Two years after having recorded Aurora, which Gérard Terronès released on his Futura Records label in 1971, the Théâtre du Chêne Noir put on another show, Miss Madona, first at Avignon, and then at Ariane Mnouchkine’s Théâtre du Soleil. From this play, Gérard Gelas’ group took three sound extracts which they made, with no further ado, into a single.
Miss Madona is thus the second recording by Théâtre du Chêne Noir. The two sides (and three tracks) offer up an unbelievable instrumental theatre with something of a white magic ritual about it. The actors, so much better for the record, were also musicians; alongside Miss Madona, ex-star of the circus and now idol, were the piano and electric organ of Daniel Dublet, the saxophones of Pierre Surtel and Jean-Louis Canaud, and the trumpet of Gilbert Say.
But there are also the vocals of Beatrice Le Thierry, Bénédicte Maulet, Jean Paul Chazalon, Monik Lamy, Nicole Aubiat… which added to the mystery of what happened on stage. The sound of this particular theatre may remind us as much of John Coltrane as of Ravi Shankar, Pierre Henry or the Art Ensemble of Chicago. There are voices from beyond the grave, inspirational for future musicians: Steven Stapleton, for example who included Théâtre du Chêne Noir in his Nurse With Wound List.
On the occasion of Record Store Day 2020, Souffle Continu, who are just to reissue Aurora, can be proud of re-releasing this single, which is rare in more ways than one
I was brought here after listening to a live performance of Makaya's on you tube. I instantly loved the song Holy Lands so much that I had to see if the album version was the same rendition as the live one. Then I listened to the whole album! Universal Beings is a just a groove... It's a mix of traditional and something new, very nice. pandr1900
This never saw the light of day way back in 1969…I remember seeing John Surman play many times in that period in many configurations…but perhaps not like this!
It’s a wonderful find (it’s been in the Cuneiform catalogue for a good while now) but I reckon it’s worth bringing it to the fore again, especially in light of the recent Soft Machine release. John Cratchley