SOS, les Zlops attaquent

The text and video excerpt below document the book by Philippe Langlois, Les cloches d’Atlantis, Musique électroacoustique et cinéma, Archéologie et histoire d’un art sonore, éditions mf, Paris, 2012.

The zlops live on a tiny planet 125 metres in diameter, where a peculiar language is spoken. One day they embark aboard their spaceship, the “Globineff”, and set off to conquer another heavenly body: the Earth. When they land in Paris, they set up their headquarters between the second and third floors of the Eiffel Tower. One of the zlops, on the orders of his superior, sets off on reconnaissance in the streets of the capital, armed with his weapon of hilarious power: the “dogodum”.

This first episode of a serial aimed at young audiences, made in the style of the comic strip, remained unfinished at the 7th episode. It constitutes an example of the application of the animographe technique, a machine invented around 1961 by jean Dejoux, a researcher at the RTF within the Service de la Recherche, intended to produce animated films quickly and economically.

A year before launching into the adventure of the Shadoks of JacquesRouxel, Robert Cohen-Solal thus composes the music for this animated series. The music combines light melodies played on synthesisers and incorporates a whole series of interventions of concrete and electronic elements that energise and give rhythm to the moments of musical articulation and the adventures of the Zlops.

1st episode:

2nd episode:

This information notice was co-produced with INA/GRM for the creation of the multimedia fresco – Artsonores – L’aventure électroacoustique, in the category Films produced by the Service de la Recherche de l’ORTF from 1950 to 1975.