1. Aimer À Perdre la Raison 2. Je Ne Sais Pas 3. Ne Me Quitte Pas 4. Hyde Park J 5. Qui a Parlé de Fin? 6. La Mémoire de la Me 7. Vies Monotones 8. Carrefour de la Solitude 9. Elles 10. Suspect 11. L' Hymne À l'Amour 12. Mon Manège À Moi 13. Les Prisons du Roy 14. Les Amants d'Un Jour 15. La Goualante du Pauvre 16. Soeur Anne 17. Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien
1 La vie en bref 2 Voyage au fond de l'amour 3 La grande déglingue 4 Ne pas partir ne pas mourir 5 Dis-moi qui tu embrasses 6 La nuit des errants 7 La parole est à la victime 8 Paix 1980: * Prélude * 1er mouvement * 3ème mouvement Catherine Ribeiro - Parolier, Vocals Francis Campello - Guitare Basse René Werneer - Violon Patrice Moullet - Claviers Patrice Lemoine - Clavier Pierre Gasquet - Percussion
AMG: "On La Deboussole, les Alpes treads into a more conventionally accessible sound and away from the experimentalism of earlier works. In fact, the band is far more funky on this outing, with driving bass hooks on most of the tracks. There are enough peculiar touches to keep it from being so much stale pop fodder, especially with the addition of a violinist adding some old European-style charm. Unfortunately, Ribeiro's voice gets confined or lost in these less free-form arrangements. It's only on the last cut, a new version of "Paix," where she finally gets to cut loose with some of her strange and emotionally intense vocalizing, and even that piece is better heard on the album of the same name. The rest is OK, odd progressive funk music with Ribeiro's unique voice, but none of it is anywhere as distinct as the material from previous albums."
1 Une infinie tendresse 2 Prélude médiéval 3 Parle-moi d'un homme heureux 4 Qui a parlé de fin? 5 Poème non épique No.III: * Prélude * Poème non épique * Tombe Catherine Ribeiro - Parolier, Auteur De La Musique, Vocals Patrice Moullet - Auteur De La Musique, Guitarres Daniel Motron - Orgue, Piano Henri Texier - Basse Caroll Reyn - Percussion
AMG: "Libertes? follows a similar path to Catherine Ribeiro's earlier records with the group les Alpes. The band tends to rock out more on this one, with bass and drums more prominent in the mix, though the music retains much of the cosmic spaciousness of earlier works. The standout is the side-long opus, "Poeme Non Epique N. III," where, after a lengthy instrumental passage, Ribeiro delivers some raw, emotional poetry with an intensity that threatens to explode at any moment while drum clatter and keyboard squalls create a choppy-sea backdrop. Toward the end, the group kicks into off-kilter rock while Ribeiro is on the verge of screaming as she belts out the final lyrics. As for the rest, there's the rocking "Parle-Moi d'un Homme Heureux," the slightly slower and creepier "Un Infinie Tendresse," as well as "Prelude Medieval," which has some odd wordless chanting from Ribeiro. On all of these, the music is closer to progressive rock than the cosmic folk songs of earlier albums, and Ribeiro matches the energy of the band well. "Qui a Parle de Fin," on the other hand, is just Ribeiro reciting poetry in a near whisper with no musical accompaniment."
1. La Petite Fille Aux Fraises (5:13) 2. L'Ère De La Putréfaction (3:28) 3. Un Regard Clair (Obscur) (4:47) 4. Poème Non Épique (Suite) (25:22) Catherine Ribeiro - vocals Patrice Moullet - cosmophone, acoustic guitar Patrice Lemoine - organ Claude Thibaut - percuphone
1. Roc Alpin (3:02) 2. Jusqu'à Ce Que la Foce de T'Aimer Me Manque (2:56) 3. Paix (15:37) 4. Un Jour... la Mort (24:33) Catherine Ribeiro - Vocals P.Moullet - Cosmophone, acoustic guitar Jean Sebastian Lemoine - Percuphone, bass guitar Patrice Lemoine - Organ Michel Santangelli - Drums (1)
AMG: "Her fourth album, Paix, is one of Catherine Ribeiro's more intense recordings. The band is less folkish on this outing and veering more into space rock, with a sound that is even more cosmic, especially on the 15-minute title track as well as the 24-minute "'Un Jour la Mort" that fills side two. Both tracks contain long instrumental passages with multi-layered keyboard and guitar soundscapes over pulsing percussion, as well as some of Ribeiro's more gutsy and emotional singing (especially on "Paix," where at some places she is practically screaming). "Jusqu'a Ce Que la Force" is a short moody piece, while "Roc Alpin," on the other hand, is joyful, with an upbeat rhythm and playful melody that Ribeiro vocalizes wordlessly. Her second album, simply titled N. 2, is just as good but almost impossible to track down, so Paix is probably the best place to start."
1. Ame Debout (7:54) 2. Diborowska (3:39) 3. Alpes 1 (5:46) 4. Alpes 2 (6:22) 5. Alpilles (1:25) 6. Aria Populaire (2:09) 7. Le Kleenex, Le Drap De Lit Et L'étendard (3:28) 8. Dingue (4:36) Catherine Ribeiro - vocals Patrice Moullet - cosmophone, acoustic guitar Patrice Lemoine - organ Claude Thiebaut - percuphone
Progarchives: "Born in Lyon during the war, Catherine Ribeiro started her career in acting, even shooting a film for JL Godart, Les Carabiniers, he met future writing partner Patrice Moullet (then under the name of Albert Juroost), before she started singing, recording a bunch of singles throughout the 60's, both in Portuguese (her parent's origins) and in French. These singles are now compiled in a set called Libertés. In the late 60's, Moullet asks her to starts a band, first named 2Bis (one record released under that moniker), than Alpes, where she'll be the front person. The group was lucky enough to participated to one of the very few festival still organized in France in the early 70's (most of them being banned to avoid further youth/student riots after May 68 both the group and festival getting the "go-ahead" from authorities a few hours before starting) in Port Leucate, then Avignon, playing to huge crowds and getting wide notice of the public.
During the early 70's, Catherine Ribeiro & Alpes recorded a string of stunning albums, starting with Ame Debout and ending with Le Temps De L'autre, the most remarkable being Rat Débile Et Homme Des Champs, with stunning tracks such as Poeme Non-Epique and Ere De La Putréfaction (sic). The group is then centered around Catherine, (guitarist) Moullet and (keyboardist) Lemoine (future Gong) and Motron, but by 76, only Lemoine remained with Catherine. The later 70's will see albums getting wiser in terms of provocations, but will gain in musician abilities and spectrum, but Ribeiro started recording solo albums dedicated to poets (Jacqueries for Jacques Prévert) and semi-anarchists singers (Ferré, Brel etc..).
In 80's, the group will disband in full glory (awards and academy prizes) after la Déboussole, Catherine recording a string of albums increasingly gentle and decreasingly interesting, until she will recontact Moullet for solo collabs. The very same Moullet will reform Alpes in the early 90's without Ribeiro, and two more records will be released, both sounding a tad new age, but remaining prog records. Moullet is still playing experimental music through his project Atelier Alpes, while Ribeiro still graces discs of her voice.
As a quick conclusion: Catherine Ribeiro & Alpes have recorded a string of fairly successful albums, gathering a few plaudits and yearly awards from specialized press, played throughout Europe and even in Latin America and Northern Africa and are now seen as an iconic group of the hippy 70's in France. Their use of seldom-seen percuphone and cosmophone (both alpine instruments), their lengthy Poème Non-Epique pieces, Ribeiro's anarchist avant-garde and ecologist lyrics and doomed atmosphere (there is some VdGG feel in their music) made this group a very distinct and very original group that has their own sound. Their record company will print at the back of the cover that "the lyrics of the group only engage the musicians and them only", therefore taking a distance to Ribeiro's incendiary diatribes. This disengagement is to be seen as CR&A's best compliment, as in their manner, they were at the forefront of the Counter Culture."
