Urban Sax was founded by Gilbert Artman, French saxophonist, in 1973. The first act was played at the Menton Musical festival and by this time, the group consisted of eight saxophonists. Since then the concept evolved and today it's not unusual for the performance group to have more than 50 musicians on stage at time. It's always with Saxophones as the main instrument, though Artman has let percussion and vocals into the ensemble occasionally.Since he often integrates local musicians and dancers, the performances can have more than 200 participants. The performances are often of an almost occultic character - the musicians wearing space suits and gas masks, while playing their drones on saxophone.
Pictures, videos and audio can be found at their homepage.
Urban Sax 1 is their third album released on celluloid in 1986 along with Urban Sax 2. The album is minimalistic and droning unlike anything else really. The effect of all those sax'es playing together is undeniable, and.. Pretty amazing. This album is highly recommended, and you can
get it here
