I was looking for some music by Jean Francaix today, and I found one of the weirdest album ever: Paris Mecanique (iTunes link) — an album of performances by 3 clarinets and barrel organ.

Even if you don’t buy the album (although I enthusiastically recommend that you buy the full version of Francaix’s “Pambiche”), you should check out the 30-second previews on iTunes. This stuff is fantastic. The Francaix pieces alone are worth the $9.99 album price, but you really haven’t lived until you’ve heard these Leroy Anderson tunes — both The Typewriter and The Syncopated Clock — arranged for this wonderfully horrible instrumentation.