Jean-Jaques Perrey - A Brief Introduction
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Born in 1929 in France, one of the great names of space age pop, and a
pioneer in electronic music.  He was around before Jean-Michel Jarre,
Kraftwerk and Art of Noise were twinkles in anybody's eyes.

His first album came out in 1965 - The In Sound From Way Out, with:
Unidentified Flying Object, Little Man From Mars, Cosmic Ballard, Swan's
Splashdown, Barnyard in Orbit, Electronic Can-Can, Spooks in Space, Girl
From Venus, Jungle Blues From Jupiter, Computer in Love, Visa to the
Stars, Countdown at 6.

He was one of the first musicians to creatively use the Moog synthesiser
which featured on his next album Kaleidoscope Variations (which I don't
have yet) and The Amazing New Electronic Pop Sounds of Jean-Jaques Perrey,
with: Mary France, The Little Ships, Island in Space, Mexican Cactus,
Porcupine Rock, Brazilian Flower, Gypsy in Rio, Frere Jean Jaques, Little
Girl From Mars, In The Heart of a Rose, The Minuet of the Robots, Four
Three Two One, Mister James Bond.

This was followed by Moog Indigo with: Soul City, Gossipo Perpetuo, The
Rose and the Cross, Cat in the Night, Flight of the Bumblebee, Moog
Indigo, E.V.A., Country Rock Polka, The Elephant Never Forgets, 18th
Century Puppet, Hello Dolly, Passport to the Future.

Some of these are particulalry evocotive. Whenever I hear Puppet I can't
help picturing a life-size wind-up ballerina jerkily dancing to the music.

He was a pioneer of sound editing physically splicing tiny segments of
audio tape to get the sounds he wanted.  He spent a week cutting and
gluing bits of tape of a field recording of live bees to splice into
Rimsky-Korskov's "Flight of the Bumble Bee".

"EVA" has been sampled into tracks by artists as diverse as Ice T and Fat
Boy Slim to Channel 4.  I first noticed Perrey creeping back into the
foreground in about 1994 in a Lucozade advert.  You might remember it - it
involved a television falling from a high building and smashing in slow
motion on the ground below.  I was amazed that somebody else appeared to
share my taste in music!  Little bits of Perrey seem to be popping up
everywhere now.

I was skeptical about Perrey when introduced to it in 1988 until I
listened to it, then was hooked. Like RISC OS, you can't be told what
Jean-Jacues Perrey is, you must discover it for yourself. ;)

There's bits of background blurb about JJP at Space Age Pop and The Fly
(I've not got the addresses here), with images of the amazing covers of
the albums.  A websearch for "Jean Jacques Perrey" will get the addresses.

If you get the chance, listen to some.