LE PASSAGE

This is a feast for the Art Zoyd fan. It has all the elements that Thierry brought to Art Zoyd during his time there, his characteristic bass and cello parts, his tormented, almost growling voice, the more chamber prog and the more electronic sound oriented elements of Art Zoyd's earlier and later incarnations. Actually some track titles say this already, for example we have "Twisted Zoydian Song". Melody and experimentation are well balanced with varied compositions full of surprises, as are rhythm oriented and more free form parts, darkness and brighter parts; overall the albums comes across as very colorful even though Zoydian darkness is never far. It still feels consistent. There are lots of Zoydian elements of course, and the occasional citation, still the album stands well on its own; particularly electronic rhythms and some melodic elements are used in a lighter, more positive and accessible way than AZ would have done it. The different tracks are not integrated in a concept and live well on their own. The guest trumpet by Jean Pierre Soarez is very welcome, and Thierry, who plays everything else, throws in some very nice piano parts in places.

As I'm obviously an Art Zoyd fan, I just love this. I like AZ also after Thierry left, but they went into a more avantgarde electronic direction away from RIO-type prog, whereas this album is properly rooted in RIO/avant-prog, not standing still though and going beyond just reproducing the old AZ approach, also somewhat more friendly and transparent than some music from this genre. It's January 2025 and this is my PA album of 2024 (I may not yet have heard everything that could compete). The only criticism I have is that a drummer could have improved some of the electronic drum parts (AZ usually did rhythms that somewhat less called for a real drummer).