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I have to admit, this wasn't a band I'd heard of, and given the lyrics were all in French, this being a French band, and my command of the language not stretching much beyond ordering beer, I wasn't sure what I was letting myself in for. I really shouldn't have worried.
The first track, Douce Mort, is split into two sections. The opening instrumental, called Viviant, and the main track proper Douce Mort. Together they clock in at a respectable Sixteen and a half minutes. The instrumental section starts off with piano and strings in a gentle, almost classical style, before exploding into guitars and synths with a very heavy bass line. The track drifts between piano, keyboards and guitars, starting with simple effective runs, before gaining both in power and in complexity. The tempo flows up and down like a river, feeling completely natural. The instruments drop as the vocals come in. This would be a good point to mention the vocals. I took the deliberate decision not to look at translated versions of the lyrics, and to treat the vocals as another instrument, separate from the lyrics. In this case it works very well. The vocals rise and fall within the music, acting as an instrument in it's own right. As the track progresses it plays with both tempo and power. Sometimes gentle little runs, sometimes heavy riffing. The piano especially goes from gentle almost balladic to crashing power.
Just time to catch your breath as Ici Maintenant comes in. A simple piano theme starts before rising in power, as the vocals come in the guitar appears turning the track almost bombastic. After a short guitar solo everything drops as the track becomes calmed leading out with a gentle piano & Acoustic guitar.
Miroirs is launched directly from the previous track. A very heavy guitar riff starts, but softens to allow the vocals & keyboards to come through. The track really comes alive after the vocals. The keyboard and guitar launch into the same theme, playing around and with each other, reminiscent of Lord and Blackmore in the old days with Deep Purple, although a touch heavier.
Si follows, starting with faint almost echoey voices leading into keyboards reminiscent more of a childs musical box than anything else. The vocals come in, pitched a touch higher than usual, giving a slightly surreal feel to the track. The keyboards drop out to allow some gentle guitar in before they come back in for the verse. The theme being taken by piano, but pitched lower. A hard riff comes in underneath some spacey keyboard work before launching into a blistering guitar solo. As the track ends the voices from the start begin to filter back through.
The album finishes with the twenty-minute epic Apprentis Sociers. We open with a strong bass line, before the keyboards and a strong guitar comes swooping in. It slips between almost blues-rock and an almost jazz bass line, without ever crossing over entirely. The piano comes in rising to the front, before sliding back to allow everything to come to a head. Just as the band is reaching a crescendo, it drops back down to slight synthesisers playing with the guitar. As the keyboards and guitar swap leads, the track softens with an acoustic guitar appearing leading us to an almost latin tempo, linked with some old school scat style vocals which the guitar plays around. Some interesting little violin runs appear, darting in and out between the vocals before another change of tempo brings us back to a jazzy feel. As the vocals reappear the guitar starts dancing underneath, with some lively little quick runs as the track comes to a close. Actually it doesn't. The false stop just signals the start of a new passage, starting gentle with some a capella vocals before speeding up. The guitar and keyboards work together before the guitar is released to show a couple of blistering solos. The track continues to build showcasing all the musicians, before finally easing down to a jazzy piano and guitar finish.
Sonically, this album is more diverse, and possibly more experimental than a normal neo-prog album, and as such requires possibly more intense listening than would normally be expected. This is not an album to go on as background music. Repeated listening definitely brings its rewards. Being so dense, it will take a few listens to pull out all the nuances of the instruments. The mix is very loud, and it does tend not to focus on a particular instrumentation. The bass is as clear as the guitars. It's an interesting album, and while not immediately accessible, is well worth persevering with.
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