REVE DE SIAM

This is the original soundtrack from a film by Oliver Bourbeillon, and, as a purely audio experience, suffers from the typical shortcomings, such as overly short and generally undeveloped tracks, a preponderance of recurring themes in thinly veiled guises, and, of course, the lack of visual cues. But it also avoids fading completely into the background, primarily because of the main "Lecture de Conrad" theme which recurs not just in the three so-named tracks but in several other forms, including on acoustic guitar, electric guitar, accordion and pipes. A spellbinding melody, it anchors the disk, which also shows off Ar Braz' notable talents at shifting gears from the rooted to the ethereal. His gentle lead style is not dissimilar to that of Mark Knopfler on his own soundtracks. Several unusual avenues are also explored, like a hypnotically minimalist streak in the criminally brief "Rosko et Anna" and "Rumeur", where the listener can actually glimpse the video portion of something, whether it has any relation to the film or not. The most incongruous track is the one that rocks out the most, "Retour des Bagnards". In spite of some good playing by Ar Braz and Derry Conway, it is mostly cheesy and a bit too muscular for the outing as a whole. Still, as soundtracks go, this dream of Siam veers close enough to 3 stars to warrant a tiny boost.