ZEUHL

Now they clearly had a change of heart and released the much better "Kartehl" in 2022. "Zess" would have been a very disappointing way to end their careers. To quote Christian Vander "Zess is the story of the end of everything. The end of time and of everything that has ever existed. Absolute oblivion, like a dreamless night. It feels like nothing ever existed, nor will it ever exist again. All forms of consciousness have vanished." So yes this had the potential to be this dark and powerful apocalyptic recording with the focus on the instrumental. One hope right there.

Another hope was that "Zess" as a composition has been around since the 70's and for me that was hopeful. Yes it was never a completed piece, and created during the "Attahk" sessions. But played live often in it's various forms. So here Vander ties a bow on it and presents it to us in it's completed form. Starting in the spring of 1979 it became a staple of their live shows until they put it aside in 1983. They would return to it in 1992 but with an acoustic version, then again in 2005 with their 35th anniversary celebrations, and a full electric version at that time.

As far as the fears go, number one was reading that Christian was going to be the main singer and so brought in Morgan Agren to be the drummer here(there's drums on here?). Now I had no fear that Morgan was replacing Christian on the drums, my fear was that with Vander being the singer that he would dominate. And he does. This is "Merci" all over again where Vander decided to be the singer, giving up the drums, and the result was an album in 1984 that shouldn't even be part of their discography. "Merci" should have been part of Christian's side project OFFERING which I think he realised after the fact and why OFFERING was created 2 years after "Merci" was released. An outlet for those vocal dominated, soulish/jazzy tunes.

I also feared about the orchestra being involved. I do get it though because I do feel like "Zess"as a composition is lacking. An orchestra might cover this somewhat. It doesn't. It's one long 38 minute piece of music divided into seven parts. And this is vocal driven with sparse instrumentation save for the orchestra's involvement. I'm really disappointed with the music, but also I must admit that MAGMA has become somewhat of a comfort thing to me over the years. So just hearing this album all last week was nice, despite my fears being realized and my hopes crushed(haha).

The packaging could not be any better. A media book is like a mini book with lots of pictures and information. There's even some english for a change. I like how they show the instruments of all involved with their names attached to it. No pictures of the musicians or singers themselves. Kind of cool, even with the orchestra the picture is of all these chairs littered with violins etc. So the focus is on the instruments they play, not the person themselves. I like that.

This could have been something. Instead it's a vocal dominated record that sounds nothing like the end of the universe.

It's almost 66 minutes in length with eleven tracks. And it's funny seeing all of these french song titles until we get to the closer which is the longest piece at 10 1/2 minutes and it's called 'Bill". Avant jazz stands out here at times as they go deep into that rabbit hole. So melodic too though as they really mix things up here well. Adventerous music including dissonant horns and angular strings. I really like how the flute is used on this record. That opener "Du Jour" sort of encapsulates their mojo here with those opening wordless vocals and a melodic sound, and then the dissonant horns kick in.

My two favourites include "Masay Christo(Part II)" with that urgent sound that picks up speed. Catchy with lots of horns. It turns uplifting before 1 1/2 minutes then an experimental calm with no melody in sight before 2 minutes. It turns heavier and slower around 4 minutes in followed by some killer guitar. My other top two is the closer "Bill" which I've already mentioned. Jazzy with vocals all the way.

I'm not usually into big bands but this just doesn't come across as sounding like a big band to my ears at all. A very impressive release that avant fans should check out.

But now about the album, It is a nice album, nothing really important, but have really good moments, like Hymne Aux Enfants, but dont expect something like a powerfull or a dark zheul(this is a album for children, to make them happy, not to make them cry).

it is something interesting, if you have a lot of free time, give a chance.

As far as the band name goes i'm not sure if it refers to the Stravisnky composition "Scherzo," the term which means a short composition only with an extra "o" or the Italian word "scherzo" which means "joke" or jest." Maybe none of the above! While the zeuhl elements are distinctly present in this all instrumental procession of six tracks that almost hit the 57-minute mark which includes the sprawling 19-minute plus closer "Voyage Au Bout De La Nuit," the album often jumps into moments of Present-like avant-prog and also leaps into the world of jazz-fusion but more often than not all these elements which include some of those warm Canterbury tones conspire to make a knotty frat party of all of the above making SCHERZOO's approach sound fairly unique.

This debut finds mostly new material that Thollot composed for the band however the two tracks "Ceux D'en Face" and "Enilek" were rewritten and rerecorded after appearing on Thollot's debut release "Ceux D'En Face" which was released in 2002. This lineup features François Thollot (composer, drums), Guillaume Lagache (saxophone), François Mignot (guitar), Anthony Béard (bass guitar) and Jérémy Van Quackebeke (piano) all of whom effortlessly navigate the hairpin turns and knotty compositions crafted by Thollot that can evoke mellow Canterbury jazz motifs or suddenly jump into guitar heavy moments of classic King Crimson or Anekdoten only brought to order by the martial bass thumping that keeps a zeuhl underpinning. The music is generally dark and brooding much like early Univers Zero or Present.

The music on 01 is definitely a difficult music adventure where the band lulls you into a lengthy improv session of RIO, jazz fusion or zeuhl but can suddenly erupt into a totally different soundscape and then carry on for minutes at at time. Composed somewhat of a classical nature where cadences and motifs are constructed and then fortified with a series of variations with the scales and stylistic effect coming out of the RIO playbook. Zeuhl rhythms keep it all from spiraling out of control and the presence of the saxophone and moments of escapism into the world of jazz and fusion keep the darkness from totally taking over the soundscape. SCHERZOO found its own distinct style right off the bat however the two solo albums of Thollot proved to serve as the warming up sessions which led to this band. A pretty decent debut if you like the world of dark, complex and filled with avant-angularities.

This Tokyo based band appeared mysteriously and dropped a couple albums in the first decade of the 2000s and then quietly disappeared. AMYGDALA originally only consisted of the two members Yoshiyuki Nakajima (piano, organ, keyboards, bass guitar, vocals) and Yoshihiro Yamaji (guitar, vocals) who crafted an entire band sound on the eponymously titled debut album that came out in 2004. While drummer Daniel Jeand'heaur would join the team on the band's second album "Complex Combat" in 2008, on this debut all percussive sounds are synthesized on a drum machine but despite that so uncool notion existing the world of prog actually ended in satisfactory results although there are moments when it's more evident the presence of a real drummer would've proven more dynamic.

The very term AMYGDALA refers to the almond-shaped masses of gray matter that are part of the limbic system which is where the emotions of fear and aggression are generated in the brain and indeed the sounds of AMYGDALA may produce the results of fight or flight as it's dark, dense and chock filled with crazy time signature changes. The comparisons to Univers Zero, Present and Jacques Thollot are well founded however if any band from the French scene deserves the most credit in influencing AMYGDALA's sound it would have to be Shub-Niggurath especially the demo and debut "Les Morts Vont Vite." The darkened soundscapes throb with adrenalized creepy tones and timbres.

This is one of those heavy feisty electric guitar oriented avant-prog albums with incessant King Crimson inspired discordant riffing courtesy of Yoshihiro Yamaji accompanied by the oft outlandish keyboard virtuosity of Yoshiyuki Nakajima who alternates between piano, organ and a multitude of synthesized sounds that emulate the bassoon, harmonium, vibraphone, xylophone and mellotron sounds. He also plays the bass however that seems lost in the mix of this one due to the bad mixing and production job which along with the rather disappointing artificial drum performances is one of the weak points to this album.

Like Univers Zero's earliest offerings, this one evokes those jellyfish propulsion techniques with oscillating trilling sounds overlapping a pulsating flow of the musical procession that allows various sound effects to sputter in and out of the sequence. While i wouldn't call the zeuhl aspects the dominate feature here, the steady martial rhythms drive that the bass line generates is certainly in that camp. Nakajima is the sole composer of these primarily vocal-free instrumentals so there is a nice uniformity to the album's run although i would have to call AMYGDALA a clone band when all is said and done given that this could easily pass as some inferior Univers Zero album of the past that simply got scrapped and salvaged for parts.

Overall AMYGDALA's debut is a compelling listen if you dig those early sounds of UZ, Present, Shub-Niggurath then you will certainly find this appealing but the fact that these guys haven't really given it the Japanese touch that had become all the rage by the 2000s coupled with the many instruments that were simply manufactured on synthesizers keeps this from being a top tier zeuhl album despite the amazing compositional fortitude that went into its creation. A pleasant slice of zeuhlish avant-prog emerging from Japan but woefully missing any creative infusion that Japan always dishes out in abundance especially in the more demanding complex arenas of experimental rock from Europe. A good yet non-essential addition to any zeuhl addicts arsenal.