Prospective 21e Siècle

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French series devoted to electroacoustic and avant-garde music curated by François Bayle and Pierre Henry begun in 1967. It was notable for using on its covers the "Procédé Heliophore" which engraves patterns on aluminum foil that cause optical effects. Some later pressings replaced the foil with standard gray ink. Although the series was French, there are editions of some titles that were released in The Netherlands, England, Spain and Japan.
Editions from before 1972 are published by BIEM, after 1972 the rights society was SACEM.

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Philips

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966 copies

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  • ultimathulerecords's avatar
    Edited 5 years ago
    Commonly known in collector's circles as the French Philips "Silver Series"
    Prospective 21e Siècle was pretty much the French attempt to out-do Deutsche Grammophon's Avant Garde series!

    Because of the complexity of the catalogue and different pressings I compiled a guide.

    Ultima Thule online guide collated by Alan Freeman can be found here:
    http://www.ultimathulerecords.com/referencephilipsp21s.html

    See also: https://www.discogs.com/forum/thread/728724
    • dnbodi's avatar
      dnbodi
      Beautiful series, stunning artwork. Anyone a clue about the graphic designer?
      • mixmastermorris's avatar
        Edited 20 years ago
        This label is extremely collectible, due to the rarity of all the releases and especially the outstanding and highly distinctive quasi-holographic sleeve artwork.