Eric Demarsan - Le Cercle Rouge LP

Label: We Release Jazz

We Release Jazz present the official reissue of Eric Demarsan's original soundtrack of Jean-Pierre Melville's 1970 film noir classic Le Cercle Rouge. The film stars Alain Delon, Bourvil, Gian Maria Volontè, and Yves Montand. This reissue includes four bonus tracks, not available on previous pressings of the album, Eric Demarsan's compositions for Le Cercle Rouge draw from the orchestral spirit of the Modern Jazz Quartet (as requested by Melville who loved John Lewis's work), abstraction, and minimalism to create a suspenseful and hypnotizing audio landscape which elegantly underlines the tense atmosphere of unavoidable fate that shrouds the movie and the doleful beauty of its characters. Simply put, it's the finest combination of underworld existentialism, coldblooded chic, and crime jazz. Le Cercle Rouge boasts the participation of celebrated jazz players Guy Pedersen (bass), Daniel Humair (drums), Georges Arvanitas (piano), and Bernard Lubat (vibraphone). Starting as a collaborator of François de Roubaix and Michel Magne in the '60s, Eric Demarsan went on to become a mainstay of French cinema soundtracks, composing for directors such as Jean-Pierre Mocky, Costa-Gavras, and Patrice Leconte, among others. He also recorded the cult album Pop Symphony (for Pierre Cardin in 1970) under the Jason Havelock pseudonym.