M.F. Bourdot
A L'écoute des Animaux

Sifting through record markets is dangerous yet fascinating: the scam is just around the corner, a big find is possible (but not in Italy), and in the end, once in a blue moon, there is also the opportunity to find a little gem with a decent collector's value (not really, sellers are almost always enthusiasts and set aside the rarities in advance, those sneaky bastards). Sometimes, whether to avoid leaving empty-handed or due to the irresistible lure of trash music (which not everyone has, it’s worth noting), you decide to tempt fate and rummage through the “everything for 1 €” basket.

And here it is, dumped in the inevitable corner of trash, in a yellowed inner sleeve, without an outer cover and without an accompanying booklet (information necessarily gathered from the internet), this LP titled “A L’Écoute des Animaux.” What prompted me to buy it? My weakness for Vangelis, and my twisted mind that associated this title with the much more famous “L'apocalypse des Animaux.” Well, yes, I was hoping to find a French B-grade Vangelis. The sporadic notes inform us that the record was produced by Nathan of Paris, in the year 1981, conceived by a certain M.F. Bourdot. What do these grooves tell us? Well, nothing significant, as it is a sequence, only apparently random, of animal sounds, from bees to horses, from pigs to sheep, and then lions, zebras, elephants, giraffes, frogs, beetles and so on until the end of the record. Between one sound and the next, an interlude of about five seconds. Caught between a bemused smile, suspended between annoyance and satisfaction, I almost cried out for a miracle. Why “almost”? Because it is clearly a children's record, mostly for educational and pedagogical purposes. Emblematic are the titles of the record, where each track invites the child to a different exercise, including: identification of sounds, recognition of the odd sound out, identification of the environment, and so on. In short, in the end, a useful record for training your children's ear and encouraging reasoning. It’s a real shame, because if it had been a production for adults, I would probably have placed it among the masterpieces of trash.

I cannot give a complete judgment, since the paper component of the work is probably in some landfill. However, I remain puzzled about the underlying usefulness, because despite the aforementioned educational purposes, the work may be mainly suitable for children who have always lived in concrete, but not for children in direct contact with nature. For the first time in a review, I do not recommend this record: if possible, bring your children into the wild, to the park, or, if necessary, to the zoo.

SIDE A: Identification (4’55) Ambiances (3’59) Que font-ils? (2’42) Comparons et analysons (3’28)

SIDE B: Devinette et intruns (2’29) Hauter des sons (2’34) Durée des sons (1’21) Intensité des sons (2’18) Ligne mélodique (2’48)