Grands Travaux

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French composer Roger Roger (real name!; 1911-1995) composed film music for films which did not exist -- music minus movies. He wrote 'stock music'
(programmatic themes, or pieces suited for a particular atmosphere) for publishers like The Chappell Mood Music Company in London, who specialize in orchestral music for background use in radio, TV, and film.

Roger recorded album after album of sophisticated and subtle works -- none of which were ever offered commercially to the general public. Roger knew
this -- it was part of his contractual arrangement -- and never despaired of this. He became a wealthy man from the royalties garnered by the widespread
use of his music -- and even though the European public may have scarcely known he existed, they heard his music every day in the cinema, on radio and
TV, in commercials, in industrial productions, and at public events. He composed pop jingles for orchestra, complex classical-tinged tone poems,
humorous themes, electronic works, and music that heightened drama, tragedy, comedy, or sales pitches. He never composed 'down' -- Roger's works rank
with the most sophisticated of pop compositions -- but his music nonetheless always had broad appeal.

GRANDS TRAVAUX represents the first commercially available compilation of such Roger works as 'Traffic Boom,' 'Scenic Railway,' 'The Grip of Fear,' and 'Eccentric Walk.' It was recorded and produced by Gert-Jan Blom in the Netherlands in 1994-95. The CD cover artwork was provided by American illustrator/cartoonist Robert Armstrong.

From a New York Times review:
''Quirky but never zany, melodic but never melodramatic . . . Roger Roger was a composer who managed to give all-purpose music a purpose.'