Semool – Essais

Review from my Futura feature in Audion #46 (2002)...
So obscure, abstract and of the under-underground, we originally thought that Semool were some sort of free-jazz (based on what one person taped us), but no - Semool were psychedelic avant-garde, with a guitarist often intent on copying Syd Barrett guitar lines.
Semool were a trio of: Philippe Martineau (guitar, percussion), Olivier Caquil (guitar, piano) and Rémy Dédé (percussion) who seem to have collated their album of sketches piecemeal over the period of January 1969 to March 1971. Generally mid to low-fi, no doubt due to much multi-tracking (bouncing channels) at a low-budget studio, it is nonetheless fresh and engaging avant-garde, sometimes sounding almost proto-Nurse With Wound, sometimes Satie-Stockhausen like the NWW related Sema, and when most abstract I hear elements of improv Henry Cow. Yet this is way before all that, with much in the way of explorative tape delay, collage and such-like.
The eleven tracks are rather unimaginatively titled Essais 1 through to Essais 11, but that belies the imagination in the music, which is very explorative, and impossible to pin down. I guess they were at a loss as to what to call it all!