Heldon
Heldon is a French electronic rock band created in 1974. The name of the band was taken from the 1972 novel The Iron Dream by Norman Spinrad. Like its predecessor Schizo, it is above all the group of guitarist Richard Pinhas who released a large number of albums under his own name. He has worked with numerous collaborators among which musicians of the band Magma as well as philosophers such as Gilles Deleuze (of whom he was a student). Influenced by the work of Robert Fripp and Brian Eno, the music of Richard Pinhas and Heldon is sui generis and innovative and has in its turn greatly influenced the field of electronic rock.
Heldon is a French electronic rock band created in 1974. The name of the band was taken from the 1972 novel The Iron Dream by Norman Spinrad. Like its predecessor Schizo, it is above all the group of guitarist Richard Pinhas who released a large number of albums under his own name. He has worked with numerous collaborators among which musicians of the band Magma as well as philosophers such as Gilles Deleuze (of whom he was a student). Influenced by the work of Robert Fripp and Brian Eno, the music of Richard Pinhas and Heldon is sui generis and innovative and has in its turn greatly influenced the field of electronic rock.
Members: Richard Pinhas
Live at Bam Balam
Richard Pinhas, the founder of '70s legends Heldon, is one of France's best-known experimental musicians and is a key figure in development of rock music fusing with electronic music. Live at Bam Balam is solo guitar and processing as well as drone electronics with the use of a Metatronic Delay system: no re-recording. This brilliant collection of solo improvisations was recorded in Bordeaux (France) on April 16th, 2016 and April 21st, 2018. Limited edition vinyl-only release for the French Reco…
Rough & Wojtyla featuring Richard Pinhas
Rough & Wojtyla Featuring Richard Pinhas is Rough & Wojtyla's second album. Richard Pinhas, the founder of '70s legends Heldon is one of France's best known experimental musicians and is a key figure in the fusion of rock with electronic music. Guitar drones are supported by either tribal or jazzy sounding drums and collide with various key instruments and found sound. The influence of musique concrète which prevails on the duo's first LP, can also be felt as the sounds and moods shift abruptly.…
L\'Ethique
LP version. Bureau B present a reissue of Richard Pinhas's L'Ethique, originally released in 1982. Following the vaguely poppy shapes of 1980's album East West (BB 292CD/LP), his fifth album L'Ethique saw the ex-Heldon guitarist and synth wizard return to bigger and bolder band-like methods. After the release he disappeared from the limelight for nearly a decade and returned in the 1990s. Interviewed by the Electronics & Music Maker magazine in 1982, Pinhas spoke in buoyant terms about the futur…
Iceland
Originally released in 1979, Iceland is Richard Pinhas' third solo album and his first following the breakup of Heldon. While moving away from the maximalism of his old band, paring down Heldon's hybrid of otherworldly sci-fi imagery and pummeling psych-prog riffs, the journey through Iceland is decidedly more inward. Consisting of longer, brooding synth-based pieces as well as short proto-industrial études and interstitial sketches, Iceland features Pinhas' delay-ridden electric guitar, pulsat…
Chronolyse
Bureau B present a reissue of Richard Pinhas's Rhizosphere, originally released in 1977. Richard Pinhas is one of the most important French electronic space rock musicians. Following five albums with his band Heldon, he released his first solo record in 1977. Backed by Heldon's congenial drummer François Auger but no longer bound by the group dynamic, he explores his freshly purchased Moog modular system in search of new sounds. It marked a departure into new realms. "We don't need new technique…
East West
Bureau B presents a reissue of Richard Pinhas's East West, originally issued in 1980. The fourth solo album by French spacerock mastermind Pinhas, East West was his first and only album to be released by a major label (CBS). Some say it is his most commercial but Pinhas doesn't see it that way. "Signing to CBS was a blessing. It gave me the tools for better production. At that time, some big companies were better and more honest than the so-called underground labels. Besides, I don't see any vir…
Third (It's Always Rock 'N' Roll)
Double LP version. Bureau B present a reissue of Heldon's third album Third (It's Always Rock 'N' Roll), originally released on Disjuncta in 1975. Third album from the French space-rock electro combo masterminded by Richard Pinhas. Heldon's darkest work lays another stone in their sonic mosaic: synths, drones, fuzz, and trippy improvisations. There's something wicked happening on Heldon's third album It's Always Rock And Roll. Richard Pinhas's essential attack of searing guitar and space-bound s…
Agneta Nilsson (Heldon IV)
LP version. Bureau B present a reissue of Heldon's fourth album Agneta Nilsson, originally released on Urus Records in 1976. Agneta Nilsson opens with a mind-paralyzing track that proves stillness can have a pulse. "Perspective I" spends ten minutes poring through tectonic layers of heavy sound, piling everything so thick that the song becomes like quicksand for your brain. It's one of the most daunting works in the Heldon catalog, made all the more impressive by how simple it is. It's just soun…
Live In Metz '77
Richard Pinhas, the founder of '70s legends Heldon, is one of France's best known experimental musicians and is a key figure in development of rock music fusing with electronic music. In 1977 Heldon played three unreleased tracks during this tour -- these titles have never been recorded since. Bam Balam Records thought that these three tracks were lost forever, but luckily they were found recently. The sound is rough, but it's a rare document. Live In Metz '77 was produced by French guitarist a…
Trax
LP version. Makoto Kawabata (Acid Mothers Temple), Richard Pinhas (Heldon), and Tatsuya Yoshida (Ruins). What else is there to say? Richard Pinhas is one of the more atypical French musicians of the last 40 years. He has been surprising everyone all these years -- Always appearing where you expect him the least. Makoto Kawabata, who has been a big follower of Heldon, has also been a longtime friend and partner of Tatsuya Yoshida. So naturally, these three reunited in 2016 at the Studio Con…
Rhizosphere
LP version. Bureau B present a reissue of Richard Pinhas's Rhizosphere, originally released in 1977. Richard Pinhas is one of the most important French electronic space rock musicians. Following five albums with his band Heldon, he released his first solo record in 1977. Backed by Heldon's congenial drummer François Auger but no longer bound by the group dynamic, he explores his freshly purchased Moog modular system in search of new sounds. It marked a departure into new realms. "We don't n…
Heldon . 6 . Interface
**Swamp green vinyl; Edition of 700** Souffle Continu Records present a reissue of Heldon's Heldon . 6 . Interface, originally released in 1977. The idea in the mind of Richard Pinhas, the driving force behind Heldon, was to produce music "as cold as a huge block of ice" a vertiginous experience, of course influenced by the King Crimson trilogy, from Larks' Tongues In Aspic (1973) to Red (1974), except that Heldon represents an electrified version, leading to a perfect rapport between though…
1976-1979
**Edition of 300 copies, sold out at source **1976-1979: four years of intensive creativity for Heldon, following on from them leaving the home-studio on the Île Saint-Louis for Davout also in Paris, where a Moog 3, purchased from the Beatles, was ready in a space reserved for the leader of the group, Richard Pinhas. From here on, a trilogy was created which compares favorably with King Crimson of the period from Larks' Tongues In Aspic (1973) to Red (1974), the French band breaking new ground…
Single Collection 1972-1980
Double album compilation of the first singles (1972-1980) of Richard Pinhas and his legendary bands: the mythical Heldon, Schizo, and T.H.X.. And, as a bonus, an excellent long, hypnotic, instrumental version of "Marie Zorn" (1999), previously unpublished."French rock and pop, when not being dismissed outright, are often discussed only in terms of English-language antecedents. Johnny Hallyday brings to mind Elvis, for example, and the chameleonic, hedonistic Serge Gainsbourg is sometimes compare…
Cyborg Sally
« Cyborg Sally », inspired by Norman Spinrad’s novel « rock machine », marked the return of french pioneering electronic guru Richard Pinhas (Heldon) at the forefront of the french underground scene in 1994. This impressive work, the result of a two year collaboration with John Livengood (Red Noise / Spacecraft), achieves new summits of sophistication and maturity in the fields of electronic music. First time vinyl edition under licence from Richard Pinhas.
Rhizosphere/Live, Paris 1982
Rhizosphere, originally released in 1976, was Pinhas' first solo album. It consists of four solo pieces for synthesizer, plus a extended fifth synthesizer piece which is a duet with Heldon drummer Francois Auguer. I have always found it to be a mesmerizing work, on par with its influences of Terry Riley and Philip Glass, but completely different from them due to the usage of only Moog and ARP synthesizers. For this CD release, an additional 38' was added of a previously unheard, professio…
Metatron
"We take it for granted today, but not too long ago, integrating electronics into a rock setting was something exotic and strange..... Heldon and Richard Pinhas are considered building blocks for whole schools of experimental rock music, and one of the few who rarely fail to deliver on the hype." –Pitchfork Media"Richard Pinhas demonstrates that he is capable of contstructing some of the most formidable but exhilharating sonic edifices ever heard by mortal ears." – Bill Tilland, All Music GuideM…
Metal / Crystal
In Metal/Crystal, French experimental guitarist and electronic musician Richard Pinhas summons the assistance of noise artists Merzbow (Masami Akita) from Japan and Wolf Eyes from USA to weave a spellbinding aural web that spans 2 CDs.Over the years, many artists in the 'noise arena' have expressed interest in his pioneering use of synthesizers and electronics in rock and contemporary music. Pinhas has likewise been intrigued by various areas of the ‘noise’ scene and Metal/Crystal, recorded "dur…
Tranzition
"Among collectors of electronic music, some names have become legendary and are present in every search list. These names include Richard Pinhas, the leader of the French cult group Heldon." – AudionComposer, guitarist and electronics innovator Richard Pinhas is recognized as one of France's major experimental musicians. A pivotal figure in the international development of electronic rock music, Pinhas' stature in France is analogous to Tangerine Dream's in Germany: the father figure of an entir…
Event and Repetitions
"...a sporadic but constant thread in Pinhas’ music has been his experimentation with guitar feedback, loops and effects boxes, even in the early days of Heldon, as he tried to perfect his own version of Frippertronics. Well, it has been a long time coming, but Event and Repetitions may well signal the full realization of Pinhas’ long-time vision. The drifting, hypnotic patterns of the five pieces on this CD? have a shimmering beauty and depth that seems to suggest a destination at the end of a …