01

This is the latest project from Francois Thollot called SCHERZOO. His first two albums were under his own personal name and on the debut he played all the instruments. His second record was much better as he brought in Bussonnet and Jeand'heur on bass and drums respectively and that album still blows me away, in fact it's one of my favourite Zeuhl albums. This one is quite different with the prominant alto-sax and electric piano. Francois is back on the drums and is part of a band here for the first time. I love this music. I swear the sound of electric piano in this style of music sends me. Although listed under Zeuhl this has far more in common with Jazz / Fusion with an Avant flavour. Three tracks on here are from Thollot's debut "Ceux D'en Face" including the title track along with "Enilek" and "Voyage Au Bout De La Nuit" as he has re-worked them and they do sound much different especially with the sax on here. Udi Koomran did an amazing job mastering this recording.

They come out swinging on "Enilek" with dissonant sax along with the drums and piano standing out. It does settle back just before a minute but not for long. Nice chunky bass around 2 minutes.This is incredible ! A calm a minute later with bass,sax and piano then it kicks back in just before 5 minutes. It builds to a climax before we get another calm then a big finish. "Douz" has sax and a lazy beat but it becomes intense quickly. It then settles back before 2 1/2 minutes as the contrasts continue. Dissonant sax 5 1/2 minutes in. "L'an 01" is led by sax, drums and piano early and the tempo keeps changing. I really enjoy this song. Lots of sax and chunky bass. "Beba" has such a great sound after 2 minutes when it kicks in. It does settle back quickly and to be honest this sounds just as good. Nice prominant piano before 4 minutes. A calm a minute later then it picks up again with some deep bass grooves and more. Nice.

The last two tracks were originally on Thollot's debut but I think these versions are much better, especially the final song. "Ceux D'en Face" sounds like something off of KING CRIMSON's "Discipline" album as intricate sounds weave in and around each other. It does settles in before 1 1/2 minutes and we get some huge bass lines around 2 minutes. "Voyage Au Bout De La Nuit" is uptempo with the sax playing over top then it settles with piano only after a minute. Sax and drums join in then it kicks back in before 3 minutes. It settles again with bass then builds. What a ride this is. Check it out before 6 minutes. I'm thinking ONE SHOT here. Hell yeah I am ! Haha. This goes on until around 10 minutes in. It settles 11 1/2 minutes in before kicking in a minute later. Another calm follows. Great sound after 16 1/2 minutes to the end.

A must for fans of that Jazz / Fusion style with a strong avant flavour.

Scherzoo were formed at the end of 2009 in Lyon by drummer and also multi-instrumentalist Francois Thollot, who had already put up two solo albums during the decade.He was accompanied by sax player Guillaume Lagache, keyboardist Jeremy Van Quackebeke, guitarist Francois Mignot and bassist Anthony Beard.The majority of Scherzoo's debut ''01'' was written by Thollot and the album was finally released on Soleil Zeuhl in 2011.

Thollot was always influenced by the Zeuhl scene of France, as heard in his two solo outputs, and his efforts with Scherzoo marks no significant difference with his earlier work, maybe Scherzoo's music is reasonably more demanding, as this is more of a band effort.The album is filled with quirky Progressive/Jazz-Rock, characterized by furious interplays and multilple breaks, but it also contains all these Zeuhl-influenced romantic passages, where the gears are down yet the music remains always intricate.Six instrumental compositions, with the last clocking at near 20 minutes long, featuring massive sax interventions and solos, dramatic electric piano and a frenetic rhythm section.Guitars remain steadily in the background and the whole album is based on the unusual rhythm patterns of bass/drums along with the endless piano/sax interplays, sometimes Lagache performance recalls the personal approach of VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR'S David Jackson.

Anyone searching for melodic content, please skip this one.This is highly intricate and complicated Jazz-Rock/Zeuhl with an emphasis on interplays and solos, a really nice effort regarding the style.Warmly recommended.

SCHERZOO is the second coming of multi-instrumentalist François Thollot who released a couple solo albums before starting this band in 2009 in Lyon, France and to date has released five albums where his duties vary as to which instrument he performs. He is the only constant member across the band's canon. While firmly planted in the school of zeuhl where he got a degree at Kobaia University, SCHERZOO exhibits a much more expansive approach than your typical Magma worshipper. Thollot is notorious in the prog underground as a savvy fusionist of all things zeuhl / jazz fusion / Canterbury / RIO / avant-prog and that's exactly what is displayed on the first SCHERZOO album simply titled 01 (the following albums are titled accordingly with a numbering system).

As far as the band name goes i'm not sure if it refers to the Stravisnky composition "Scherzo," the term which means a short composition only with an extra "o" or the Italian word "scherzo" which means "joke" or jest." Maybe none of the above! While the zeuhl elements are distinctly present in this all instrumental procession of six tracks that almost hit the 57-minute mark which includes the sprawling 19-minute plus closer "Voyage Au Bout De La Nuit," the album often jumps into moments of Present-like avant-prog and also leaps into the world of jazz-fusion but more often than not all these elements which include some of those warm Canterbury tones conspire to make a knotty frat party of all of the above making SCHERZOO's approach sound fairly unique.

This debut finds mostly new material that Thollot composed for the band however the two tracks "Ceux D'en Face" and "Enilek" were rewritten and rerecorded after appearing on Thollot's debut release "Ceux D'En Face" which was released in 2002. This lineup features François Thollot (composer, drums), Guillaume Lagache (saxophone), François Mignot (guitar), Anthony Béard (bass guitar) and Jérémy Van Quackebeke (piano) all of whom effortlessly navigate the hairpin turns and knotty compositions crafted by Thollot that can evoke mellow Canterbury jazz motifs or suddenly jump into guitar heavy moments of classic King Crimson or Anekdoten only brought to order by the martial bass thumping that keeps a zeuhl underpinning. The music is generally dark and brooding much like early Univers Zero or Present.

The music on 01 is definitely a difficult music adventure where the band lulls you into a lengthy improv session of RIO, jazz fusion or zeuhl but can suddenly erupt into a totally different soundscape and then carry on for minutes at at time. Composed somewhat of a classical nature where cadences and motifs are constructed and then fortified with a series of variations with the scales and stylistic effect coming out of the RIO playbook. Zeuhl rhythms keep it all from spiraling out of control and the presence of the saxophone and moments of escapism into the world of jazz and fusion keep the darkness from totally taking over the soundscape. SCHERZOO found its own distinct style right off the bat however the two solo albums of Thollot proved to serve as the warming up sessions which led to this band. A pretty decent debut if you like the world of dark, complex and filled with avant-angularities.