A creation of visionary drummer/keyboardist/saxophonist Gilbert Artman who had previously been playing in a free jazz ensemble called Operation Rhino, Lard Free released three albums during the seventies on which they tried to integrate jazz, rock, free form improvisation, and electronic music.

LARD FREE was Gilbert Artman's project much the same way that HELDON was Richard Pinhas's project. Both groups hold many common points namely highly experimental but yet accessible music that can be likened to Krautrock, a good understanding of minimalist music such as TERRY RILEY, constant personnel changes and the same musical influences namely CAN, ENO and Robert FRIPP.

Their self-titled first album released in 1973, is a melting pot of all these elements, although the jazz-rock element dominates. It is full of great spacey rock with searing guitars, superb drumming and great sax and bass playing."Hard to compare to anyone else, but the music sounds somewhat similar to Miles Davis on "Bitches Brew". The album starts with "Warinobaril": the music is led by a slow, deep groove on bass guitar. A bit later, stretched out saxophone leads set in and are sustained for some time; eventually a heavily distorted electric guitar crashes into the music. The second track of the album is dominated by pulsating synthesizers that go slowly, but ultimately completely, out of control. In the background a jazzy saxophone provides a strange counterbalance to the squeaking synthesizers in the front. About halfway, the mood suddenly changes and we are again in experimental jazz-rock territory with a rather "free" guitar solo. The rest of the album continues in a similar vein as the first two tracks: synth drones are intertwined with 70s jazz-rock. Check out the lazy groove that pervades "Acide Framboise": it sounds like weird electronic funk from another galaxy. All in all, a captivating and original debut album."
"Lard Free's debut is stunning, full of energy and deeply enjoyable. If you can picture Sabbath's Geezer Butler (first two albums) playing with King Fripp, Brian Eno and maybe a less virtuoso Bruford making an album , you might have an idea of what this album sounds like. Sometimes the Eno/Fripp influences are overpowering the rest of the influences but this is relatively minor. Those long instumental tracks rolling around a superb bass and repetitive drumming is simply fascinating, may sound to some as jams but not quite as this is more to do with minimalism."


On the second album, "I Am Around About Midnight" (1975), the music had become significantly more electronic at the expense of the jazz-rock influences. "The opening track, "Violez l'Espace de Son Refrigerant", reminds me of the otherwordly soundscapes of early Tangerine Dream albums like "Zeit" and "Atem". The album sounds more like a long suite, where subtle accents provided by vibes, electric guitar, and percussion fade in and fade out to support the icy sounding sythesizers. The closest comparison would be early Heldon (Richard Pinhas joins the band on guitar here), but Lard Free's approach is more interesting in my opinion. The spacey and sparse music recalls images of wide panoramas, endless steps, or if you wish, cosmic travel through vast areas of emptiness. A mesmerizing classic from the seventies French scene." "One cannot help to think of minimalism German master Faust when listening to the Alambic track with their repetitive synths and Tangerine Dream phasers in the background leading you with no definite boundary into the Bakestan track where an Oldfield-like piano and flute take over. Still with no clear track ending we are now lead by a sonar noise (much like Floyd in Echoes) into Taktooz and haunting ambiances lead you in Pale Violence with its booming bass. the CD finishes off with an eastren-sounding piano-led track."