EROS

However, this album is by no means beautiful, in the Western sense. Dün was a short lived but rather important Zeuhl band from the late 70s and early 80s, releasing only one album then dissolving sadly into oblivion. The album, Eros, named after the Greek god of beauty, may be one of the most breathtaking displays of avant jazz fusion I've ever seen. Possessing a masterful skin of dissonance and melodic grace, the album fuses the spectacular peculiarity Magma championed and fused it with the effortless beauty of classic and orchestral jazz for one of the most innovative and incredible listening experiences of my recent musical endeavors. The sex(sometimes sept)tet crafts a rhythmically and melodically beautiful album, composing harmonies and themes set beyond the stars and meant for truly celestial listeners. However avant or peculiar these stings of notes may be, they form into a purely genius display of music.

The album was originally four tracks, each around 10 minutes, but the 2000 revealed four bonus tracks, three of which are alternate takes of the tracks and one an unreleased track. I really can't express my love of this album. From the haunting beauty of L'Epice to the sweeping grandeur of Arrakis to the incredible mastery of Bitonio to the everlasting joy of Eros, the entire album is overall a blast. All throughout the tracks the numerous instruments used to craft the music meld into a spectacular array of pure bliss ? from flute melodies complimenting piano chords to bass lines contrasting glockenspiel runs, the whole atmosphere conjured by these superb musicians is truly sublime. Even the little things, from the backing percussion lines to the often very minor keyboard runs, make this album truly special; adding just that little extra spice is all that's needed to make this a true masterpiece.

As in many Zeuhl records, the bass and drums are very much an important aspect of this record. And incredibly so. Some of the bass lines are some of my favorite in all of music, and much of the percussion seen on the album is very innovative and superbly rhythmic. The density of the output of even just these two (three, including the percussionist) musicians is more than most band's exert in their entire discography. This is just one of the reasons why I absolutely love this album.

Most notably Bitonio (I'll get to that), this album is full of some emotional stuff, full of the blood, sweat and tears put into composing the mastery that is output from your speakers as this album rotates. This music is no one-night composition. This has obviously taken fine tuning and picking through every note and making it perfection. This album certainly delivers. However, this is not to be taken lightly. This music is no doubt avant-garde, full of dissonant passages and runs of highly "out there" themes. But with this avant-garde nature comes a certain degree of beauty in the "odd" feel of the music. In the end, the pure joy exerted from this record is supreme, and it certainly doesn't stop me from loving it every second of the way.

I'd now like to talk solely about Bitonio, which is by far my favorite song on the album. Possessing a jazzy and almost metallic fire about it, the song has some of the most incredible moments on the entire album. Listeners may know what I'm talking about. The distorted bass "solo" may be one of my favorite moments in all of music. The entire atmosphere of the track is spectacular, fusing wonderfully jazzy chord progressions with spectacular improvised solos and wonderful thematic elements. Overall, the track is purely sublime, and reaches the echelons of perfection.

This album, in short is perfection. Every juicy track is full of purely sublime music, feeding the senses with their incredible skill and compositional jewels that scatter the album. Whether it's the spectacular jazz fusion that caresses the album or the avant-garde quality of the music, the entire album has a truly incredible feel to it and is not to be missing in any progressive rock fan's collection. This truly is a perfect album. 5+ stars.

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