Sortie combines both of Cartoon's albums, minus one song from 1983's Music from Left Field ("Trio"). This is music in which one loses all focus and concentration. True to their name, Cartoon stitched playful, spontaneous melodies into their American mixture of rock, 20th century classical, and free jazz. In fact, the band would often cover cartoon themes in live shows, along with modern classical pieces, and that's pretty close to how one could describe their
Zappa-fied sound. Many pieces were scores written by keyboardist Scott Brazieal, which were then worked out by the other members. Other songs were "improvisations" composed over a long period of time. Cartoon (1981) was recorded as a trio of keyboards, percussion, and guitar, but their extremely dextrous playing leads one to think otherwise. A woodwind player and violinist were added for Music from Left Field, making for an even wider (and wilder) field of sound. The group disbanded soon after the second album, and three of the members continued on as a similarly-styled band,
PFS. ~ Patrick Little