ILLIAN - J'ENTENDS GRONDER LA TERRE

In the Seventies Chris Beya was a member of Atoll, a progrock band that played a major role in the French musical scene ("L'araignee mal" is their best record). In the early Eighties Atoll split up and in '89 Chris Beya and his own band recorded "L'ocean". A long time it remained silent around Beya but in 2003, out of the blue, Chris Beya resurrected Atoll.

In the same year they made the album "Llian, j'entends gronder la terre" (my translation: Llian - I can hear the earth rumbling). It's a conceptual story about Llian, a traveller on the borders of time and space. He is witness of the intolerance, barbarism and the suffering of our civilisation with all its paradoxes and anachronisms. He is not able to interfere or to change things (Llian has a lead of 8000 years) but he can give some coded signs. Unfortunately it seems that the human being refuses to listen in a world where good and love battle against bad and hate. Multi-instrumentalist Chris Beya and his band have succeeded in capturing the climate of the conceptual story by offering 14 alternating, melodic and tasteful compostions: dreamy, romantic, bombastic, classical (flute and acoustic guitar) and even AOR (catchy and polished) with fine vocals (including female chorus). But the focus is on Beya's strong guitarplay with not only lots of fiery electric guitarsoli but also beautiful work on the acoustic guitar. And the keyboards are worth mentioning, from soaring and orchestral to bombastic.

Chris Beya has not made a very original or earthshaking album but it sounds pleasant and mature with an important philosophical message, "en francais".