Nico
Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Reims
Place du Cardinal-Luçon
Reims, France
December 13, 1974
Opening for Tangerine Dream
Compiled from a French FM radio broadcast *
and an audience recording ^
Sources combined where possible )(
Occasional editing was used to smooth tape pauses
and to remove all Francophone radio host commentary
1. Janitor of Lunacy (4:21) ^ )(
2. The Falconer (5:38) )(
3. Valley of the Kings (3:29) )(
4. The End (The Doors) (9:32) )(
5. Abschied (3:05) *
6. Mütterlein (4:26) ^
7. Frozen Warnings (4:44) ^
8. You Forget to Answer (4:49) ^
9. We’ve Got the Gold (4:50) ^
10. No One is There (4:04) ^
11. Ari’s Song (Encore) (3:09) ^
85d242759a9e2eea4a282c03dd52e640 *01_Janitor of Lunacy.flac
98d60d2996fe859968099a793b057b86 *02_The Falconer.flac
363cc3d0351262e2f37f3cb1f89b0024 *03_Valley of the Kings.flac
bcd668fc0f0d6b8c352e9df5f2a43b1e *04_The End.flac
77bb2284bebf05b1aa9072af323e4bcb *05_Abschied.flac
d6ed0b91ede97283df15916f1764186f *06_Mutterlein.flac
9c0dcdc4617078f34331f16dc24b879f *07_Frozen Warnings.flac
b3b2a2065e9673ebd9322daed645c6b5 *08_You Forget to Answer.flac
0c6e75ef3c3776dbced8699a7d28c27c *09_We've Got the Gold.flac
1f7bbaa7a892b7c7f7f476be0071e647 *10_No One is There.flac
e2e838ca97c4be9e04be462ad266fdaa *11_Ari's Song.flac
I've included some decent cover art in a separate file folder
with a few nice Nico photos from around this time period,
along with a few interior shots of the Reims Cathedral
to give you an idea of this performance space.
I've also included a scan of a ticket stub from this show,
which I believe I somehow got from this upload
of the Tangerine Dream show.
http://www.dimeadozen.org/torrents-details.php?id=124436
This artwork will also be uploaded as separate attachments.
I also included an amusing excerpt from an article about the show
from a Circus Magazine from 1975.
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Known Lineage FM Broadcast : FM French radio broadcast > unknown generation cassette > CDR > Wavelab 4.01 Remastering > WAV > FLAC8
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Known Lineage Audience recording : Master Cassette from the taper > CDR > Wavelab 4.01 > WAV > FLAC8
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Details :
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Basically I was given two rare recordings of this concert
and this is a compilation and a combined version
of both of these shows removing the French DJ commentary
that was present on the FM broadcast version.
The FM broadcast portion although from an official radio broadcast
and of much better quality, does not seem to accurately convey
the magnitude and ambience of this extraordinary venue,
which is amply evident in the audience version of this recording.
I found that by combining the two together, you get the best of both.
Unfortunately this was only possible for about 1/3 of the show
as the FM broadcast was quite short.
The audience recording was pitch matched to the FM Broadcast version,
which is very close to Nico's performance on the official June 1, 1974 CD.
The Indian harmonium she used was not a perfectly tuned instrument
and so digital analysis is not an accurate reference.
The audience portion aside from the pitch correction is untouched,
but the FM broadcast portion required some mid range compression
to reduce giant volume spikes in Nico's vocals.
There was a fair amount of hiss present as well that was removed
as this is more than compensated by the ambience of the audience
recording which had plenty of nice high end frequencies.
A widening of the stereo separation was also applied to match
the audience recording and because it sounded better in my opinion.
The first two minutes of Janitor of Lunacy is missing from the FM broadcast,
so it begins with only the audience recording.
The beginning few bars of Abschied was subbed from a show
at the Squat Theatre in 1980 to assist in the removal of the DJ dialogue.
Oddly this song was missing from the more complete audience recording,
likely due to a tape flip.
The remainder of the show is only the audience version and is
not present in the broadcast without dialogue on top.
Also of note is the rare encore of Ari's Song.
This may be the only recorded live performance of this
classic from the Marble Index record.
A number of liberties were taken to simulate transitions between tracks
as the audience taper shut his recorder off between every song.
Infinitely preferable to the jarring Francophone DJ interruptions.
If anyone has the pre-FM broadcast tapes, please contact me
and I would be thrilled to upgrade this further.
Enjoy !