CHROMOPHONIE

3.5 stars. Seffer released "Chromophonie 1" and "Chromophonie 2" back to back in the early eighties. This particular album is a compilation of tracks from those two recordings and this was released in 1996. I am such a big fan of Yochk'o Seffer going back to the early MAGMA days but especially when I discovered ZAO. Seffer is Hungarian and has lived in France for years and we share the same birthday!

This is mostly Seffer but he has a fellow Hungarian violinist playing on three tracks and that female string quartet called QUARTUER MARGAND found on a couple of ZAO albums playing on two songs. And that's it, no drums, bass or guitar. Seffer plays bass clarinet but mostly sax here and piano. So yeah tough to rate because the music is over my head and the enjoyment factor isn't that high much of the time. And this is a compilation of previously released songs. I review as a fan not a critic so I went with the 3.5 star bailout. I really like it but I don't love it.

I really enjoyed Natsar II" for the vocals even though this song is the shortest at under 2 minutes. The next track "Bela Bcsi Emlekere" is great for the piano and violin interplay. A treat. I liked the start of "Galgal" with the multi-horns with piano. Sax and piano will share the spotlight on this one. Lastly "Mizwa I" for again the violin and piano. Just outstanding music here and the piano takes over after 5 minutes right to the end on this over 9 1/2 minute track.

I'm glad Musea released this as I have little in the way of releases that are quite like this.