lockdown : vinyl find #21.

When in Rome, act like a tourist. Wander around. Except, go to places where other tourists won't go. Parks, markets, flea markets... 

As I was walking though the park around the Saint Angelo Castle, I noticed a couple of tables. On these tables, records. Behind the tables, record dealers. The place was kind of odd, the tables were very neat, and as I glimpsed inside the bins, I notices the record selection was of the best quality and didn't look like the usual garage sale. Jazz stuff, library music, soundtracks. 

When in Rome, look for Italian records. Sure, Italian records, and especially soundtracks, are nowadays available everywhere in the world, mostly as reissues. But in Italy, there's a unique opportunity to find records from iconic labels such as CAM. 

Library music... I came accross the concept while surfing the music blogs, back in the beginning of the 2000's. Disregarded by most, qualified as "elevator music", those records were mostly promo copies back in the days, sent to radios and TV channels in order to illustrate TV shows, documentaries, and be used as jingles. Such records often offered total creative freedom to musicians, who were able to experiment and be paid for it. 

I'm realizing there's so much to say about library music, that I should stop here. 

Long story short. I found this CAM record (CAM, as I said, is a lgendary Italian label, which specialized in soundtracks and library music) in this Roman park. The record dealers were actually from an association focusing on the promotion of music. There couldn't be a better dealer... On the plastic sleeve of this record, there was a "P. Sarde" label, for Philippe Sarde. Ok, French composer of movie soundtracks, I had to take a look at the back cover, which on this type of CAM releases lists all the composers featured on the record. I was expecting Philippe Sarde to be the only composer ; he wasn't. And more surprising, he had only one track, the last one. My eye caught the other names, and they were even more interesting  : Michel Magne, François de Roubaix and Paul Misraki. All heavyweights in the league of soundtrack composers. 

The record wasn't cheap, but this list of composers and the condition of the record settled the case.

The title, "Juvenile atmosphere, joy", is exactly what you can hear on both sides. François de Roubaix well-known "Xavier à la maison d'arrêt" and "La scoumoune" are among the highlights of this record ; for those who know, the titles of these tracks are far from being happy, but the pieces have a sense of contre-pied, the de Roubaix's touch. 

Michel Magne, François de Roubaix, Paul Misraki, Philippe Sarde - Atmosphère juvénile, joyeuse.

Here are a few tracks from the record.

Advice : dive in the wonderful world of library music.