Philippe Besombes

Philippe Besombes is an underground but now cult French artist from the 1970s avantgarde-prog scene. After a student doctoral degree to become a chemist he turned to music and was partly formed by Karlheinz Stockhausen and Iannis Xenakis. He rapidly showed an interest in electronic synthesizers such as the AKS, MiniMoog, Korg. He produced three major albums under his own name, and one with Jean-Louis Rizet called "Pôle" in 1975. The album Pôle (not to be confused with the two albums by the collective Pôle, of which Rizet was a member, and possibly Besombes as well) features synthesizer orchestration and shimmering, spacious, nebulous electronic textures. The same year Besombes recorded the soundtrack of the movie "Libra". The music delivers an hybridisation of electroacoustic experimentations, bizarre ambient soundscapes and jazzy-folkish ingredients. In 1976 Philippe Besombes had opened his own recording studio with Rizet. The album "Ceci est Cela" of the same year is a collection of experimental electronic pieces more in the genre of Pierre Henry and Stockhausen. Philippe Besombes is also known for his group "Hydravion" and for being one of the founders (with Paul Putti and his wife) of the obscure label "Pôle -Tapioca" which published different works from Magma, Gong, Pôle and Potemkine. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.