AVANTI!

Released before the posthumous release of Live 89, this album is pretty well what the group played in their FMPM appearance in Sept/09, the very gig that made possible that Live compilation. Sounds complicated? Nevermind. It had been a while since Miriodor had not graced our ears with a studio album, and Avanti was much awaited. Most likely the Avanti album surprised sonically most fans, but visually as well. Gone are the klezmer/circus music and the baroque artworks. We now get a B-movie thriller movie artwork in the subway and musical-wise we're hovering between retro-prog and Gentle Giant and sometimes (less surprisingly?) Univers Zero. Quite a surprise, uh?? Line-yup wise, it is still the same quartet since Falaise (and Massino) joined forces with the Sabin-less Miriodor fro Jongleries Elastiques, but this the group's first real change of direction (to my knowledge anyway). The usual guests provide the brass instruments when needed.

As usual, talking about a Miriodor album isn't easy, partly because the group defies any valid written description. While I feel like taking a shortcut and say that this might their most "symphonic" album to date, but I can't tell you that it is any less complex than their previous effort and the songs are much longer than usual. It is more accessible yet darker than the previous albums. Right from the first very heavy drones, beats and hisses of Envoutements, you know that you're still with Miriodor, but by the half of that track, the group has veered towards Gentle giant-like music. Bolide Débile is much in the same GG line, but there is a sort of Scandinavian feel to it, not far away from a cold melancholic and electric Univers Zero. The album-lengthiest A Determiner does look back at the previous albums, including a wild sax that seems to have seeped out of an Ambiance Magnetique labelled album. The title track is probably the most enjoyable and jazziest of the abum, IMHO The closing Reveille-Matin is more of the same.

Some of you are going to send me to the asylum after this next "revelation" of mine, but while playing this album, I can't help but thinking at Anglagard. Certainly Miriodor's most un-Miriodor-like album, Avanti still holds all of the group's qualities and it is a pure joy to listen to and remains so after repeated listen. I want for proof that I waited almost 8 months before writing this review, even if as I said before Miriodor is a very difficult review for its art defies description.