As a jazz pianist he made his debuts alongside Boris Vian and Serge Gainsbourg, and then showed himself to be an arranger of genius, and also a skilled composer of film music. Alain Goraguer has since become an unavoidable icon for French music in the second half of the 20th century. This 3-album retrospective compiled by Olivier Julien concentrates on the composer's early years, throwing light on the first recordings (made either under his own name or a pseudonym) of a world freed from it's "chanson" and "jazz" identities.