In the ten years between 1965 and 1975, François de Roubaix was one of the most fascinating composers writing music for popular feature films in France. He was a man for whom there was no boundary between real life and creation. His very existence revolved around three key elements — music, the sea, and friendship — all of which can be found in the films of his favorite directors, Robert Enrico, José Giovanni, and Yves Boisset.

An artisan, a pioneer, and also a genius who enjoyed experimenting with anything at his disposal, François de Roubaix quickly built his own studio inside the apartment where he lived. There, he installed 8-track tape recorders, an organ, and two synthesizers. “In fact,” he would often remind people, “it’s the mixture of two genres, traditional and electronic music, that corresponds to what I want to do. I’m trying to create a sort of bridge between folklore and research.” Thanks to his 8-track tape machine and his extraordinary versatility as an instrumentalist, François could invent and perform his own compositions at home, directly, and then record them on separate tracks, each time playing a different instrument. Conceived under these unique conditions, La Scoumoune remains the foundational work of those home-studio years, followed by Les Anges. Today, more than half a century after his passing, de Roubaix would have been proud to see his work raised like a banner by artists from the New World sampling and remixing his sounds.