AU-DELÀ DU DÉLIRE

I read somewhere that this album should be a kind of "medieval rock concept album" and this is also what the album cover suggests. Nevertheless the music of "Au-delà du délire" is very far from prog folk with medieval influences. Here the main influences seem to be Genesis and King Crimson blended with a slightly touch of "varieté française". Sometimes the music seems to be built up around the weird theatrical vocals of Christian Décamps and it's a pity that in the booklet you can't find the lyrics.

The first two tracks "Godevin le vilain" and "Les longues nuits d'Isaac" are quite good and have an interesting structure with aggressive drums and electric guitar alternating with more quiet acoustic moments. Lyrics here do not seem to tell a story but just to draw suggestive and oneiric images beyond the limits of delirium. "One by one the thoughts take off carried away by the rain".

In "Si j'étais le messie" the singing is almost recitative and reminds to Ange's version of Jacques Brel's "Ces-gens là" appeared on "Le cimitière des arlequins". "If I was the messiah I would tell everything that comes up in my mind / Everywhere, in every way / And people would believe me / They haven't got anything else to do. If I was the messiah I would become a thief / I would steal from everyone, in every way / And people would say nothing / Because they haven't got anything else to do. Once upon a time there was a messiah / He came from another galaxy / People killed him / They believed they were right.". Quite interesting lyrics: satiric and cynical, almost wicked in their criticism against religious accepted customs.

"Ballade pour une orgie" is a kind of irreverent attack against power, in which vocals, upon a delicate acoustic guitar arpeggio, draw a picture of the joyful anarchy that rules in a castle after the death of the king. "Come people, let's drink, let's sing, the king died this morning".

"Exode" and "La bataille du sucre" are hermetic and weird but the music is never boring with symphonic moments and changes of rhythm while the delirious lyrics seem to describe strange efforts "to catch up the time" or "people licking sweet children's tears because of lack of sugar".

"Burn my body with your eternity... Son of light"... "Fils de lumière" is a kind of anthem of the band and one of their best known songs, with a good keyboards and drums work. It melts in the frenzy title track, a complex long song with a not completely convincing first part and a great instrumental finale.

Although "Au-delà du délire" is "a little bit foggy" as a concept, in the whole I think that this album could be an excellent addition to any prog collection.