Hi there! Steelrattus again, on day 7 of his 10 day guest stint.
Just when I thought the album titles couldn’t get any longer… this. Although it seems this album might actually be called Exposition Internationale, if Wikipedia is to be believed. Anyway, Les Joyaux de la Princesse (The Jewels of the Princess) are a French band, if you hadn’t guessed already. They’ve been around since 1986, and their music is a rather odd mixture of ambient and neo-classical, mixed in with samples from both French music and speeches. Their albums are typically limited editions, produced in elaborate box sets.
Exposition Internationale (des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne) is connected to said event, AKA the 1937 Paris Expo, and I’m assuming includes samples from speeches made there (it certainly includes olde-worldy French speeches). This album was released in 1998 though, not 1937. Although there are 10 tracks overall, they clock in at various times, with the opening track at almost 20 minutes in length, versus another that’s only 7 seconds.
When Stegzy handed over the blog baton, he did give me some brief notes on the album titles, and in some cases a one sentence description of the album. For this album said description was, “what is this shite?!”. As required under the terms and condition’s of Stegzy’s Music Project I have listened to the album, in this case probably three times. Technically the first time I listened to it though I had forgotten the MP3 player was on shuffle, on a playlist of all 10 albums. “Hmmm”, I thought, “this is a rather odd mixture, but I like it.” Which goes to show that my music taste probably shouldn’t be trusted. The second time I listened to the album it just didn’t sink in, so I gave it a third listen. As further evidence that my music taste shouldn’t be trusted I kinda liked this album, perhaps because it’s so unusual. The ambient tracks are quite nice and surreal, although not all delicate ambient as it’s quite heavy and military in places. I probably could have done without the French speeches to be honest. I’d give this a solid 3/5, but I’m not quite sure what situation would lend to me listening to it.
Here’s the opening track, which will give you a flavour of the album…
Stegzy's Music Project 
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