THORK

While French prog has garnered a somewhat deserved reputation for theatricality via melodramatic vocals, the adjective that comes to mind when listening to this third release of THORK is brooding. The pieces are mostly over 7 minutes long and slow to mid paced, with an emphasis on the mood conjured by succinct, rarely soloing but frequently reverberated guitars, blended vocals, atmospheric or hypnotic keyboards, creative percussion and occasional strings and winds. Most of these diverse sounds are from the hand and mouth of leader Sébastien Fillion, but he has the audacity to pull it off without sounding like a solo project, perhaps due to the evolving history of the band.

While billed as and influenced by progressive folk, THORK proposes a plodding and heavily symphonic sound with robust folk roots that vacillate between Celtic and Middle Eastern in flavor. Given the track durations, I find the pace lumbers along a bit too much for the step dancing blood that apparently courses in my veins, but the sound itself is exemplary, and my personal favourites are the paradoxically folkier and harder edged "Ici" and the genre busting "Au Ciel" with its swirling dervish joie de vivre. Recommended particularly to those who revel in the alchemies of prog rock. 3.5 stars rounded up for originality.

An album from the French mood-masters who created the band NIL, the leadership of the brothers MAURIN (one of which has by this album left the project) have given way to that of Sebastien FILLION (with the help of brother/cellist Arnaud) to produce this enigmatic collection of hard-to-describe songs. The music is modern, perhaps "ahead of its time" in its odd, sometimes ethereal, sometimes jazzy sounds and passages. It can thus be said with some confidence that this is truly progressive rock music as its songs take the listener to places and in directions that you have likely never travelled before. While listening through this album I find myself reminded at times of DEAD CAN DANCE, FIELDS OF THE NEPHILIM, AKT, STING, LUNATIC SOUL, STEVE JANSEN and, of course, NIL.

Favorite songs: 1. "Ex-Slaves" (12:51) (10/10); 3. "La lumière" (9:12) (10/10); 5. "Danse des airs" (6:25) (9/10); 7. "Revoir" (7:55) (9/10); 9. "Ces rêves-là" (4:24) (8/10); 8. "01" (8:15) (8/10), and; 6. "Au ciel" (7:12) (8/10).

4.5 stars. A refreshingly original musical journey.

Nil's Maurin brothers' side project (or was Nil their side project?) come together with a large ensemble of collaborators to create some of the most difficult to describe music in the entire prog lexicon with this, their second album.

1. "L'origine" (11:40) sounding very much like a NIL song, this one opens up heavily before settling into a calm weave over which Sébastien Penel sings. The folk-ish instruments are interspersed within the heavy, almost metal musical soundscape--which only ramps up with a chorus. So many instruments! And only the cymbals and repetitive bass line to keep everything moving at a regulated pace. Big pause at 4:50 in which Sébastien moves into an operatic tenor for a powerful, theatric declaration. Lead guitar and cello bring us out of the stark stagecraft, helping to initiate a return to progginess--though it's still quite theatric in a kind of 1980s hair band (or NINE STONES CLOSE) kind of way. At 7:45 fast piano arpeggi rise out from the background to usher in a more tense passage of MYSTERY-like music. Switch to cello and jazzy support at 9:30 as Séb continues his Marc Atkinson-like performance. Excellent song--full of proggy unpredictability. (18.5/20) 2. "Délectable ennui" (9:07) again, the bass, guitar, mood, and rhythms of this sons feel quite like those of NIL sauf the at-times-dominating presence of Sébastien Fillion's keyboards and many incidental instruments representing many cultures of the World Music scene. Great guitar solo in the speeded up eighth minute which is then followed by a slowed down section in which droning cello is overwhelmed by kicking and screaming violin. (17.75/20)

3. "Errance" (1:07) like a little operatic interlude with Sébastien Penel singing in a That Joe Payne kind of way over some dissonant electric guitar picking. (4.25/5)

4. "Ea" (21:18) a very dark, plodding song with lots of avant garde and classical leanings. Seebastien Penel's theatric performance is quite dominating and diabolical. The music is quite intricate, spacious, and, again, avant classical in its derivations but turns toward a more funky Zeuhlish jazz-rock in the seventh minute as choral vocals pepper the background over the angular music. In the ninth minute Samuel's ChapmanStick and Michel Lebeau's bass drum mirror each other with a syncopated staccato pattern over which synths and Sébastien (and a little vocalise of Roselyne Berthet) Penel populate. The screaming guitar soloing in the 13th and 14th minutes are quite Fripp-like but then are then followed by some gorgeously pacifying violin play. This beautiful passage is then ended in the 17th minute with a propulsion into some high octane playing which is then culminated with Sébastien's reaching voice and every body playing very loudly. This then slowly decays into a beautiful almost waltz-like spacious strings-dominated section until we are left with a simple weave of bass notes and guitar arpeggi. What a ride! I'll have to listen to this another half dozen times in order to make sense of it all. (36/40)

5. "Errances" (1:04) another interlude of dissonant notes and chords, this time coming from effected electric guitar and synth strings and synth voices. (4.25/5)

6. "Danse de la terre" (10:48) deep bass thrum with synth percussion and synth cello with Aftrican hand instruments rising from beneath. Beautiful violin play within the African mood music gives this a kind of Cirque du Soleil kind of feel--until the two-minute mark when tuned percussion arpeggi pave the way for more NIL-like music with rockin' lead guitar playing over the top. Nice music. Nice soloing with some Steve Hackett-like moments. At the end of the fourth minute we shift into a faster gear while Sébastien Fillion displays his synth soloing skills. But the we are quickly broght back to a slow crawl while slow guitar arpeggi, mulitple vocalise tracks from Roselyne Berthet and rolling bass and swing drums carry us into a forest of faery magic. in the eighth minute we are brought to a complete standstill as an ominous synth chord conjures up the feeling of the presence of some mysterious shadow beast. We turn to run away with a furious display of jazz-rock fusion which somehow turns into Genesis instrumentalism at its finest. Wow! Another incredible journey! (19/20)

7. "Immanence" (11:26) opens with Asiatic stringed instrument and hand shakers before talking drum and sitar take over. All of the aforementioned World instruments congeal with a tabla as fretless bass and flute join in. Tribal chant voices seem to come out of some stringed instrument for a bit before the drums rhythm switches while cello and Tony Levin-like ChapmanStick display take the front. Impressive! In the fifth minute, strings synth and other keyboard sounds enter and take over, making the song turn a corner into an exposition of full on Arabian prog rock. Then, in the sixth minute, a lone Magma-like Fender Rhodes takes over while Sébastien Penel's effected voice sings plaintively over the top. Séb's plea made, we drop into a dreamy keyboard electronica soundscape in which Fender Rhodes and flute gently massage our ears and minds. At the end of the tenth minute we revert into an African-like tribal motif with tribal choral vocals before the fretless and Fender let Séb take us back into his pleading keening world. Hauntingly distorted solo electric guitar is echoed in a cave-like vacuum before drums and band rejoin to take us into the wild finale. Such is the unpredicatbility of life in the "Third World." So powerful! (19.5/20)

Total Time 66:30

Because of my previous exposure to the more atmospheric (and, at times, pretty) follow up to this album--2006's The music of We ila is far heavier, far darker and more avant garde than I was expecting.

A five star exposition of eclectic boundary-pushing heavy avant prog that every professed prog lover should give a listen to.

Thork's Weila is a dark collection of compositions with a tone reminiscent of a folkier version of mid-1970s King Crimson. Imagine a mashup between the pastoral folkiness and range of different instruments characteristic of Anglagard (drawing more from their dark moments) and the intensity and nods to King Crimson demonstrated by Anekdoten, and add perhaps a pinch of Magma's percussive, rhythmic compositional approach and that should give you an idea of the sort of sonic universe Thork are operating in (namely, a bloody weird one). This is one to lend repeated listens to, because with everything that's going on here it would be difficult to catch what Thork are doing purely on the basis of a single listen.

French dark Prog group, found in 1998 in Annecy by a five-core line up: Multi-instrumentalist Sébastien Fillion, violin player Claire Northey, drummer Michel LeBeau, Nil's bassist Samuel Maurin and guitarist/singer Antoine Auresche.The first couple of years the group performed many concerts and focused on writing material for their upcoming debut ''Urdoxa''.The album was released as a private CD in 2000 (Nil Records).

''Urdoxa'' offered a very unique proposal by Thork, being a mix of modern Psychedelic Rock with Progressive Rock and Folk.The musicianship is very interesting and at moments impressive, but lacks a bit in consistency and the whole atmosphere is often too chaotic.Not because of the arrangements (which are fairly complicated) but mainly because of the endlessly changing moods.The combination of folky instrumentals, led by vocal narrations, driving violins, synths and calm guitars, with the bombastic guitar-driven breaks and grooves seems charming and attractive, but at the same time it is the reason why the album is a hard listening.Four out of the eight compositions are over the 10-min. mark and contain good ideas.From the hard-sounding guitars to the soft psychedelic vibes and from the lovely violin workouts to the organ/synth- based passages, Thork achieved to come up with some really intricate material.Even some parts led by grandiose synths have sort of a very dark, Gothic atmosphere.The vocals of Auresche though are very cold and unexpressive for most of the time and combined with the lack of decent melodies make ''Urdoxa'' an album full of captivating but also a bit unemotional passages.

What really surprises me is that these combined music elements could definitely end up creating a total winner.''Urdoxa'' fails to be labeled as such an album, but the personal approach of the band make this one an interesting release, or even essential for fans of deeply atmospheric Progressive Rock.Recommended overall.

The true experience of being thrown around in a sonic washing machine

I´ve been getting into the French prog scene of late. Always been into Magma and their cohorts, as well as a lot of the symphonic and avant garde music to come out of the country during the 70s and 80s. The scene was very broad and eclectic, and what I indeed thought was a thing of the past, has thoroughly been refuted the past half year. I came across the band Nil and the album Nil Novo sub Sole. This record smashed open the doors to modern French music for me. I got extremely intrigued, and fantasized about other albums exploring more of these, up till then, unexplored sonic venues to me.

Thork is actually a sister band to Nil. The Maurin brothers, David and Samuel, feature on both - with Samuel credited as a writer. The similarities are obvious between the bands, though the female vocals of Nil Novo, here are replaced with a male front singer, that gives you that distinguish French spice. Reminds me a bit of the guy in Ange, but more mellow and somber.

The music contained herein is moody, complex, relaxing and at times grandiose like a rhino dressed in black. You´ll find everything spanning from symphonic textures, zeuhl, metal, jazz fusion - to small snippets of folk. I guess the folk tag was given to these guys due to the other albums in their discography, because this album is frolicking in a wonderful orgy of all the mentioned genres above, and feels eclectic above anything else. It´s a natural symbiosis, that either through the use of melodic stick playing, grooving thundering zeuhl like bass lines - or that of the ethereal and anxious keys, binds this music together. On top of this, you have choirs popping up in a very dramatic way, and makes your mind wander to Gothic churches, vampires and back to a time where you´d go down to the bar and order absinthe with a tiny touch of ox blood, and people around you´d say: I´ll have what he´s having!

To counterpoint my own words, I guess you can find folk traces here as well. The usage of the violin on some tracks slightly mimics European traditional music, with a rather staccato and skewed sound, whilst still remaining those acoustic characteristics. There´s a load of other instruments involved in this recording like dununs, djembé, guira, cloches, sitar, tabla and the cello, where most of these are on full display during the last track, which incidentally also is my fave. The Thork experience is more subdued here, throwing itself into Indian flavored rhythmic excursions with a tiny dose of electronics, and some wonderful bass work played on stick. It suddenly explodes into the characteristic Maurin sound, you certainly also will pick up in Nil and throughout this album, - and how exactly does one explain that? -Just to elaborate on the washing machine metaphor, which incidentally still remains apt. Picture this ferocious amalgamation of sound being hurled head first into a diamond shaped contour - with the music bouncing off all the different surfaces - only to be flung in a slightly off course direction. It never gets truly circular, but rather tumbles around in this jewel, whether it´s giving off soft and subtle sounds or breaching out in beautiful hellish structures. Music from within a diamond - yeah that sounds about right...

The only thing I feel letting this album a bit down is perhaps the absence of drummer extraordinairre Frank Niebel, which isn´t to say that Michel Lebeau is poor - only that Niebel in his jazzy outbreaks and off beat rhythms, had an original way of transforming and elevating all of the sounds around him into an altogether different kind of beast - one you couldn´t quite describe. I feel Lebeau tries duplicating that vibe, and he does so very well, but I just feel like something is missing. -And maybe this is the thing that, alongside Sébastien Penel´s vocals, separate Thork from Nil. This is of course just a preference from my side, but if you like Nil - you´ll certainly want to jump on board this black French steamboat.

This album is recommended to everyone with a taste for experimental music, that is propulsive like zeuhl, grandiose like a weeping symphony or beautiful like a ray of light shot through the center of our most precious diamonds.

An astounding, amazing release from this French outfit. A big, positive musical surprise of the kind that really deserves recognition.

It's probably not a good release for a novice listener though. There's just so much happening here. The pace is mostly on the slower side, but everchanging and ever evolving compositions will make it a taxing experience for many; and French lyrics may alienate a few as well.

But the delightful sonic landscapes here, careful piano melodies, sometimes soaring and sometimes floating synths in the back, acoustic guitar patterns - all mixed in a package where elements are added and subtracted; themes explored in many variations. Always with a melancholic feel, always with a distinct focus on the atmospheric environment even in the most complex multilayered segments. To add folk music influences is just as natural and belonging as the psychedelic touches; jazz-tinged bass lines fits like a glove too; soaring violin soloing, fragile flute themes and soul-tinged horns all seems like natural additions as well.

Highly recommended release this one; in particular for those enjoying complex, melodic rock with symphonic, folk and jazz touches in a mostly mellow setting.

Thork have gone through some personnel changes - that's the starting point to comprehend the musical decisions and changes there are on Thork's new album Nula Jedan.

At the time of Urdoxa, Thork was a clear five piece band, young and ambitious. While their music was already stunning in their debut, there still was some defects in there: The band was young, unexperienced, they were short on singer and good production. These all were corrected on their second album We-ila that was a pure perfection in every point: They now had a brilliant lead singer Sébastien Penel, they had more experience not only for themselves, but in complementary personnel too - that was David Maurin, a stunning guitar player, plus a pile of brilliant guest stars like Roselyne Berthet, Renaud Burdin, Sébastien Lacroix, Stéphane Lagarde and Ian-Elfinn Rosiu. So they were on the top in every way... and things tend to change in situations like that.

At first, after Urdoxa, Antoine Aureche, one of the founding members of Thork, left the band and later went to form TAT. He played guitars and did the vocals on Thork's debut Urdoxa and he then resigned the band. On We-ila he was still in, but in a visiting role of playing acoustic guitar, and even if the acoustic guitar playing is excellent on Nula Jedan, Antoine still took a part of Thork with him, a part of the dark, anxious atmosphere.

The second to leave was David Maurin, Samuel Maurin and Roselyne Berthet! Well, Roselyne was only a quest on We-ila, but her absence is still remarkable :) But the most remarkable thing is the absence of Maurin Brothers: No more twisted, utterly complex songs, no more absolutely stunning stick and bass, nor brilliant picking of guitar or their fantastic interplay and heavy bursts! These three excellences brought a huge piece of NIL among, that's no more on Thork. And then went Lebeau. Even if he was replaced by an excellent drummer Philippe Maullet from Syrinx, still he is a 'quest' and Lebeau wasn't.

And then they kind of went everyone, even Penel! Excluding Sébastien Fillion, who now is Thork, in a way, and I don't know the reasons. Thork has turned to his personal project, he states and Sébastien Fillion is alone responsible of the songwriting, composing, vocals, guitars, bass, synths & keyboards, percussion,... Almost everything and the other musicians are only some kind of quests from the past... like Claire Northey on violin, the only remaining member from previous Thork besides Fillion himself... and from the present.

A sad story, isn't it?

Oh, it is. When playing We-ila and thinking 'that was it, this band is no more', it's really sad. But let's not hurry, there's the Nula Jedan still to be played! Onto that then...

Nula Jedan has a very concrete meaning: it means "Zero One" in Bosnian, and it's the core concept for this album. The album's thread is a man-machine duality, presented under various shapes : in war time, trouble, souvenir, distance, etc. The man apart from his soul becomes a machine, and conversely the complex machine manages to judge, dream and imitate the man, reproducing or drawing lessons from his mistakes. « Zero One » is an allusion to the binary code present in the heart of modern technologies nowadays. [Sébastien Fillion on Progscape]

1. Ex-Slave. This song makes me suspicious about all the things I just wrote, because there is a lots of old Thork in it! This song is dark and deep and it has got the atmosphere of Thork, only less heavy. The composition is long with ups and downs, fasts and slows, and there's a theme it follows, gets sidetracked, comes back... so there's at least some of the complexity too. The drum work is just stunning (well what did you expect? It's Philippe Maullet, no less) and the sounds are chrystal clear a very deep bodied and great harmonies are presented all the way with different instruments, acoustic guitar, drums and violin being on the top!. The duo vocals of Violette Corroyer and Fillion just do work, like all the vocals in this song! So, this is a stunning song, why to look back?

2. Ici is then a beautiful and joyful curiosity where a sampled vocal melody is used to let the music blow. There goes a slow part ending into vocals and blow... Some synths are being used almost in some disco style and the song is somewhat repetitive... right! Far from the Thork style we used to know. But hey, it's brilliant anyhow!

3. La Lumiere starts slowly and it remains as a restrained ballad for several minutes till it reaches the full bodied balance. Again, one of the pearls of this album, but different to old...

4. J'aurais pu is the song that gives your spine some massive chills! It's pure beauty of slow sampled vocals and percussion - maximal expression and feeling with a minimal playing. This song grants the final confidence of new Thork, what it is and what is the style of Thork! Thork has turned to reaching the maximum beauty, thus there is a crucial difference to the old Thork.

Maybe it's time to draw a conclusion - It's pointless to tell something about every song. I miss the old Thork, I miss the brilliant vocals, I miss the dark heavy play,... I miss many things about it, things that Sebastien Fillion isn't capable of alone. Like vocals that is performed here greatly and really beautifully, just that the loud passionate highlights are missing... But let's face the reality! Thork is now beautiful, elaborate and kind of minimalistic expression progressive rock performed with a very high standards - Nula Jedan is astonishing work, a truly original album straight into the top of this sub genre... sub genre? Dark Progressive Folk? Maybe Thork plays now rather in the sub genre of Elaborate Progressive Fillion. Anyhow, a very beautiful work indeed!

Thork is a band without biography, so it's quite difficult to gather some information about it, and more, a true information about it especially if you don't understand French. Anyhow, some hints can be found from here and there: Thork was founded at 1998 by Sébastien Fillion and Antoine Aureche and later Michel Lebeau, Samuel Maurin and Claire Northey joined the band. By the time the band was very young and the players were just a teenagers, except Samuel Maurin who was a bit older.

According to them, they played dark progressive folk and that it is, for their original sound is bottomless dark, truly progressive and deeply complex with folk influences appearing for example in Claire Northey's violin playing. The darkness Thork achieves to insert into their music is so thick it propably could be cut with a knife. Most of the ideas and influences comes from celtic and medieval music and issues, yet also metal, classical and even jazz influences can be found in there, but their sound is still extremely original without a slighest idea of similar band.

Their second album We-ila is an utter masterpiece! Put the record into your player, set volume level a bit higher than normally and push play... The first thought is 'Ouch, Now we go...' and within few seconds you realise that you are listening at something great. Within few minutes you Know you are listening to something Great!

The album starter L'Origine is a real mind blower, it starts with a really tight drums and heavy guitar. Soon one of the finest singer ever walked on earth joins in and the song is pure feast, balancing somewhere between heavy progressive metal and dark, frightening folk, a Thork's own playground. They compose a brilliant mix of violin driven headbanging with a very emotional vocals. Later it calms down and turns to dark beauty leaving most of the metal behind.

What we are talking about here is really dark and beautiful prog with a nice multilayered complexity, very professional playing and lots of instruments. At times the music varies from violin oriented dark folk, from mind blowing heavy metal bursts into beautiful vocal melodies. There is no room for improvement - everything is just perfect!

The second track Delectable Ennui is one of those rarities that makes you cry inside that 'how can anything be so f...g Great! and nutshells the brilliant idea of Thork's music very nicely. It's a slow tempo darkness, stunning vocals and choirs, that goes on and on and one can only wonder how can they put so many feelings in so less notes. Then comes a short interlude Errance and massive Ea marches in. It makes you piss into your pants in fear and cry for the beauty of music!

The feeling througout the record is like you were in some fantasy novel's caves or castles following some dark rituals in trance. Not in vain of Carmina Burana but something totally different, scary and beautiful.

After a short interlude the feast continues. Dance de la Terre joins in being the most rhytmically complex, most NIL-like piece here. Even vocals are performed by Roselyne Berthet. It makes you shiver. The last track is no exception, being just as great as everything on this disc.

No weak moments, total brilliance from the very first sound into the last one. This is certainly one of the best prog records ever made - it brilliantly combines quite a lot of the aspects I seek from progressive rock and music overall. At first, it's really complex using many levels of simultaneous themes, odd time signatures, changes, long and complex compositions... Then is the mind blowing power, metal is used very carefully and sophisticatedly. The vocal parts are of top quality also, not only the lead vocals but choirs, samples, spoken words, everything. And then there's the instrumental quality, how all those are playing together, how the ideas are rich for example using the violin and how they never fall into for example individual soloing. This album cannot be recommended highly enough. Just buy it!

Let the nostalgia begin ;) I mean in each review I'm telling a story of my introduction into certain band's music, and this is no exception. I was involved into THORK through ''We Ila'' last spring, and it was one of the most amazing albums from Modern Prog I ever heard! Dark, epic, heavy, mystic, complex but melodic - even French singing didn't put me off as usual! :) This year I caught an opportunity to review fresh THORK album entitled ''Nula Jedan''. And on my first listening I was disappointed.

Gone were all the receipts of ''We Ila''. No darkness, no heaviness, no complexity (though melodies were even more catchier). Is this really that THORK from France I use to know? But then I just remembered the old truth that what is too conservative may be regarded as STAGNANT, so I gave it another spin. And then another one. And one more!

OK, fans of previous DARK works - beware. ''Nula Jedan'' is soft, light, balanced and even catchy. It's just DIFFERENT. There's no need in comparison or seeking for related hooks. New THORK is more meditative and accessible, but I wouldn't say less INTERESTING or PROGRESSIVE. It's just like when you put PORCUPINE TREE after DREAM THEATER, that's it - the same high level but different musical thinking. The only thing left untouched is ATTITUDE - ''Nula Jedan'' is the same way professionally created, played and recorded. Recommended, but don't be fast with conclusions - listen to it attentively and don't compare to anything. Wonderful Modern Prog!