Francis Lafont aka fr6 Manne, once bassist and part of legendary French Experimentalists Vox Populi! stopped being a full-time musician / graphic artist a long time ago to work as a landscape designer but never stopped recording and painting. Kosa was conceived as music and video arts collective and appeared in various incarnations already.
Among his friends featured here is Mitra Kyrou-Khalatbari, Marc Mouret, Francoise Girard on Vocals and as main collaborator Nicolai Minescu.
Notte Brigante managed to contact him and compile from his wealth of unreleased recordings this LP, with an exclusive action collage artwork.
What differs the french avantgarde from most scenes is the playfulness and dare I say humour shining through a lot recordings; tweaked voices, not afraid adding a groove or a poppy melody here and there, a drip of poetry and noise added. X-Ray Pop, No Unauthorized, Psyclones / PSY 231 and others say hello.
Therefore it's not too far fetched to say Brian Ladd was the perfect man to restore and master these recordings.
"Cinq Minutes" is the album's real opener, after an short intro cut with a hypnotic bassline and clear synthetic minimal arrangements on top. An instant highlight with Marc Mouret's poignant voice.
Equally strong is "The Starting Signal" with it's leading organ set against a dynamic but cheap beatbox sound. Voices chatter in the background but don't distract.
The following songs are more easy-going, closing Side A is the ironical lenghty "No News - Good News" in semi lethargic fashion set against some 'I don't care' backdrop.
"I Don't On Tools" brings on some guitar to the table of elements but stays in the middle field with it's efforts. Atmospheric and minimal "The Center" does capture my attention and holds it before "Il Faut Les PTG Tous" not unlike some early Cabaret Voltaire with dubbed samples and a restless beat follows. What is spoken could be important or not only repeated listening will unveil.
Another short instrumental leads to the funky improvisation of "Le Preche Me Seche" before the final track "Over Medium Heat" returns to the vague dubby experimental fields only few can handle so well.
It's a strength but also a weakness of this collection to present such diverse music and moods at once and leaving the listener most likely a bit puzzled in the end. But as said above - the French avant-garde calls for an appraisal for the pleasure of curiosity and humour.