ALAIN MARKUSFELD

Starting on the lengthy title track, oscillating between a slight jazz-rock mixed with a psych groove that would not disown the Saucerful-era Floyd. A bit repetitive and instrumental, this is the centrepiece of the album and Thibalt's Rhodes contribution is remarkable. The follow-up is reminiscent of Melmoth's Devanture Des Ivresses while Jubal is a hard rock fuzzed-out guitar bravado piece with weird effect filters on Markusfeld's voice.

Flipping the album, after a rocky opening Durée N'Est Pas Le Temps, Theleme is an ethnic jazz-rock improv where the mix is questionable. The closing Eve is the other highlight of the album, with Dugreneau's interesting double bass dominating the first part, while for the second part, he uses his bow and drones over Markusfeld's tense and dense guitar

Markusfeld will then stop releasing albums until the late 70's, where he'll be exploring a full- blown jazz-rock, Desert Noir being a guitar only (and acoustic mainly) album. But in the meantime Markusfeld's first two albums are now quite rare, most likely fetching considerable price, but for this writer, you might as well not bother, as both are unfocused, patchy and not essential. Arguably Le Son is much better than Le Monde, but none will reward you enough for the cash you'd have spent for the vinyls.

Opening the vinyl's first side opens on the patchy Musique Fatidique Pour Nuages Fatigués (fateful music for tired clouds), with a discordant guitar strumming and then comes those rough and unrefined vocals, the whole thing on (sometimes) fuzzed-out guitar. The whole A-side is of the same mould until we reach the first half of La Terre Se Dévore (Eartgh devouring itself). Should you get a proof of how amateurish, they cut the track in two separating it with the album's flipping over, before taking where it left off. Nice experimentation, but not really successful, even if the first part of this song is the album's highlight, with its jazzy-Hendrix feel.

The flipside starts with what couldn't have fitted on its opposite face, but not really bringing much new. Têtes Molles (soft heads) is again rough and unfocused, but shows Markusfeld quite able on the jazzy piano while recitating his strange poem about Earth's split in its centre. The closing Actualités is a silly catastrophic news bulletin about Martian invasion over an early Floydian sound layer, abruptly changing two thirds of the way in.

Hardly essential for progheads (but interesting nonetheless), Markusfeld's debut album has never seen a Cd re-issue, so you'll have to hunt down the vinyl should you still want to listen to it. But for most of us, this is the type of album that will interest only the Markusfeld fans.

Markusfeld is now turning to a more gentle neo symphonic vein leaded by piano, which may remind of Cyrille Verdeaux solo works at times. Only the second piece "L'âme flottante" is quite accomplished and its sophistication and profusion of effects may evoke the ethereal and delicate Steve Tibbetts works, "YR" period. The long piece is unfortunatly not convincing and suffers from a cruel lack of inspiration and its repetitive characteristic.

There's still some excellent Markusfeld guitar throughout the album -as usual- but the composition's poorness and overall lack of intensity makes this album a minor record.

Starting bizarrely with an acoustic guitar where Markusfeld narrates more than sings until the chorus (which is the title of the album) arrives and brings the electric side of the whole group in. There you can hear the more psychedelic side of the music, a sound not too far from the 60's rock. It then continues in a more ethereal way with the male vocals accompanying the guitar that keeps on with its enchanting singing. There is also a piano to be heard way in the back, but it is hard to hear it and this is a downside to this album, the production which brings forth some aspects and neglects others.

The second song starts softly with a flute, but then come in the vocals which give the music a theatrical tone and there is more narration like talking by Markusfeld. The music shifts between the slightly weird theatrical approaches to the 60's psychedelic rock side. This narration style is actually a nice way of creating this special atmosphere in the album and making it more than just another psychedelic rock album (even though it is good in that way as well).

The third song has some funny lyrics but the music sounds like a Doors song at times. It's a nice tune and his vocals make it more special. It's a pity it ends abruptly.

The next two songs which are parts 1 and 2 of La Terre Se Devore, are your classic 60's psychedelic music with the guitar giving some nice solos and then giving a main music theme that the song will follow its lines. In part 2 you get to hear more the organ and there is the nice vocal line sung by the group.

The next one starts with a cool guitar sound that sounds like sea waves (closest thing I could think of). 1:30 after the song starts with the same sounds as before, the drums and guitars cease to let Alain sing alone and then join back in a slower pace, and we get to hear the bass clearly at last. This is a nice change from the otherwise similar sound in the entire album. Markusfeld sings melancholically about how he lost his planet and condemned to live in space, accompanied by the piano to enhance the feelings of loneliness.

In the last song, Markusfeld unleashes more of his vocal acting but with more power and energy this time. This song is weirder than the others as can be heard by the voices crying like ghosts in the middle of it or the organ playing as if the phantom of the opera just entered the studio.

The overall music is good and enjoyable, but nothing special that will make you regret not getting this long ago. As Oliver noted in his review the music does stray between psychedelic and pop music but the arrangements and the vocals included make it more special than it could have been otherwise. The music is good, but this is not something we haven't heard before or elsewhere. It does show more than just a good potential for the next releases. The music here would be great if played live.

Good, but non essential - 3 stars.

The almost 10mn instrumental eponym piece is a little spacerock gem. It begins very quietly with discrete and ethereal keyboards, when suddenly Markusfeld's guitar bursts like thunder. And then the piece slowly builds up very progressively in the way of Agitation free "2nd", with a psychedelic eastern-flavoured guitar sound, leading fascinating developments, helped by rhythmic accelerations. The piece ends on a repetitive melodic pattern, typical of Markusfeld's style.

The add of moog and VCS3 synthe on "La durée n'est pas le temps" adds some richness to the sound. The singing is more tranquil and less declamatory, theatrical than on the first album. "Theleme" is a luminous pastoral folk piece while "Eve" is a floating, ethereal piece with Wyatt-like singing while the second half is very experimental.

Although the album suffers from its shortness (27mn!), the music remains original and inspired, with all the early 70's freshness.

Alain Markusfeld's first album, released in 1970 was composed by Markusfeld himself who also plays guitar on "La terre se dévore! (partie 2)".

All pieces features Markusfeld french singing, in a rather spoken theatrical and declamatory style, which may remind of Ange. The lyrics, somehow science fiction inspired, feature a metaphysical, philosophical dimension with a good amount of delirious sick humour.

The music hesitates between several genres: pop, prog, psychedelic. Guitar style varies and may evoke Hendrix from time to time.

The first piece is a curious patchwork, beginning by a funny sung introduction with some chorus singing "le monde en étages" and then quickly moves to some killer prog, quite ahead of its time, featuring psychedelic guitar.

An odd and promising debut album.