OCCUPATIONS OF UNINHABITED SPACE

I don't know in which conditions this concert has been played but the musicianship is still impressive just like in their previous studio recordings. There is something fascinating in the skill of these musicians, combined with a great talent of complicated composition.

This music is surely too difficult, may be too cerebral to become commercially successful. The only way to enjoy it is to sit in a comfortable sofa in the evening with a glass of old Cognac or, at a pinch, an old Porto, with just a dim light. Then let you be carried away in a tumultuous journey during which you will never have time to rest.

It is impossible to classify it. I don't find any other group to which I could refer. Heavy influences, space influences, jazz-rock influences... are obvious' with others !

Names that spontaneously come in my mind are Djam Karet, Heldon (in 'Gengis Khan', for instance), Dream Theater (in the extraordinary 'Stones of temperance'), Ozric Tentacles (in 'Raviji'), King Crimson, Explorer's Club, why not Uzeb or even Spock's Beard (more especially in 'Brother Jack McDuff')' but that's just a personal feeling because it would be too reductive to associate them directly with one or even several group names and it would be aventurous to think they really have one of these influences.

You just need to like instrumental music with complex structures and technical maestria. If you really are prog fanatics, you can only be hypnotized.

I put 4 stars to their first two studio records. This one, recorded live in studio sound conditions, is a real best of and diserve at least 4,5 stars to my mind.