Anthology Recordings is pleased to announce the reissue of the long out of print -- and never before officially issued in the US -- trilogy of albums by Catherine Ribeiro + Alpes, 1970's N°2, 1971's Âme Debout, and 1972's Paix. Anthology's presentation of these foundational LPs, arguably the group's finest hours on wax, fills in a crucial missing link in the canon of psychedelic and experimental music of the 60s and 70s. In a lineage with other uncompromising women singers such as Edith Piaf, Nico, and Diamanda Galas, Ribeiro's is a sound of possession, of ritual. Her approach shares more with performance art than it does with pop music. It's the sound of love and madness and political tumult, stripped bare and emerged from dark recesses. With her weighty voice, she emphasized expression and meaning over immaculate, adventurous musicality. Each LP includes its own insert featuring photos and original press material culled from Ribeiro's personal archive. Limited first run of 750.Ame Debout breaks much new ground for 1971, with Alpes joined by Gong keyboardist Patrice Lemoineand his bassist brother Jean-Sébastien. Rather than trying to fuse recognizable musical styles with vocals,Ame Debout illustrates Alpes's relationship with Ribeiro as something instantly more elemental and complicated. The music launches immediately into a radical sound world of acoustic guitar, bass, stabbing and soaring organ, scuttling percuphone, and celestial cosmophone. The album retains a repetition stretched across tracks and time that shifts ever so slightly but rarely responds directly to Ribeiro's vocals. The band's instrumental work drifts hazily beneath Ribeiro's swells, supporting her harmonically but never displaying enough ego to act as anything other than a platform for her existential angst, as if to conjure her id onto tape. These elements converge on Ame Debout, transforming a largely improvised combination of instrumentation and vocals into the utmost emotional expression.

Ame Debout breaks much new ground for 1971, with Alpes joined by Gong keyboardist Patrice Lemoine and his bassist brother Jean-Sébastien. Rather than trying to fuse recognizable musical styles with vocals,Ame Debout illustrates Alpes's relationship with Ribeiro as something instantly more elemental and complicated. The music launches immediately into a radical sound world of acoustic guitar, bass, stabbing and soaring organ, scuttling percuphone, and celestial cosmophone. The album retains a repetition stretched across tracks and time that shifts ever so slightly but rarely responds directly to Ribeiro's vocals. The band's instrumental work drifts hazily beneath Ribeiro's swells, supporting her harmonically but never displaying enough ego to act as anything other than a platform for her existential angst, as if to conjure her id onto tape. These elements converge on Ame Debout, transforming a largely improvised combination of instrumentation and vocals into the utmost emotional expression.