home studio became their creative sanctuary. Jean worked on a 4-track Teac tape recorder, Claude on a Philips model. Each freely composed their own side of the future album, while collaborating on each other's ideas.

Side A, led by Jean, is more rooted in the progressive electronic music of the time, influenced by Heldon, Amon Düül II, and Soft Machine. Side B, bearing more of Claude's imprint and his influences (Terry Riley, La Monte Young), is far more experimental and consists of a 22-minute trippy instrumental piece.

As for concerts, the band performed live only rarely, mainly within the squat and anarchist circuits of the time. However, the second part of this reissue features improvised pieces without synthesizers, recorded live in August 1973 on a hill near Valence, in the garden of friends. These rediscovered tracks had until then existed only on a cassette tape kept by a close acquaintance. The tracks Expedition and Crash73, meanwhile, date from 1975 and remained in demo form.