A holy grail of the Gainsbourg-Vannier catalogue has surfaced after 45 years.

Serge Gainsbourg and Jean-Claude Vannier’s music for the 1969 film Les Chemins de Katmandou, thought to have been lost forever after the master tapes were supposedly destroyed, has resurfaced.

Earlier this year a copy of the master tapes was discovered up in an old suitcase by the daughter of Vannier’s former copyist. That’s Vannier in the photo above, holding the newly recovered music. The tapes have since been transferred and mastered, and portions of the score will finally be released on the forthcoming expanded reissue of Le Cinema De Serge Gainsbourg, a 5CD box set compiling the bulk of the influential French songwriter and composer’s music for film.

Le Cinema De Serge Gainsbourg will also include a number of additional previously unreleased score excerpts, including music from 1980’s Equateur (a film directed by Gainsbourg himself), and a newly discovered piece recorded by Gainsbourg and Vannier for the legendary score to Pierre Granier-Deferre’s 1970 film La Horse.

The box set, produced and compiled by Stéphane Lerouge, includes over six hours of music spanning 1959 to 1990, and includes collaborations with noted composers and arrangers Vannier, Alain Goraguer, Michel Colombier, Arthur Greenslade, and Jean-Pierre Sabar. Rare songs recorded with vocalists Jane Birkin, Anna Karina, Nico, Juliette Gréco, and Michèle Mercier will also be included.

The limited-edition 5CD box set will be released by EmArcy/Mercury/Universal France on April 20 (the proximity to Record Store Day is a coincidence). There has been talk of a vinyl release, said to include the Katmandou material, but no details of a release date or tracklist has yet been announced.

Check out the artwork and tracklist for the CD set below. [via Mikey Jones]

Tracklist:

CD1

1. L’eau a la bouche – Serge Gainsbourg

2. Angoisse – Alain Goraguer

3. Black march – Alain Goraguer

4. Les loups dans la bergerie – Alain Goraguer

5. Cha cha cha du loup – Alain Goraguer

6. Les loups dans la bergerie – Alain Goraguer & His Orchestra

7. Fuite du rouquin – Alain Goraguer & His Orchestra

8. Strip tease – Juliette Gréco

9. Some small chance – Alain Goraguer

10. Rendez-vous a la calvados – Alain Goraguer

11. Wake me at five – Alain Goraguer

12. Solitude – Alain Goraguer

13. Effeuillage – Alain Goraguer

14. Crazy horse swing – Alain Goraguer

15. Comment trouvez-vous ma soeur? – Serge Gainsbourg

16. Erotico tico – Michel Colombier

17. Rocking horse – Michel Colombier

18. Quart d’heure américain – Michel Colombier

19. Rendez-vous a l’eglise – Michel Colombier

20. Comment trouvez-vous ma sour? – Michel Colombier

21. L’escroc – Serge Gainsbourg

22. Scène de bal 1 – Michel Colombier

23. Scène de bal 2 – Michel Colombier

24. Chanson du forçat – Serge Gainsbourg

25. Le mariage de vidocq – Michel Colombier

26. Chanson du forcat II – Serge Gainsbourg

27. A vous de jouer, monsieur vidocq – Michel Colombier

28. Woom woom woom – Michel Colombier

29. Caressante – Michel Colombier

30. Wouaou ! – Michel Colombier

CD2

1. Sous le soleil exactement – Anna Karina

2. Jerks en cavalerie – Michel Colombier

3. C’est la cristallisation comme dit stendhal – Serge Gainsbourg

4. Photographes et religieuses – Michel Colombier

5. Boomerang – Jean Claude Brialy

6. Je n’avais qu’un seul mot a lui dire – Jean Claude Brialy

7. Anna – Michel Colombier

8. Le jardinier d’argenteuil – Michel Colombier

9. Les voyages du père la tulipe – Michel Colombier

10. French riviera – Michel Colombier

11. Dénouement et final – Michel Colombier

12. Breakdown suite – Michel Colombier

13. L’une et l’autre – Michel Colombier

14. Elisa – Serge Gainsbourg

15. L’horizon – Michel Colombier

16. Elisa – Serge Gainsbourg

17. Manon – Serge Gainsbourg

18. New délire again – Michel Colombier

19. New délire – Michel Colombier

20. Auto-stop – Michel Colombier

21. No no yes yes – Michel Colombier

22. Oh beautiful america/mister freedom march – Michel Colombier

23. Freedom rock/mister freedom – Michel Colombier

24. L’herbe tendre – Serge Gainsbourg

25. Ce sacré grand-père générique – Michel Colombier

26. Champêtre et pop – Michel Colombier

27. L’herbe tendre – Michel Colombier

28. L’adieu generique fin – Michel Colombier

CD3

1. Requiem pour un con… – Serge Gainsbourg

2. Psychasténie – Michel Colombier

3. Un noël – Michel Colombier

4. Joss a la calavados – Michel Colombier

5. Batucada meurtrière – Michel Colombier

6. Cadavres en série – Michel Colombier

7. La chanson de slogan – Serge Gainsbourg

8. Evelyne – Jean-Claude Vannier

9. Paris-bombay – Jean-Claude Vannier

10. Les chemins de katmandou (générique) – Jean-Claude Vannier

11. Jane et olivier – Jean-Claude Vannier

12. Transe party des haschichiens – Jean-Claude Vannier

13. Carte postale du népal – Jean-Claude Vannier

14. La horse – Jean-Claude Vannier

15. L’alouette – Jean-Claude Vannier

16. Western – Jean-Claude Vannier

17. Cannabis – Serge Gainsbourg

18. Avant de mourir – Jean-Claude Vannier

19. Danger – Jean-Claude Vannier

20. Dernière blessure – Jean-Claude Vannier

21. Cannabis – Jean-Claude Vannier

22. Sex shop – Serge Gainsbourg

23. Fontaine des innocents – Jean-Claude Vannier

24. Sex radio suite – Jean-Claude Vannier

25. Moogy-woogy – Jean-Claude Vannier

26. Close combat – Jean-Claude Vannier

27. Un petit garçon nommé charlie brown – Serge Gainsbourg

CD4

1. L’amour en privé – Françoise Hardy

2. Projection privée – Jean-Claude Vannier

3. L’amour en privé – Jean-Claude Vannier

4. Ballade de johnny-jane – Serge Gainsbourg

5. Je t’aime moi non plus – Jean-Pierre Sabar

6. Banjo au bord du styx – Jean-Pierre Sabar

7. Zanzibar – Jean-Pierre Sabar

8. Le choc est terrible – Jean-Pierre Sabar

9. Yesterday yes a day – Jane Birkin

10. First class ticket/yesterday on fender – Jean-Pierre Sabar

11. Mi corasong – Serge Gainsbourg

12. Passage a tabacco – Serge Gainsbourg

13. Chanson du chevalier blanc – Gérard Lanvin

14. Emmanuelle and the sea – Jean-Pierre Sabar

15. Goodbye emmanuelle – Serge Gainsbourg

16. Emmanuelle and the sea – Jean-Pierre Sabar

17. Sea sex and sun – Serge Gainsbourg

18. Melancoly suite – Jean-Pierre Sabar

19. Tapage nocturne – Bijou

20. Dieu fumeur de havanes – Jean-Pierre Sabar

21. La fautive – Serge Gainsbourg

22. La fautive – Don Ray

23. Je pense queue – Serge Gainsbourg

24. Dieu fumeur de havanes – Catherine Deneuve

CD5

1. Equateur (générique) – Serge Gainsbourg

2. Un cargo vers l’afrique – Serge Gainsbourg

3. Le physique et le figuré – Jean-Pierre Sabar

4. Dorothée (fuir le bonheur de peur qu’il ne se sauve) – Serge Gainsbourg

5. Accéléré historique – Serge Gainsbourg

6. En souvenir de fred a. – Serge Gainsbourg

7. Travelling – Jean-Pierre Sabar

8. Entrave – Jean-Pierre Sabar

9. Trave – Jean-Pierre Sabar

10. Travaux – Jean-Pierre Sabar

11. Charlotte for ever – Serge Gainsbourg

12. Stan/elodie – Serge Gainsbourg

13. La valse de l’au revoir – Juliette Gréco

14. Strip tease – Nico

15. La fille qui fait tchictitchic – Michèle Mercier

16. La noyée – Anna Karina

17. Hier ou demain – Anna Karina

18. Ballade de johnny jane – Jane Birkin

19. Goodbye emmanuelle – Serge Gainsbourg

20. Les chemins de katmandou – Fred Pallem

21. La horse – Marathon Men’S

22. Requiem pour un con – Serge Gainsbourg