ZAAR

The debut album of this French quartet wastes no time in doing what they want to with their unique sound. With two former members of the band Sotos, Zaar plays instrumental jazzy chamber rock that is pretty experimental. The band plays highly dynamic and sometimes downright strange avant-prog that's pretty hard to describe. Probably the coolest thing here is Cosia's hurdy gurdy playing which really helps give the band a more unique sound.

The album is dominated by two epic pieces, "Sefir" and "Omk," both almost to the 20-minute mark. These songs show excellent development of musical themes as the band gives plenty of attention to their composition. The hurdy gurdy really shines in these songs by leading everything along, sometimes leaving the rest of the band in the dust. The rest of the songs are shorter tunes mostly around 2-minutes. Even though they are shorter, the band's ability to cram so many musical ideas into such a short amount of time is pretty amazing.

Hopefully we'll see more from these guys as it's obvious they have a lot of potential. If you're interested in left-field avant-prog, you can't go wrong with this album.

Standout songs: "Sefir", "Scherzo # C"