JEANNE D´ARC - LA RÉVOLTE ÉTERNELLE

The quality of TD albums has been a roller coaster ride of late with highs like "DM 4" and lows like "Purgatorio", so when "Jeanne D'Arc" arrived I didn't really know what to expect. And the album certainly doesn't have an auspicious beginning with the first track,"La Vision" being rather bland and anonymous and new age-ish and at 12 minutes it also goes on for a while which in this case is not an endearing factor and I thought that this would be another mediocre "Purgatorio" effort and resigned myself to disappointment,but as "La Vision" segues into "La Joie" my eyebrows were raised in surprise (literally!) when an atmospheric synth theme emerged out of the droning electronic haze and Linda Spa's saxophone kicks in,lifting the music to heights of quite stunning beauty. I thought if they could keep this up "Jeanne D'Arc" could be a winner after all and I'm thrilled to say that despite the limp opening,they do manage to maintain the standard of "La Joie" for the remainder of the album which is quite a feat considering it's 79 minutes long. With the third track,"La Force Du Courage" a mild dance beat is introduced and is kept up for large parts of the rest of the tracks giving the album a mild and rather infectious groove,effectively dispelling the dire new age feel of "La Vision". With Linda Spa back on sax and flute I was rather apprehensive about "Jeanne D'Arc" since especially har sax parts had in the first part of the 90's made TD rather an ordeal to listen to with subtelty not exactly to the fore! But the guys have obviously learned a trick or two over the decade since miss Spa last graced a TD album about how to integrate saxophone into the TD sound and the effort this time is seamless and her sax lends TD's music just the right amount of an extra dimensional factor,enhancing it rather than destroying it. The most stupendeous news this time around is of course that for the first time in 15 years TD have a third "proper" member again rather than just the hired hands they have used since Paul Haslinger left in 91. He is Thorsten Quaeschning on keyboards and drums and he's also composed the whole album with Edgar and Jerome and judging from the contribution on this album he is an excellent addition to the TD line up and I'm looking forward to hearing what the future holds for TD now that they are a trio again. As a summation I will say that I haven't been this excited about a TD album since "The Seven Letters From Tibet" and that with time "Jeanne D'Arc" might eclipse even that jewel in my TD collection. "Jeanne D'Arc" is an album full of beauty,atmosphere,moods and that very special otherworldiness that is a TD trademark. The bland and anemic opening holds back the 5th star but that's nitpicking really since the remainder of the album reaches heights I frankly never thought TD would ever reach again. This should teach me to never lose faith in Edgar Froese's musical vision which still burns as brightly as ever.