{"title":"Heldon","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHeldon is a progressive\/space rock band from Paris, Île-de-France, France. Formed in 1974, the band was led by \u003ci\u003eRichard Pinhas\u003c\/i\u003e. With their unique blend of genres, Heldon has established themselves as pioneers in the music industry.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eInspired by bands like Zao, Dün, and Amon Düül II, Heldon's sound is characterized by its experimental nature and captivating melodies. Their music pushes boundaries and takes listeners on a cosmic journey through space and time.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eWith influences ranging from Magma to Art Bears, Heldon has created a distinct sound that captivates audiences worldwide. Their innovative approach to music has earned them a dedicated fan base and critical acclaim throughout their career.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"allez-teia-heldon-11","title":"Allez-Teia (Heldon 11)","description":"\u003cp\u003eSecond album from the French space rock electro combo. Here, Heldon mastermind Richard Pinhas has formed a duo with Georges Grunblatt. The music: an interplay of feather-light acoustic guitars, Mellotron textures, fuzzy sounds and heavy, spherical synthesizers. \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bureau B","offers":[{"title":"LP - Black","offer_id":50411636949323,"sku":"1027203","price":27.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"LP - White","offer_id":52323246047563,"sku":"R4973-7951","price":31.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/aa0950b0-7055-4d02-9047-b8b21a411901_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1726660901"},{"product_id":"electronique-guerilla-heldon-1","title":"Electronique Guerilla (Heldon 1)","description":"\u003cp\u003eHeldon were the most important French electronic space rock musiscians. The band were Richard Pinhas with a variety of guest musicians on different tracks. The debut \u003ci\u003eElectronique Guerilla\u003c\/i\u003e (1974) is a psychedelic sonic symbiosis of Pinhas' 1954 Gibson Les Paul and his EMS Synthi AKS. It even features a special guest appearance by the French philosopher Gilles Deleuze reciting Nietzsche! \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bureau B","offers":[{"title":"Black LP","offer_id":50437789843787,"sku":"2173979","price":31.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"LP","offer_id":50437789548875,"sku":"1027201","price":29.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/eb7bdc2a-619c-4005-8e5e-861fa6d69fbc_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1726935243"},{"product_id":"third-it-s-always-rock-n-roll","title":"Third (It's Always Rock 'n' Roll)","description":"\u003cp\u003eThird album from the French spacerock electro combo masterminded by Richard Pinhas. Heldon’s darkest work lays another stone in their sonic mosaic: synths,drones, fuzz and trippy improvisations. Intense Heldon!\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bureau B","offers":[{"title":"2LP - Light Blue","offer_id":52336431202635,"sku":"R1549-3292","price":41.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"2LP - Black","offer_id":50471526334795,"sku":"1039658","price":37.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/7eb57a9f-f738-4e23-b922-e1ecd719dd36_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727406341"},{"product_id":"un-reve-sans-consequence-speciale","title":"Un Reve Sans Consquence Speciale","description":"\u003cp\u003eOriginally released in 1976 Richard Pinhas' legendary synth and guitar prog band Heldon was always its own beast and by 1976, whith their fifth album, it was thriving and roaring like never before. More work was being completed in a proper studio, the Moog helped strengthen the sound and direction, and Pinhas' rotating cast of collaborators was solidifying into something resembling a regular line-up, with François Auger on drums and Patrick Gauthier on synthesizers. The result was a darker, heavier, and more intense sound. Heldon's Richard Pinhas has never been shy of pinpointing his influences while, at the same time, making music that is noticeably distinct from any of his designated sources. He has, for instance, made it clear that a significant font of inspiration was Robert Fripp's guitar style and melding of rock music with cutting-edge electronics (especially in collaboration with Brian Eno).\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bureau B","offers":[{"title":"LP","offer_id":50478649278795,"sku":"1082643","price":27.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/96d31390-6e28-4252-95b6-b92c452c5c14_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727487574"},{"product_id":"heldon-6-interface","title":"Heldon.6.Interface","description":"\u003cp\u003eHeldon was continuing to evolve rapidly. Thanks to the increased presence of drummer François Auger and synth \/ Moog man Patrick Gauthier, Pinhas' project had solidified into a harder and heavier unit. Despite its often warm and near-funky feel, \u003ci\u003eInterface\u003c\/i\u003e has been cited as an influence on key industrial and noise musicians including Wolf Eyes and Merzbow. The album's final song, its side-long title track, builds up slowly into a roaring tornado of fiercely mutating drum patterns, effervescent synth work, and guitar licks that wail into the atmosphere like an abandoned astronaut. Then, after nearly nineteen minutes of highly futuristic avant-garde space rock, this ultramodern music fades out and is replaced by a concluding few seconds of traditional blues-rock guitar. \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bureau B","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":50529760248139,"sku":"1082638","price":13.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/1f778c39-7934-4ba2-a5a0-5a0d8536a1cb_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1728066070"},{"product_id":"un-r-ve-sans-cons-quence-sp-ciale-heldon-v-50th-yp","title":"Un Rêve Sans Conséquence Spéciale (Heldon V) (50th Anniversary)","description":"\u003cp\u003eWith \u003cem\u003eUn Rêve Sans Conséquence Spéciale\u003c\/em\u003e, also released in 1976, Heldon extend their vocabulary into darker and more concentrated territory. The interplay of synthesizer and guitar is sharpened here, shaped into structures that feel both deliberate and unstable, balancing precision with a latent volatility. The album unfolds with a heightened sense of pressure, its pieces moving between propulsion and fragmentation without settling into fixed form. A compelling document of Heldon at their most focused and intense. Heldon’s Richard Pinhas has never been shy of pinpointing his influences while, at the same time, making music that is noticeably distinct from any of his designated sources. He has, for instance, made it clear that a significant font of inspiration was Robert Fripp’s guitar style and melding of rock music with cutting-edge electronics (especially in collaboration with Brian Eno). Indeed, Heldon’s fifth album — 1976’s \u003cem\u003eUn Rêve Sans Conséquence Spéciale\u003c\/em\u003e — was named after a live bootleg of a King Crimson concert. Pinhas first met Fripp in 1974.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe pair became friends, and have remained in contact ever since. Pinhas was even offered a deal with E.G. Records, the company that oversaw King Crimson alongside other successful groups like Roxy Music and ELP. “That was a dream,” says Pinhas. “But when you are 22, you are in a hurry. They asked me to wait one or two years before joining the team. I couldn’t wait two years! At 22, two years is too much.” Instead, Pinhas forged another path. He launched his own label, Disjuncta, which he later sold to purchase the Moog synthesiser that would make a huge difference to Heldon’s sound. Musical benchmarks aside, Heldon’s output also drew from radical science fiction (Philip K. Dick, Norman Spinrad, etc.) as well as philosophy. The sleeve of the fifth LP features a quote from Pierre Klossowski’s Nietzsche and the Vicious Circle (1969). The book had profound impact on thinkers such as Jean-François Lyotard, who was Pinhas’ PhD supervisor at the Sorbonne, and Gilles Deleuze, another mentor and friend to Pinhas right up until the end of Deleuze’s life. Pinhas compares his readiness to signpost his influences to citations in academic publications: “In the field of philosophy at university, it’s a normal thing to do.” Besides, Heldon never represented a mere facsimile of Pinhas’ musical touchstones: King Crimson, Jimi Hendrix, Miles Davis, or Frank Zappa. “I don’t want to be them, of course. I don’t feel there is a real relationship between King Crimson’s music and mine. I think Crimson is much better!” Some listeners would beg to differ.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bureau B","offers":[{"title":"LP - Orange","offer_id":56988398977355,"sku":"R2041-1042","price":31.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/2000x2000bb_006528e8-bb6e-4209-84a3-28be296ec57f.jpg?v=1775748408"},{"product_id":"agneta-nilsson-heldon-iv-50th-anniversary-editi-ol","title":"Agneta Nilsson (Heldon IV) (50th Anniversary Edition)","description":"\u003cp\u003eRichard Pinhas’ Heldon remains a crucial outlier in the 1970s European underground, fusing the more radical edges of progressive rock with early synthesizer experimentation in ways that still feel ahead of their time.Released in 1976, Agneta Nilsson captures a moment of consolidation, as extended pieces evolve through cycles of tension, drift, and release. The album’s internal logic feels both rigorous and open-ended, balancing restraint with sudden surges of intensity. Essential material, sharpened for collectors and new listeners alike. Agneta Nilsson opens with a mind-paralyzing track that proves stillness can have a pulse. “Perspective I” spends ten minutes poring through tectonic layers of heavy sound, piling everything so thick that the song becomes like quicksand for your brain. It’s one of the most daunting works in the Heldon catalog, made all the more impressive by how simple it is. It’s just sounds put together and turned up. It’s the vital alchemy of Pinhas’s wizardry, deployed with maximum force. As on other early Heldon albums, the rest of Agneta Nilsson is diverse in a nearly contrarian way. Each track refuses to mimic its predecessor in a way that feels rebellious, like a child running away from home. This is true despite the fact that three of the four pieces are actually chapters of “Perspective,” partners in a thematic whole. “Each one is a different point of view on the same field,” explains Pinhas. Different parts, different arrangements, but with a full concept in place.” It’s not easy to divine that concept in these pieces, but their sibling nature has a subconscious effect. The album-closing “Perspective IV” is one of Pinhas’ most unabashedly proto-prog guitar-hero epics, boosted by a technical upgrade. “This was the first album where I had enough money to rent one or two days in a real studio to do the drumming,” says Pinhas. “After that we had real budgets for studio time. That all changed with and after Agneta Nilsson — that was a good turn. Pinhas parlayed Heldon’s change of direction into three more adventurous albums in the 70s, and simultaneously spurred himself toward a solo career that continues to prod and probe the sonic universe today, over 40 years since he began. It would be wrong to say this album was the big bang of this singular career; the seeds of were planted years before, and every work Pinhas has been involved with sprouts more sounds and ideas that can grow into their own branches. But Agneta Nilsson is one of the most convincing pieces of evidence that Pinhas in incapable of sitting still.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bureau B","offers":[{"title":"LP - Red","offer_id":56988399632715,"sku":"R3907-6232","price":31.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/2000x2000bb_5ab03690-6045-433c-a8f2-9b7b719ee5bc.jpg?v=1775749148"}],"url":"https:\/\/shop.roughtrade.com\/de\/collections\/heldon.oembed","provider":"Rough Trade","version":"1.0","type":"link"}