BREGENT - POUR PARTIR AILLEURS

The Quebec duo of Dionne(drums) and Bregent(keyboards) released to very good albums in the mid seventies. In fact both will get a lot of consideration if I get a chance to do my "best of" Electronic list. But before those back to back releases in 1976 and 1977, Bregent had released an album in 1973 with his brother Jacques who actually wrote and produced the album I'm reviewing today. But back in 1973 their idea was to take the lyrics of some of their favourite poets and make an album out of it. We got the dramatic and sometimes spoken words of Jacques to the music that his brother created which was often electronic and orchestral.

So after the duo of Dionne-Bregent called it a day after their second album, the Bregent brothers reunite to make a followup album to their 1973 debut. The dates attached to these songs are from 1970 to 1977, but by far most are from 1972. We get some different lineups on these tracks. Like their debut the vocals dominate, and often in a theatrical manner, but there's spoken words as well. The focus, like on their debut, are the lyrics of poets.

The bombastic opener and the ballad-like tracks that follow are not my thing at all. There are a couple of tracks though that made an impression on me beginning with "Les Mouillures" for that haunting atmosphere, but my favourite is "L'intersection" for that zeuhl flavour out of nowhere. And how about the female vocals and that ripping guitar. The drumming and guitar are outstanding on here by the way, but this is a very inconsistent album in my opinion. And not close to the quality of the Dionne-Bregent records.

By the way Dionne is on that short ninth track which was nice to hear. The cover art is the best thing about this album, and I'll stick to my two Dionne-Bregent recordings. And lastly, not knowing French certainly doesn't help me here when the lyrics are so important and the focus.