Serge Gainsbourg & Jean-Claude Vannier

Les Chemins De Katmandou

Image of Serge Gainsbourg & Jean-Claude Vannier - Les Chemins De Katmandou
Record Label
Finders Keepers

About this item

After decades in the making Finders Keepers Records proudly present us with the first-ever pressing of Serge Gainsbourg’s most elusive and coveted soundtrack studio recordings - co-written, arranged and orchestrated by the genius Jean-Claude Vannier (‘Histoire De Melody Nelson’) during what many consider to be the dynamic duo’s most definitive creative period.
Believed to have been lost in a studio fire by Gainsbourg enthusiasts for over forty years (a myth that also shrouds Morricone’s lost ‘Danger Diabolik’ soundtrack) the misplaced master-tapes for the drug-fuelled/Mai 68 cash-in/road-movie ‘Les Chemins De Katmandou’ have been widely considered the final audio jigsaw piece in an immaculate discography/filmography thus earning this soundtrack bone-fide Holy Grail status amongst the most avid disc detectives.
Featuring the original crack team of Paris based players now recognised as French library music royalty, this LP epitomises the inimitable musical direction and expert psychedelic pop musicianship that graced classic Gainsbourg/Vannier soundtracks like ‘La Horse’, ‘Cannabis’ and ‘Sex Shop’. Laying the stylistic, futureproof foundations for subsequent decades of forward-thinking Gallic funk mastery.
Comprising Vannier’s signature recipe of thick plucked bass lines, close-mic’d drums, biting Clavinet and Eastern influenced strings and percussion (and a sprinkling of subtle traditional French instrumentation) the soundtrack to ‘Les Chemins De Katmandou’ (aka ‘The Road To Katmandu’ or ‘The Pleasure Pit’) captures Vannier and Gainsbourg in the first year of their creative partnership capturing their unique embryonic energy.
This previously lost full soundtrack score now exists on vinyl for the first time ever as an infinitely important milestone in the early development of the duo who would shape the sound of French pop music for years to come.

TRACK LISTING

Les Chemins De Katmandou (Titles)
The Pleasure Pit
Colin-Maillard
Le Roi Des Phlébotomes
Flower Child
Cache Cache
Opium Den
Overdose
Oliver
Fallen Rainbow
Colin-Maillard (Vox)
Les Chemins De Katmandou

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