UNIFAUN

« "Can you tell me where my country lies?" said the unifaun to his true love's eyes » (Genesis ? "Selling England by the Pound") An Unifaun is a word and a creature made by Peter Gabriel, a contraction of uniform (or unicorn?) and faun in fact. A faun? A faun is half a goat and half a man. Unifaun is a Scandinavian duo too composed of Nad Sylvan (vocals, guitars, keyboards, bass, drums and percussions) and Bonamici (keyboards and arrangements). Take a trip now back to 2003 : Nad, a Genesis die hard fan, attends a concert by The Musical Box (The "Selling England by the Pound" tour precisely) at the London Royal Albert Hall. He really enjoys it (as I did in Paris at the same time). A week later, he discovers that a man called Bonamici wrote on the Genesis forum he composed an instrumental track called 'Tribute to Genesis'. Nad meets him. Together, they add guitar and vocals to the song and call that tune 'Maudlin Matter'. Nad exhumes a track called 'Marmaduke' he wrote in 1979 then and on we go for an album! My favourite song of this album is 'Quest for the Last Virtue', definitely. This is the most ambitious epic (pleonasm!-Ed), with gorgeous echoes of 'Entangled''s finale. 'Marmaduke' is nice by its labyrinthine structure (perhaps too labyrinthine?) in a typical "Selling England" mood with Fish-like vocals though. Yes, the vocals balance between Gabriel, Collins, Fish, sometimes even Cat Stevens or Dave Cousins (The Strawbs). The compositions and arrangements clearly show their influences yet: Genesis, the progressive era. Does this mean this album is a must have? For Genesis lovers, certainly. They'll have the feeling of discovering lost tapes by the great British band. Some prog heads will be irritated by a too close tribute yet. Tribute or clichés? Clone or clown? Being a Genesis fan, I enjoyed this record a lot but less than Neuschwanstein's. Why? Well because writing doesn't make you a writer. You have to be a gifted musician to be a true composer. That's why Genesis convinced: the quality of their melodies (and arrangements). And of course their originality. You'll find no real innovation here, and assumed influences. Great arrangements and production, yes. But some melodies aren't really convincing. In a nutshell, it's good music for nostalgic fans only. And I admit I am.