Well I got this bassoon, and I learned how to make it talk

Words can have unexpectedly evocative powers, even when, as with "rue", the evocation is founded in a mistake; the same, evidently, applies to the names of things.  In particular, it turns out that Univers Zero's first album is not called 1313, the name by which everyone knows it and even the name under which it was first released on CD by Cuneiform Records.  (Unrelatedly: the original cover, and the cover of the rerelease on Cryonic, are both superior to the original Cuneiform rerelease (proof—and note the URL), as was the original cover of Heresie, the second album.) It was actually self-titled, with the serial number EF 1313 (it was mixed by Eric Faes, who's commemorated in the title of an improvisation on Art Zoyd's Phase IV).  The new Cuneiform reissue, with bonus tracks (a live performance of "La Faulx"), returns to the original album art and title, and, presumably out of sentiment, the original serial number (RUNE 1313, this time), even though it's actually the 271st release.

But it should have been called 1313, dammit! The name fits, not just because of the repeated "13"s, but because of the sound. Frank Zappa, as is well known, once said that

The bassoon is one of my favorite instruments. It has the medieval aroma, like the days when everything used to sound like that. Some people crave baseball . . . I find this unfathomable, but I can easily understand why a person could get excited about playing the bassoon.

1313 and Heresie have the medieval aroma too, even though of course things didn't sound that way.  Even the crumhorn, if Wikipedia is to be believed, was mostly used in the Renaissance. Consider, though, "Complainte", the last track from 1313 (dammit) and my favorite thing they've ever done.  Listen to that wheeze!  How, I dunno, dry (vibratoless?) (some of) the strings sound. Totally medieval. Naturally I assumed all along that the name referred to the year.

Now all my illusions have been taken from me and I face the day a broken-minded man, and live in a world of broken ideas.