3 out of 5

Label: Music on Vinyl

Produced by: Gilles Martin (mastered by)

I’m still quite confused by François De Roubaix’s career, as it seems like he wasn’t composing for all that long – 1965, up until his death in 1975 – and yet, his recorded catalogue seems pretty damn deep, with companies releasing little corners of his work that I discover still aren’t part of my collection.

Perhaps part of that is because how piecemeal some things were, with De Roubaix only contributing a theme for a show, or dropping in to score a commercial; this collection from Music on Vinyl covers some of those gaps, spanning the aforementioned decade and giving us 21 mostly snippet-sized cuts from series and ads, splitting up its two sides into approximately before François discovered electronic music, and after.

The very nature of this compilation makes it an interesting, but spotty listen: we’re jumping around in tone, as François is composing specific to whatever he was scoring, and there’s hardly a “full” song on any of the A-side, the 2-minute runtime of any given track essentially just a theme, but recorded like a cue – like, not the opening titles, rather just something to pop in at a particular moment. The B-side starts to feel a little more complete, but overall, an uneven, inconclusive vibe dominates the record.

On a micro level, of course, the compositions are fantastic. Even when leaning into more typically boppy French jazz, there’s a De Roubaix touch – some kind of murky, odd undertone or tweak that prevents it from feeling kitschy, and just the layering of instrumentation on the non-electro stuff is delightful. Once we get to that, it’s no less impressive, rather allowing De Roubaix to indulge in those odd emotional expressions even more.

Definitely an addition to a Roubaix collection and not a centerpiece, this set functions more like connective tissue between the different styles in which François worked. The sound quality is great, and it’s surely fascinating bit by bit, it’s just a too scattered for frequent listens.

Liner notes by Gilles Martin (provided in French and English) sort of just run down the track listing and mention where they’re from, but it’s a slick looking package overall.