Martial Solal

À Bout De Souffle

Classic score on 180g vinyl, with attractive gatefold and bonus material. The complete score (10 tunes, 20 minutes) to Jean Luc Godard’s 1960 nouvelle vague hit, known here as Breathless, about a sexy fugitive in Paris. Solal’s music may not have been as revolutionary as Godard’s direction – it’s pretty standard cool jazz and romantic strings of the ’50s, featuring vibes, bongos, muted trumpets and Solal’s own nimble piano work – but it made a great impact in the film, being evocative, driving and classy as required, famously featuring a recurring five-note motif to signal the main protagonist’s fatal trajectory. To flesh out this package there’s Solal’s scores to Match Contre La Mort using the same players and Si Le Vent Te Fait Peur with Clark Terry on trumpet. Jim Irvin