Bernard Estardy (November 19, 1939 – September 16, 2006) – Disco Energy (1977)
The French electronic music pioneer co-wrote and produced this epic space disco jam for his studio group Universal Energy's only album.
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Bernard Estardy aka Le Baron was a French electronic music pioneer and the co-founder and chief engineer at the technologically state-of-the-art Studio CBE in Paris.
Estardy got his start playing piano in Paris jazz clubs. He co-founded the recording facility Studio CBE (Chatelain-Bisson-Estardy) in 1966 along with Georges Chatelain, Janine Bisson, and Gunther Loof. As chief engineer at CBE, Estardy was one of the most in-demand French engineers of the sixties and seventies, and helped create hundreds of records by artists who recorded there. In 1969, he released his influential debut solo album La Formule Du Baron, which would be much-sampled in later years.
During the seventies, Estardy released eight albums’ worth of his own instrumental music on the French label Tele Music. The stellar jam “Gang Train” was featured on Claviers (1974). Other highlights from this LP included its hard-hitting opening cut “La Grange Of Blues“ and the funky “Road No. 9.”
Also in 1974, he wrote the hypnotic synthesizer jam “Ombilic Contact” for The Atomic Crocus, released on Daffodil International Records.
On October 8, 1976, the Estardy-written “Chinese Kung Fu” by Banzaii made music history when it was released as the B-side to Ernie Bush’s “Breakaway,” the double artist 12” that was the first commercially available 12” sold in the UK.
Issued by John Abbey’s Contempo Records, both tracks were remixed by Tom Moulton and licensed from Scepter Records in New York City. “Chinese Kung Fu” was later selected as the opening cut to the 1975 disco compilation Disco Gold Vol. 2, which was compiled by Moulton for Scepter.
One of Estardy’s most phenomenal tracks was the epic space disco voyage “Disco Energy” (1977) by Universal Energy.
It was issued as an extended 12” single from the studio group’s only album, a collaboration between Estardy and French composer Jean-Pierre Bourtayre. The two of them co-wrote and produced the entire LP, released on EMI Records. The album also contained the haunting synth-pop jams “Universal Energy” and “Christmas For Space.”
In 2018, the compilation Bernard Estardy’s Space Oddities 1970-1982 was released on Born Bad Records, a selection of standout cuts mostly from the instrumental music library albums he released on Tele Music.
Happy Cosmic Birthday to Le Baron.
Further info:
“Bernard Estardy: The Giant’s Selection,” WhatTheFrance.org, April 23, 2019.
“CBE, a legendary recording studio,” Google Arts & Culture.
#disco #spacedisco #synthpop #BernardEstardy