Richard Pinhas - Rhizosphere (1977)

Rhizosphere is the debut solo album by French guitarist, synth experimentalist, and founder of the band Heldon, Richard Pinhas, released in 1977 on the Cobra label.

The album was recorded at Pinhas's own studio (Helden Studio) during a period when Heldon temporarily suspended its touring activities. The album's title and concept are inspired by the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari (in particular, the concept of the "rhizome"), under whom Pinhas studied at the Sorbonne.

Musically, Rhizosphere is a pure, meditative, and simultaneously unsettling immersion into the world of analog synthesis. Unlike the heavy, guitar-fuzzy Heldon albums, the emphasis here is on the hypnotic pulsations of the Moog 55 synthesizer, sequencers, and smooth, detached guitar loops in the spirit of Robert Fripp's Frippertronics and Brian Eno's work.

Plastica Rhizosphere is considered a key work of the French school of progressive electronica of the 1970s and an important bridge between the Berlin school (Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze) and the European academic avant-garde.