CIRCONVOLUTIONS

A legend is back! Remember: the famous Crypto label, created by Jean-Claude Pognant, contributed in discovering French bands as essential as Ange by the mid seventies. Among those was Carpe Diem. Led by Claude-Marius David (saxophone & flute), this band from Nice gave birth to two splendid albums: "En Regardant Passer Le Temps" (1975) and "Cueille Le Jour" (1976). All reissued by Musea on the CD form. Their refined progressive rock featured rare vocal parts (but was never boring or demonstrative), instrumental intensity, through sophisticated songwriting and structures. Fluid organ reworked sounds were beautifully combined with lyrical flute, sax, clarinet parts or airy guitars, to create a dreamlike rock evoking Ange, Caravan, Fruupp and King Crimson ('Starless') with a very slight jazz touch. Well, you'll find the charm of the past in 'Tibetan Moment' (those gorgeous keyboards!), the great circumvolutions structures in 'Circonvolutions' precisely. 'Wedding Day' recalls Sting's 'An Englishman in New Yrok' a bit by the instrumentation (!). And nostalgia fully operates with the superb 'Jardin de verre' and 'L'imagerie fantastique', both unpublished typical labyrinthine epics from 1978. Yes, a legend is back!

I was taken aback when I noticed on the PA homepage that Carpe Diem released its third album after nearly a forty-year hiatus. I remember a conversation from a few years ago with the friend who introduced me to this excellent band and I recall lamenting how Carpe Diem released only two albums. The album's Escher-like black and white cover brought to mind that of the band's debut album. I purchased it immediately, of course.

Five past members of the band are featured: keyboardist and singer Christian Truchi, drummer Alain Faraut, guitarist Gilbert Abbenanti, bassist/vocalist George Ferrero and guitarist/violinist Gérald Macia. The last two joined the band in 1977 and worked on a yet-unreleased album. Saxophonist and flautist Claude-Marius David was a key contributor to the band's sound and he unfortunately passed away in the early 80s. To fill in his role, the band brought it two guest saxophonists/flautists: David Amar and Manu Dicostanzo. Melodie Rose is another guest musician, contributing drumming and background vocals.

The two longest tracks were originally recorded live in 1978 and feature Claude-Marius David.

The first track, Along the Great Wall, had me worried with its introductory 80s style electro-beat, but fortunately it is soon doused in the band's characteristic jazzy prog.

Conte de saxs is a saxophone duet. It reminds me of Alan Parsons Project in style. The band makes effective use of its two saxophonists on the album, having them play together.

The instrumental title track starts with a sequencer pattern (it reminds me of organ's repeat function as used by the Who on Baba O'Riley), unusually for the band. The pattern is then played on saxophone, drums, guitar, synths and organ at different points in the track. It's a pleasant enough composition (I especially like the electric guitar duet), but it sounds more like minute-long snippets spliced together and tied by the recurring pattern. With all the instrumentation changes, I feel it doesn't have a chance to develop organically as the band's previous longer compositions. The ending saxophone duet is a satisfying conclusion, though.

L'imagerie fantastique is one of the two tracks recorded live in 1978, and clocking at 11 minutes, is the album's longest track. It starts in an ambient manner. This track features Truchi's familiar keyboard he used so often on the band's previous albums. After a couple of minutes, drums join in and theme reminds me of Jeux du siécle. The second half is characterized by an interesting saxophone/wordless chanting duet.

Namire is a beautiful solo acoustic guitar piece in a Renaissance style, performed by Gérald Macia. It reminds me of Steve Howe's Mood for a Day.

Wedding Day is a pleasant laid-back jazzy shuffle with interesting saxophone/flute/violin interplay, but I don't really like the scat singing in the refrain.

Jardin de verre ("Glass garden") is the other live track from 1978 and only slightly shorter than L'imagerie fantastique. It stars off in an almost classical manner with violin, flute and string synth, then evolves into a standard Carpe Diem workout.

Overall, I found Circonvolutions to be an enjoyable album. It is not very demanding listening, but the album is impeccably played and produced and I genuinely like listening to it, despite my aversion to jazz. I applaud the band for this offering that has one foot planted in the band's classic 70s sound and the other exploring new musical horizons.

The final album from this now-prior run of The List! Very exciting for me. Now, I have ~30 more bands/albums to listen to this current time around: ~430 artists. Wish me luck. As a note after listening: Such a thrill to finish this run with this album. Cheers!

The album released after their reforming in 2014, Circonvolutions (2015) is the band's first release in nearly 40 years! I hope they stay together for long and continue to release more material. This is worth a listen.

From the get-go with "Along the Great Wall", very electronica(?)-forward. But herein is really so much more. Very interesting reeds work. Toward the end is this horn that is so compressed and morphed, I thought it was a keyboard. I honestly love this sound. Reminds me of old PC games from my childhood. Regardless of how they made it all, it's a pretty infectious opener.

A winner from its get-go, "Conte de saxs" is fun and upbeat. Sort of reminds me of latter-day '70s Daevid Allen Gong. Don't know how not to love.

Despite sounding a bit like tired Synth-Pop at times, "Tibetan Monument" still has some charms, especially toward the end. This band has strengths in its rhythm section, no doubt about it, but the reeds work is most lovely.

And then, the title track, "Circonvolutions" [DO NOT MISS THIS], at first a scurrying, spacy number with soft, pillowy instrumentation. Nearing minute 2, the beat comes in. What I assume to be synth, though it sounds like sped up lead-bass melody(?!), scurries along in this upbeat, positive way. Pretty darn unique sound. Then the horns... sheesh... So nice. I'm very impressed. Compositional knack out the wazoo. All falls away near the midpoint. Then what sounds like a modernist church organ comes in around minute 5. Things rise and fall together. Cloudy and beautiful and quietly epic. I had no clue what to expect from this album, but it wasn't this.

I wouldn't say that I'm such a fan of the so-called 'Progressive Electronic' idiom, but they are using elements from it throughout this album in such a way that I'm just so drawn. "L'imagerie fantastique", quiet and soft at first, is such a lush use of space. And then wow! What occurs around 3:00... indescribable. Things pick up, some guitar lead over epic, grandiose keyboards and classic rhythm section. Gee whizz haha. "Fantastic Imagery" indeed! I'm pretty speechless. A goddamn blessing, this'n! hahaha.

"Namire" is a beautiful acoustic guitar solo interlude. A lovely and appropriate breaking-up of the norm.

Then, the queer, almost Gothic(?) "Wedding Day". Again, sonic choices that could have sprouted out of early-80s Synth-Pop, though this is clearly more a 'Post-Progressive' thing. The vocalist has a nice voice, but it doesn't do a whole lot for me. Brought the album down a hair, for sure.

Finally, "Jardin de verre", another lush use of space, this time featuring soft violin lead over ethereal, sort of baroque (to my ears) accompaniment. Then very modern-sounding (ya know, post-1990) drums enter. The performance is very cool and slowly ramps up with duel synth-guitar (and eventually reeds) leads. Real nice. Once more reminiscent to me of the work of Didier Malherbe (of Gong).

Those tracks that are not only bolded, but are italicized as well, are essential listens in my book. Good god, I'm so impressed!