Special discounted bundle. Following four astounding LPs of material by François Tusques's incredible Intercommunal Free Dance Music Orchestra - the seminal, politically charged ensemble that the French jazz pianist helmed between the early 1970s and the mid-1980s - Souffle Continu now brings us back to the project's earliest documented beginnings with the first ever reissues of 1974's Vol.1 Concert A Prades Le Lez and Vol.2 Concert A Prades Le Lez, here gathered in a special bundle. Capturing the band live at the Moulin de Prades-le-Lez, a few kilometers from Montpellier, over two consecutive nights on January 25 and 26, 1974, these two LPs collectively represent the band's recording debut, originally issued later that same year on the tiny imprint Le Temps Des Cerises.

Rooted in Tusques' deeply political sense of collectivism and transnationalism - often referencing the Black Panthers party and playing for labor unions - the music draws on the membership's diverse cultural backgrounds to infuse joyous expressions of sonority with political consciousness, rising in hypnotic rhythms and soaring lines that draw in equal parts from jazz, funk, blues, and free improvised fire. Played by Tusques on keys, Michel Marre and Jo Maka on saxophones, Adolf Winkler on trombone, and the widely celebrated Algerian/Nigerian drummer Guem on percussion, the records nod outward across the globe, referencing the jazz of New Orleans as much as that of the Caribbean, Latin America, and Africa. Where Vol.1 unfolds across five compositions of joyous, seductive musicality, Vol.2 charts a fascinating complement to its counterpart, opening with a stunning slow Blues with African and Caribbean inflections before the second side points back toward Tusques' roots in the avant-garde, culminating in the striking "Chanson Pour Pierre Overney", referencing the French worker and Maoist political activist who was murdered two years prior to the concert.

Issued in beautifully produced vinyl editions perfectly reproducing the original covers, complimented by signature OBIs, here gathered together at a special bundle price. Few bodies of recording better unveil the sociopolitical potential of sound in unexpected ways, offering hugely important insights into the work and mission of François Tusques, one of France's enduringly important figures in jazz. Crazy essential and not to be missed.