A secondary account to "MechanicalMusicTravels". Here, I mainly upload digitised vinyl from my collection, plus the odd bit of old footage I might have saved on my computer.
*None of the recordings/footage/images I use on this account are my own, so all credit by default goes to the original owners. I am in no way trying to pass any of the content featured here as my own. If you have any content which is yours and would like me to remove, please notify me in the comments of the video in question or write to me using the email below. (Before filing a copyright strike, you know who you are...!)*
ca me rapelle mon mortier 121 touches que j avais au musee du jouet du coulou ! les visages emerveillers des enfants quant je le metais en marche apres les explications ! doit encore fonctioner quellque part ? pierre xavier de chassot .
I wonder what happened to this organ?, after Roy Grey passed away his widow, Janis went on to marry Bill Sykes who owned the Marenghi now with the Gavioli Organ Trust, it's an organ i have never seen, not sure if it's still with the same owners.
Nobody really seems to know whether that's what it's actually called or whether that's just a made up title... Searching the title online yields no results. The book on this particular organ has the title "Drum Boogie" which is equally as misleading.
Unfortunately I don't think there are any dance organs in Mexico... There do not seem to be many collections of mechanical music in South America. I know there is a collector with a couple of Mortier organs in Guatemala.
The jazz flutes on oscar sound like a strangled cat, lol!, i have a cassette of it when it was at St. Albans and it's playing very well, unusually it has bourdons but i think they were a later addition.
Interesting footage I never knew that 101 key Mortier that's now at Watermouth Castle used to be at St Albans. I see back then in this footage it sounded really well whilst as now with it being at Watermouth Castle it doesn't sound the best.
Yes, it was imported by Charles Hart and was one of the last organs to be sold out of the museum! The organ was nicknamed "Oscar" (after Oscar Grymonprez), the facade originates from a 105 key Decap organ and was repurposed by Grymonprez for this organ, replacing the more traditional Mortier facade it once had.
These organs were the result of Decap Herentals vision to have a dance organ play like a full-fledged orchestra. I have experienced this time up close and it is still vivid in my mind, where has the time gone. These organs were very undervalued and misunderstood. Regards, Sammy Decap
Thank you Sammy - these organs are very special in their sound, much more so than any other electronic dance organs of the time. It's a shame so few survive nowadays.
@@MechanicalMusicRecordings It is precisely for this reason that I still have an Elka artist 707 here at my home and I have kept the original organ books in midi form. It is my wish to reassemble this organ for myself on the original range of 106 key Decap Herentals and thus bring it back to life. In any case, I have all the knowledge and equipment here to do it, now I just have to find the time to do it and convince my brother Frank to help with this. Kind regards, Decap Sammy 🙂
@@sammydecap2992 I wish you the best of luck with your project - the results will most definitely pay off! A couple of years ago I went to inspect what remains of the Decap X500P in person - whilst the electronics are in a very bad state, a lot of the organ's original music library still survives (mostly Somers and Tony Decap books). I'm hopeful that it can be restored back to its former glory one day.
That's interesting old photo of the organ I see the facade is the same but the 2 figures on each side? They look like conductors? Plus there's red curtains hiding the drums.
Anyone know who did each of these arrangements? I would love to know. I assume at least a couple were by Lpuis Blache for Chiappa, but I don't know which ones.
This exact record was my first French fair organ record. We got it at a record shop in NYC and I practically wore it out in the early 90s. Thanks for sharing!
Was this facade later used on the 121 key Gebr Decap Century? as it is very similar to the one that was on century before it was rebuilt with the present facade. Was the DIAMANT later rebuilt as a 105 key semi electronic by Verbeeck as several Lps were made of the Diamant after the Verbeeck rebuild during which it was reduced in size to that of a regular 105 semi Electronic hence the original facade ending up on De Century.
No, the facade on this organ actually originally belonged to Mortier no.1003 "De Komeet", now in the UK. The electronic "Diamant" organ was a newbuild in the 1970's by Ferre Verbeeck and has nothing to do with this organ.
Oh, wonderful. There is absolutely no mistaking that sound for another machine. I remember first hearing it on an album played by a friend through his 600 watt valve amp. He made a cassette for me which has long since worn out. Thank you for sharing.
It's actually a 97 key organ, i have seen it at the Ferme des Orgues, no accordions or saxophones now, the end panels are no longer with it either, stands up on a balcony now but was on the floor of the museum when i saw it, the arrangements here are by Arthur Prinsen but i only saw Verbeeck books with it now.
Yes, that's right - interestingly the facade on the organ both now and at the time of recording is the original facade of Mortier "De Komeet" here in the UK.
I see from the comments that some think it is "out of tune". The only track that doesn't sound right to me is Clair. I wonder if the organ book was either worn or if a few of the notes had been "miscut".
Do the large pipes in the centre and the metal ones behind the accordions actually play or are they just dummies?, i wonder what the extra key does as most of these organs are 105 key.
The metal pipes are certainly dummy pipes - as for the wooden ones, I'm not too sure. The 106 key Herentals scale is different to the usual 105 key scale, although I'm afraid I wouldn't know any of the details.
I've got all of the LPs of this organ,sadly my copy of this one gets worse sound wise during the last two tracks. The organ is due or was due to go back into the ride after recieving some TLC.
Decap organs have a very beautiful combination of acustic percussions and organ tubes incluiding real accordions with a electric organ, creating a very lovely sound.
I spent many happy hours at the keyframe of this organ, i never did get through all the music!, had 14 cases and loads of seperate books, the scale of it is very versatile and it would play anything, both Brian and Boz Oram arranged a lot of music for it and there were arrangements from Hooghuys, Schollaert, Urbain van Wichelen and Arthur Prinsen, now in Belgium with the Rorive family and missed from the rally scene over here where it was local to me for many years, Boz would start in in the morning and just leave me with it all day so i could play what i liked, mind you, some of the music was better left in the cases, lol!
First time i have noticed it says Electronique on the bass drum, i thought this was a complete pipe organ, doesn't sound like synthesized sounds are used.
It is a complete pipe organ, the reason the bass drum says "Electronique" is because Grymonprez took the facade and percussion of an (unusually large) 92 key or 105 key semi-electronic Decap and put it in front of a modified 101 key Mortier. I assume the original Decap chassis was scrapped. A couple of photos exist showing the original Decap organ when behind this facade, which was one of about 4 or 5 organs once located in the Tavern American, Lokeren (hence the name still present on the centre glass panel). The Mortier was never located there, instead it was located in cafe "Het Bourgondische Kruis" in Ledeberg.
It left Belgium in the 1970's, sold by Oscar Grymonprez into a private collection in the USA. It remained in the same collection until around 2010 when a fire sadly broke out in the building and destroyed all the instruments, minus a Mortier which was stored elsewhere. A real tragedy! A couple of this organ's books are known to survive though and are in the repertoire of the 92 key Decap "Jeanneke" in the UK (I have seen "Juul Kabas" and "Help Yourself" there, there may be others). These have just been cut down, as this organ played a special 101 key scale that was effectively just an extension of the 92 key Decap scale with extra registers and percussion.
I wasn't aware cassettes had been issued - I think 3, possibly 4 LPs were produced of it under various different and misleading names such as "Organ at the Fair". Is your cassette an LP re-issue?
An excellent LP indeed! Featuring arrangements by Albert Decap, (I think) Dick Gillet and of course some excellent work by Willy Van Wichelen (aka Willy Rockin).
