Jean Cohen-Solal ‎- Captain Tarthopom (1973)

Born in 1946, Jean Cohen-Solal studied music at the National Academy in Nimes from 1956 to 1963. Flute was his major, but he also studied the double bass. He learned counterpoint, harmony, chamber music & orchestration. From 1963 to 1966, he attended the Academy of Versailles with Cazauran Stone as his double bass teacher, and studied flute with Roger Bourdin and Gaston Crunelle and with the CNSM of Paris.

In 1965, Jean made connections with the GRM (Group of Musical Research of the ORTF >> the National French Broadcast system). Between 1966 to 1973 he worked on the phenomenally popular French animation "The Shadoks", a series by Jacques Rouxel. He created the voice "Shadok", did the sound effects, and served as assistant and musical interpreter. In 1969, he was a prizewinner at the international contest of flute of Montreux (Switzerland). He also won the prize at the International Contest of Chamber Music at Colmar. From 1970 to 1989, Cohen-Solal taught flute in the Paris area at a variety of academies and workshops. Jean's history as musician is long and fascinating, with his career as theatre and film composer.

In the early 70's, J C-S will join the progressive movement pervading through the French rock scene and participated to a few group's recording, as well as releasing two albums under his own name, the first of which, Flutes Libres (free flutes) is a stunning experimental work mixing all kinds of musical influences and styles including raga. His second spoof-titled album Captain Tarthopom (Capt apple pie) veered a tad more jazz and held shorter more humorous tracks, but was no less experimental. He continued the 70's participating in myriad of projects, like Saga Of Lodbrok in 78

He went back soon enough into experimental music, becoming director of ADMC (association for development of contemporary music) and creating his own group Temps Real. (progarchives)