DEFINITIVEMENT BLEUS

NOËTRA´s second album offers this time a collection of songs recorded between Winter ´78 and May ´82, and is mainly a testament of this partiuclar band, project of Jean Lapouge, guitarist and composer. The general sound of the record is a kind of chamber jazz rock with some hinits of Canterbury, but not in a dark or aggressive way, because it is a kind record, a bit quiet sometimes, but that keeps ytour attention during all the listening. The album starts with "Mésopotamie", a very kind intro, with some spacey keyboards on it linking to "Qui est-il Qui Parle Ainsi?", intermediate section of this trilogy, playing very nice soft jazz (reminding me of CAMEL or HAPPY THE MANN), leading to "Reprise Mésopotamie", the main theme, closing this first section.

"Agréments Parfaitement Bleus (III)" is a very interesting piece, starting with light winds growing throughout the song and leading to a kind of chamber jazz crescendo, very interesting, reminding me of FRENCH TV. "Agréments Parfaitment Bleus (epilogue)" is mainly a string driven coda for the song. Great point of interest of the whole record

"Alpha de Centaure" is a very melodic canterburian piece, with great guitar playing by Lapouge that makes me think about HATFIELD AND THE NORTH. Also remarkable is the ending of the song because of the interlinks between violin and the wind section. "Venise" comes next as a kind of counterpoint, beacause this song is very MAGMA sometimes, starting with very zeuhlish strings which, after a guitar driven interlude, leads to a final crescendo, with great distorted bass by Denis Lefranc.

"Transparences" starts with a very sweet and folky intro that evolves into a guitar fusion development that ends in a chamber work, nothing stressful but quite warm. Another of the points of interest of the whole record, together with the next song, "Tintamarre". It has a kind of chamberistic intro, very zappaesque, but also AFTER CRYING (era "6" and "Show") comes to mind, that finally blasts into a canterburian groove reminding GILGAMESH or VOLARE, after a break it turns more jazzy, reminding MAHAVISHNU ORCHESTRA, excellent piece and one of the best of the album, despite I´m not a lover of fadin out endings. Superb.

After such a great amount of intensity, the relax comes with "Ephémère (a M.C.)", a very slow, almost atmospheric piece, quite different from the rest of the album, although the turn about minute 8 develops in a superb violin driven final, reminding ZAO. We are very close to the end of the record. "Forfanterie" sounds a bit folky, even medieval sometimes, before an almost free jazzy section with that personal chamber touch of the band breaks that pastoral atmosphere. Not bad, but not outstanding. The final song of the record is "Printemps Noir (final)". It starts with an obscure chamber intro with harmonium (although not credited, I guess so), followed by a drum solo linking the final section, but I suppose this song is not actuallly finished.

Rating a work like this is not easy indeed. Despite being played with great ability and the originality of some of the compositions, there are some ups and downs that don´t let me rate it as a 4 star record. It will be of interest for those who like the less radical side of Canterbury and R.I.O. or who love jazz fusion sounds, in this case blended with rock and chamber works. 3 stars (although for me it would be 3.5)