LES CONTES DU SINGE FOU

Music should not be judged by its cover and this album confirms it. Sitting monkeys shouldn't put you off, enjoy the music scenery and mainly, the violin and keyboard interplay between Didier Lockwood and Cyrille. The immediate weakness of the album are dramatic vocals with unsuitable voice colour so you better focus on the instrumental music which, fortunately, takes up the majority of time. The "Key" composition is quite well composed and progressive for 1977 although weighed down by the disastrous vocals - I can even hear echoes of Mahavishnu violin style, classical music. The second part is the best one with no vocals and piano+violin showing tight interplay. "Soliloque" is a melancholic, slow-paced number without getting commercial. "Time Skater III" is the best part of the three-part suite, pretty dense with violin, only the drummer seems to be staying in the comfortable seat not catching on the prog wagon. Another solid album but you will better ones when looking for the first two and two after millenium albums.