HELDON II - ALLEZ TEIA

For Heldon's second offering, Richard Pinhas had the benefit of a close partnership shared with guitarist George Grunblatt, who also collaborated on mellotron and some additional synthesizer. Alain Renaud and Alain Bellaiche also make some guest appearances on acoustic guitar and bass, respectively. All in all, an innovative facet in this Heldon album is the featured acoustic guitar: a couple of acoustic guitar duets were written by Grunblatt, which is kind of an odd thing in the repertoire of a project focused on electronic experimentation and electric guitar soundscapes a-la Fripp. In fact, most of the tracks are pretty much patterned in the mold of Fripp-Eno's "No Pussyfooting", and even the opening track has the title 'In the Wake of the King Fripp' - it almost seems like Pinhas wanted to make 110 % sure that the audience were aware of his major influence, so he even included a specific name in a track title. Evidently, the Fripp- Eno influence is there, but generally speaking, Pinhas manages to keep things from sticking onto a cloning level: he sees himself as a hair of a particular artistic wave and wants to develop it on his own for this Heldon project. Some of the VCS 3 layers feel closer to minimalistic avant-garde (Cage) and electronic krautrock (early TD, Cluster, Klaus Schulze) than Fripp himself. And there are those acoustic numbers that introduce a totally different sonic pallet into the album's canvas: they are bucolic, well rooted in a most conventional sense of melody and harmony. 'Aphanisis' is my fave one - I seem to notice some hints to good old Baroque in it. Even the electronic numbers contain some passages intended to be ethereal more than disturbing; there we have those soaring mellotron layers, which add a cosmic ambience as a proper counterpoint to the inherently oppressive nature of the synth and guitar soundscapes. There is also room for some guitar riffs and chord progressions that add an air of reflectiveness among all the disturbing mood that remains predominant (as in every Heldon album, indeed). 'Omar Diop Blondin' and 'Fluence' are, in my humble opinion, the most emblematic and most accomplished numbers of the album. As a whole, the album lacks some cohesiveness, and some passages may feel outdated, but all in all, is a very good sample of Heldon's artistic boldness, and more specifically, Richard Pinhas' experimental vision. An extra 1/2 star for my rating.

Also rounded up to the upper star.

Heldon's second album is much in the line of their debut but takes things a little further. Pinhas starts off with a delicious track called In The Wake Of King Fripp and with his fully distorted guitar and delicate melltron layers, we are transported directly to prog heaven. Comes next an acoustic guitar piece a bit out of context. Omar is yet another highlight but to reach the climates of the first track , one has to wait for Disjunction Inclusive which is the second part of track 5.

At this point , I would like to point out that there are many mistakes on Spalax Record label releases especially on the track listings and this album is a prime example. Our site links the two parts of Fluence to make one (giving 7 tracks total), the CD copy I have at disposal gives two separate tracks (making 8 tracks total) and the booklet counts Fluence as a separate tracks allowing for the two parts to stand separately (this makes 9 tracks in the booklet). I surely will not slam Spalax (an artist-friendly label), but this is hardly the first troublesome info given.

Outside of that problem , the records ends strangely after another cool track St Michael with Ettori. Recommended if you have started investigating Heldon with another album (ideally Interface) and enjoyed it but best not starting with this one.

Mostly hypnotic electronic motifs & rhythms combined to Pinhas' Robert Fripp guitar imitation. This is not a classic but an important contribution in French electronic rock explorations. Consequently this is in the direct line of "Electronic Guerilla" but much more achieved with a few original attempts. "Allez Teia" is certainly the most recommended effort for those who enjoy Richard Pinhas' guitar style. Most of compositions feature nice extended, repetitive & moving musical pictures. Not so far from Eno/Fripp collaboration but more aggressive with a great intensity and a rather "stoned" atmosphere. "In the wake of king Fripp" is a fine variation of Pinhas' solo guitar work accompanied by atmospheric Mellotron textures and guitar arpeggios. Some tracks as "Moebius" features some allusions to the French RIO avant prog scene in its freaky, inventive proportion. "Aphanisis" is a surprising guitar composition in a relative acoustic, classical style. It shows us a new and great side of Pinhas' possibilities. An honest, convinced release one year before their seminal "Agneta Nilsson".

4.5 stars. HELDON's debut was pretty much Richard Pinhas doing it all except for the one track he got lots of help on. On this his second album he partners with Georges Grunblatt. There's a nice picture of the two in the liner notes. Speaking of liner notes Richard thanks his idol Robert Fripp, Patrick Gauthier, Jimi Hendrix and Eno along with some others. I like what ClickForth says about this album on the RYM site. He describes it as "Hazy soundscapes that take you somewhere on a summer afternoon, required listening". I couldn't agree more especially since I was listening to this early today as I drove on a beautiful summers day through the country side. It doesn't get much better.

"In The Wake Of King Fripp" is such a great title. Gentle guitar to open as mellotron washes in and continues. Such a beautiful sound. Angular guitar comes in after 4 minutes. Just gorgeous. "Aphanisis" features some nice dual acoustic guitar melodies throughout. "Omar Diop Blondin" is dedicated to both Fripp and Eno. The guitar is darker sounding as synths join in. Angular guitar before 1 1/2 minutes. It stops 2 minutes later as we start to get these guitar soundscapaes the rest of the way.

"Moebius" is a TANGERINE DREAM like tune, very electronic sounding. Great song. "Fluence" builds as the sounds seem to hover. It's like the sounds keep coming closer then they drift back. About half way through the sounds are floating like they're suspended in mid air. The synths get louder 10 minutes in. "St.Mikael Samstag Am Bends" again feature electronics that float and hum. The guitar comes in after 2 minutes. Mellotron a minute later. Angular guitar before 5 1/2 minutes. "Michel Ettori" features dual acoustic guitars like the second track.

"Interface" , "Stand By" and this second album are my three favourite HELDON albums.

To make things clear even for a novice, the opening song is called "In the wake of King Fripp". I guess that it is useless to tell you that it is a great tribute to KC. Not the pummel one, but the melodic one (the one I prefer): great mellotron parts and hypnotic guitar all the way through. A great start indeed.

The short "Aphanisis" sounds like a delicate Hackett piece: a sweet and acoustic guitar work which has to be received as an interlude, a short breathe of air.

"Allez Teai" is more an effort of a band than the first release "Électronique Guérilla": the man in charge (Richard Pinhas) is surrounded by other musicians who are integrating some good elements to the whole. Now, a piece as "Omar Diop Blondin" leans more towards eclectic prog than to prog electronic (and the feeling prevails for each of the three initial pieces).

The spacey feeling starts with the short "Fluence" which is followed by "Continuum Mobile Disjonction Inclusive". Two distinctive tracks united by one feel: coldness, darkness, weirdness. Not easily accessible but still splendid for the lovers of the genre. Maybe not enough melodic and too repetitive to be catchy.

The KC hypnotic feel shows up back again during the fine "St Mikael?" which is another fine piece of music available. One of the best frankly.

This album is at the crossroads between "Kraftwerk", TD and Crimson. A rare mix for sure. It lacks in elegant parts (except the great opener) and therefore I rate it with three stars. A good album though.

Richard Pinhas' electronic band project explores compelling musical territory on this second album, steering between ambient electronic dreamscapes, Krautrock/Zeuhlish fury and the odd bit of Frippertronics. Although the opening track is named in honour of Robert Fripp - probably in response to his "retirement" from the music industry, though as we all know "King Fripp"'s abdication would not last for long - the most derivative track on here is Omar Diop Blondin, which sounds like an early Frippertronic experiment with Brian Eno - except I think it's actually mildly more compelling than No Pussyfooting. The rest of the album explores a range of electronic and ambient styles, with the result offering something to suit anyone with a taste for the avant, but at the same time it feels like Heldon is still searching for a distinctively "Heldon" sound, of a sort which arguably they wouldn't finally settle on until the dark, intense visions of Stand By and Inferface.

Don't be misled by the cinéma vérité brutality of the cover art, better suited to a Dead Kennedys LP than to a European Prog Rock album circa 1975. The second studio effort by guitarist Richard Pinhas and friends is (most of the time) actually a surprisingly mellow, almost soothing experience.

The album saw Pinhas continuing his efforts to erect a musical shrine honoring his role model Robert Fripp, believe it or not going so far as to name the album opener "In the Wake of King Fripp" (I can imagine the Crimson King shaking his bespectacled head in polite embarrassment). The track is one of several gorgeous pieces of music here, a gently unfolding study of subtle, hypnotic electric guitar textures and understated mellotron strings.

But elsewhere the album can be almost ridiculously imitative. The oddly titled "Omar Diop Blondin" (named after a militant Sénégalese activist) is an unashamed rip-off of the title track from the FRIPP & ENO album "Evening Star", released earlier the same year. The silver lining is that Pinhas could handle his guitar (and his synthesizers) with as much sensitivity and almost equal skill as his idol across the English Channel, adding a near- Krautrock awareness of radical experimentation that Fripp himself might have endorsed.

That more Teutonic side of Heldon surfaces on the album's flip side, notably during "Fluence: Continuum Mobile / Disjonction Inclusive". The name may not have the same obsequious ring as "In the Wake of King Fripp", but it's still one of the great Industrial- Ambient synth-rock track titles of all time, perfectly matching the cinematic drone of the song itself. Even better is the dark but melodic mood piece "St. Mikael Samstag am Abends": another musical refugee from the other side of the River Rhine (a better name for it might have been "In the Wake of King Froese").

There isn't a drum within earshot to interrupt the (sometimes uneasy) calm throughout the album, and the two brief interludes of unadorned acoustic guitar sound almost alarming from such a notorious musical provocateur. You'll have to look elsewhere for the usual Heldon electroshock therapy; this one has the alluring bedside manner of a well-disguised boa constrictor.

HELDON's tribute to Robert Fripp

3.5 stars

Where as HELDON's first album was rather electronic and refreshing, the second effort "Allez-Teia" is more rock-oriented. Its violent cover contrasts greatly with the peaceful and relaxing nature of the music. More precisely, the style is very simlar to Fripp & Eno's "No Pussyfooting", released two years before. Richard Pinhas pays a warm tribute to its idol Robert Fripp here, which makes you wondering if you're really listening to HELDON. The important usage of the mellotron and VCS 3 reinforces this impression.

"In the wake of King Fripp" is oviously a reference to KING CRIMSON's second opus and its leader. A calm and soothing opener. The peaceful acoustic "Aphanisis" displays a pastoral ambiance. "Omar Diop Blondin" is dedicated to Robert Fripp. Still soft, this track is supported by Pinhas' distorted guitar. First genuine electronic moment of the record, "Moebius" features a short synthetizer sequence more typical of HELDON.

The 12 minutes track "Fluence" is the longest. The first eight minutes are mainly ambient, with sonorities sometimes reminding TANGERINE DREAM's "Phaedra". The end part reuses the short sequence from "Moebius". Enjoyable, but a bit long and repetitive. "St Mikael Samstag am abends" is more varied and interesting. This composition waeaves a mysterious, dark and spacey soundscape, with drone sound effects, guitar and mellotron. The ending track, "Michel Ettori", is a soft acoustic guitar piece, rather anecdotic.

Apart in HELDON's discography, "Allez-Teia" is their least electronic and representative album, however also their softest and soothest. Without the band's typical ramshackle, tortured ambiance and hypnotic loops, this unusual record is also their most accessible.

Let's go straight to the point: if you enjoy Fripp & Eno's "No Pussyfooting", you'll like "Allez-Teia". The reference sounds sometimes too apparent, nonetheless it can be a good entry point to discover HELDON.

Simply judging from the album cover art in the modern era, HELDON's second release ALLEZ TÃ?IA could be mistaken for some lost black metal demo of Bathory or even an indie anarcho-punk act angrily acting out in the late 70s UK in musical form but in reality this 1975 release was HELDON's most accessible and easy listening of the seven albums of the band's initial run from 1974 - 1979. After the groundbreaking debut "Ã?lectronique Guerilla" which showcased a newfangled French flavored approach to German inspired progressive electronic, ALLEZ TÃ?IA feels less confident and unsure of itself with an overindulging tribute to Fripp & Eno's classic "Pussyfooting" along with a rehash of the many approaches first encountered on the debut.

A noticeably truncated cast of supporting musicians this time around, this sophomore album featured project leader Richard Pinhas rockin' his ARP & VC53 synthesizers with Georges Grünblatt returning on synth, mellotron and guitar. Alain Reanud and Alain Bellaïche added some extra guitar work but limited to one track each. The opening "In the Wake of King Fripp" makes no bones about the King Crimson worship on display and also showcases a new feature not present on the debut: the use of acoustic guitar and a foray into the world of psychedelic folk. The album immediately starts out feeling a bit clumsy, with a repetitive cyclical acoustic guitar loop almost in the spirit of modern post-rock along with the electronic wizardry already established on album #1. Of course the Frippian guitar sweeps dominate the soundscape as the track continues but all in all it sounds a bit too close to source and lacks the innovative spirit of "�lectronique Guerilla." Not a good start really.

Pinhas continues his newfound interest in acoustic guitar folk on the following "Alphanisis" but comes off as more of a tribute to John Fahey's American Primitivism as if Pinhas had totally jumped shipped and become enamored with the world of psychedelic folk. It seems the entire album has followed suit when the same guitar style opens the third track "Omar Diop Blondin" but lo and behold the "Pussyfooting" worship makes a reprise as the electric guitar sweeps join in as do subtle electronic embellishments which slowly but surely soldier on for 7 1/ 2 minutes until i'm convinced that i will not really find anything redeeming about ALLEZ TÃ?IA at all. But then just as i'm ready to declare defeat the fourth track "Moebius" suddenly shifts gears and steers the album back into the world of multi-layered textured Berlin School inspired electronica. The short track cedes to the two-part "Fluence" which breaks down into two separate thematic progressions. The album at last has become what everyone expects from HELDON.

"Fluence" delivers a darkened cyber-punk style of droning dread with a cold yet trance detached menagerie of synthesizers, moog and mellotrons. Gestating at a snail's pace, the repetitive industrial grit eventually discovers a Philip Glass inspired musical motif of arpeggiated chords in a faster tempo that sprawls on for over 12 minutes. The dark and gloomy oscillating cosmic space electronica continues with " St-Mikael Samstag am Abends" before the album ends with the same acoustic guitar worship that began it with the closing Michael Ettori" which immediately pulls your sensory overload out of orbit and grounds you once again in a flowery down to Earth approach that derails any moment the album gained once it got its footing. PInhas has admitted that ALLEZ TÃ?IA was one of his earliest pre-band offerings that hasn't stood the test of time and i'd have to agree with him on that one. The album lacks cohesion, focus and the original brilliance that scintillated so brightly on "Ã?lectronique Guerilla."

While not a horrible album by any means, personally i find this to be HELDON's weakest moment where Pinhas was grasping for straws on where to embark on the next journey of his novel industrial electronica that immediately made a splash. Perhaps it was the pressure to evolve the project into something completely new but in the process left the best aspects of what made HELDON so unique behind. In retrospect Pinhas quickly regained traction and returned to the dystopic dueling electronic impulses that put HELDON on the map of French progressive electronic. The following "Third (It's Always Rock And Roll" would find HELDON return to form and commence to carve out an ever-increasing evolution of far out electronic fusion mojo that wouldn't stop its self-correcting process until the band's grand finale "Stand By." ALLEZ TÃ?IA is a perfectly listenable album but sounds like a bunch of leftover tracks that lacked the same music magic as what came before and what would come after. A more meditative affair, ALLEZ TÃ?IA at times actually comes across as a prototype of what would become new age music.