FICTION

If you like Magma and the Canterbury scene - you've ascended to heaven with this (and all for that matter) CD. Although locked into the Zeuhl movement, this is (with no disrespect to Magma) so much more. A wonderful combination of the repetitive beauty of the Zeuhl logic, but with so much more of a melodic approach.

And the keyboard emphasis is organic! They use the traditional organ settings, Rhodes, and a magical use of single/dual note Moog type sounds.

Just amazaing - Get all of there CD's while you can!

Eskaton's third album (including their 4 Visions that was never on disc, but only on cassette) sees the band losing a bit its Magma fascination and renews the Zeuhl genre. Should you ever want to convert a French-speaking person not particularly prone to prog or Zeuhl music, I suggest that you try this one, because in some ways it is quite accessible. Line-up wise, violinist Patrick Lemercier who had come in with Ardeur is gone, so the group is back to the core six player including the two female singers Amara Tahir (the brunette) and Paule Kleynnaert (the blonde) and brother Marc Rozenberg on male vocals. Still unable to interest a major label with their superb music, Eskaton recorded this album in Sept 82 at home and released it on Eleanor Productions (as was Ardeur), and used a grim eye artwork with a digital time clock, giving it a post-atomic feeling, which the band confirms.

Opening the album (I will talk of the CD, not the vinyl, because the track order was purposely changed by the group) FX doesn't seem to have brought that much less Magma overtones, but things changes quite quickly with Les Deux Trucs, a hilariously- written "screw you" theme, and Automute (a story of mutation for protection), both being funkier that was Eskaton had gotten used to and more Crimson-esque (the Belew era). Simplicius and Danse Des Feux are even more jazz-rock, planet Kobaia was eclipsed during recording of these tracks, even if the scatting chants still bear a slight trace. Mort De Tristans starts out on a gloomy almost dronal keyboard. The rest of the tracks are more or less a funky Zeuhlian jazz-rock with accessible and funny vocals/lyrics. The album-closing Paranthese is a slow electric piano instrumental.

The Soleil Zeuhl label reissue also comes with five bonus tracks from their fourth album Icare that was never released and although you can hear the difference with Fiction, they are strongly Eskatonesque as well, and make a lovely and valuable addition to Fiction. Actually Gilles Rozenberg left the band in 84 prior to recording Icare, and much of the band's drive was lost, even if they remained active until the late 80's, before finally folding. Musicien was recorded in 83 and is probably the most Belew-era Crimson funky track on the album. The next four tracks are from 85, recorded for Icare. Generally, Kobaia has fled the galaxy (except for the vocals) and the music is very 80-ish, but escaping the worst trends of that dreaded decade. Only the lengthy Le Cri reminds of earlier times.

This Cd reissue is absolutely essential to Zeuhl and Eskaton fans (and at least as much as Ardeur), because it showed that the genre could move away from its Kobaian roots, a bit like Zao had managed to unveil but never confirm. Along with Ardeur, a must for Zeuhl fans.

4.5 stars. This does sound a little different than the first two albums. The deep male vocals are more prominant, as are the angular guitar and keys / synths. I don't know, but to me all three albums are excellent and must-haves for Zeuhl fans. Don't just get "Four Visions" get them all. This release even has their final album "Icare" on it that was never released. The final song "Le Cri" from that record is as good a song as they have made.

"FX" opens with a one minute wall of synths and organ sounds before we get a melody. The bass, drums and synths dominate this good uptempo song. Organ joins in later. "Les Deux Trucs" features those deep male vocals that are helped out by those amazing female vocals.The angular guitar is fantastic ! The bass is so fat. No offense. Great catchy tune. "Automute" has a strange intro before vocals, keys, bass and drums take over. More angular guitar on this one.Yes ! The vocals and rhythm section are so impressive. On the original album this was the first track. "Simplicius" opens with synths and drums. Guitar and a full sound arrives before 2 minutes. Female vocal melodies a minute later, and they are ingenius and fantastic. Terrific sound 5 minutes in. "La Danse Des Feux" opens softly before drums and vocal melodies change that. Keys and heavy bass follow with guitar and organ in tow. Great sound. The song ends as it began. "La Mort De Tristan" features waves of synths and slowly played keys. This is dark. Reserved female vocals come in and piano later. Cool song. Something different for this band.

"Le Cinema" is an uptempo song with drums, keys and vocals. The deep male vocals are helped out by the ladies. This is a fun song. Organ comes in later. "Plus Et Moins" is another song with a catchy melody. Kind of jazzy with female vocals. I like the way they change their vocal tones after a minute. The drums, keys and bass are outstanding. "Parenthese" is the final and shortest song on the album. Such a gorgeous song with beautifully played keys on it. Pastoral, with bass helping out. I won't touch on all of the 5 bonus tracks, except for "Le Cri". This is a slower paced tune with synths, keys and drums leading the way instrumentally. Female vocals are restrained. The song does build to a powerful sound before becoming calm again. This contrast continues. Later the vocals become almost frenzied.

This band may not have the body of work that MAGMA has, but they have the quality of work that MAGMA has. Great band !

Eskaton's triptych of albums from their original run closes out with Fiction, which largely follows the model of Ardeur in terms of keeping most of the tracks at a bite-sized length rather than getting into the more epic lengths of the pieces on 4 Visions. The strong Magma influence on the band's music remains intact, even when sonically we step away from Magma territory slightly - take La Mort de Tristan, a dark, slow synth and piano piece which doesn't sound much like typical Zeuhl, but which takes its name from the Tristan and Iseult legend, and of course the Magma classic Wurdah Itah was originally published as a soundtrack for a movie adaptation of that story.

Still, whilst it's still thematically and atmospherically well within the dark Zeuhl universe, Fiction adds its own spin to the style, with the thick grooves you expect from Zeuhl combined with some decidedly sinister synthesiser work to create a strange hybrid beast, the final product of Eskaton's Kobaïan alchemy.

After the near miraculous perfection of 1981's 4 Visions I had been quite hesitant to try this follow up release--this despite its high rating.

My review below follows the song order as present on the 1983 release.

1. "Automute" (4:20) driving, simple rhythm with female vocals through which male vocalist Marc Rozenberg pierces through with straight singing as well as metal-boxed treated dictation. This music has many more influences from outside the Kobaïan world--King Crimson, techno pop, Talking Heads, even Canterbury. Interesting evolution! (8.75/10)

2. "Simplicius" (7:03) opens like a softly jazzed world music song--something Joe Zawinal, Freddy Hubbard, or Micky Hart might pull together. AS the synths and treated electric guitar jump in they create a great sound, but then they back off for a bouncy Fender Rhodes passage over which the two women try to scat a quite intricate melody line in unison. It's cool but doesn't always work. At 4:20 the two separate and launch into some pretty vocalise in two different octaves. The delay-echoed fuzz guitar follows with a nice solo--which is then followed by a nice display of rapid fire bass playing. The song base remains pretty simple and sparse as the instruments and voices take turns soloing each for about 20 seconds before handing off to the next. Still, a great, very engaging song. (13.5/15)

3. "Plus Et Moins" (3:40) opens with a funky beat and female vocal presentation quite similar to Belgian Canterbury artists COS. Even the accompanying second, lower harmonizing female voice sounds a lot like Pascale Son. Catchy song, interesting vocal, and funky sound make for an above average song but it never really does anything extraordinary to make it stand out or make it memorable. Nice drum, bass, and guitar work. (8.25/10)

4. "Parenthese" (2:10) opens with subdued Fender Rhodes before catching speed with bass in tow. The duet is augmented in the third section as the two work beautifully off of one another. (4.5/5)

5. "La Danse Des Feux" (4:03) Led by a Mike Oldfield-like fuzz guitar in the lead, Gilles has strong support from from the drums (as well as bass and keys). This one drives along through a couple of nice movements--mostly in which guitar and bass change leads while keys do a little fill'n'flash. In the fourth minute the Mike Oldfield guitar is even double tracked. (8.75/10)

6. "Le Cinema" (3:30) more Canterbury-like humor with male and female vocal recitations backed with some dated 70s techno-pop keyboard sounds and playing (think Devo or "Rock Lobster"). (9/10)

7. "La Mort De Tristan" (4:20) a soft, sensitive vocal presentation sounding like a respectful funereal event that is interspersed with some synthesizer flourishes and electric piano passages consistent with the theme of respect and honor. (9/10)

8. "Les Deux Trucs" (4:13) 1980s French rap? No, but almost! (8.5/10)

9. "F.X." (7:18) nice jazz fusion with some interesting bass and keyboard play but nothing really very special to make this one stand out. (12/15)

Four stars; a solid contribution to the jazz-rock fusion side of Zeuhl--or just to Jazz-Rock Fusion in and of itself--but nothing more than that.

The repetition of Zeuhl meets 80s King Crimson electronics and synths. While FX is nothing to write home about, the following tracks on the CD release Les Deux Trucs and Automute pretty much blew me away with a wall of synth and Marc Rozenberg's deep vocals. Unlike anything I've heard from Eskaton previously, and from anything filed under Zeuhl for that matter. Simplicius is also a good track, a little more chilled out but with catchy humming vocals from the two ladies. Le Dance de Feux is a very jazzy track but mixed in with the usual Zeuhl vocals, and is a lot more like previous Eskaton albums. La Mort de Tristan switches things up again, for the most part a minimalist ambient/post-rock style atmospheric track mixed in with some sharp electronic noise. In Le Cinema, things return to the catchy and deadpan vocals from the likes of Automute, and a lot of 80s electronic sounds. Another really good catchy track. Plus Et Moins is incredibly funky before finishing on Parenthese, a short calm synth track. Some great stuff here.

Despite a rather turbulent beginning where it would take ESKATON (formed in 1970 at the same time Magma released its debut) eight years to record what was supposed to be its first album in 1978 and then another two to record a second which would be released as the debut, ESKATON kept the world of zeuhl alive in the early 1980s just when the progenitors of the genre, Magma had taken a leave of absence while Christian Vander and friends were engaging in side projects such as the short-lived Fusion. ESKATON was just one of the revivalists who took the post-Magma zeuhl into new unthinkable worlds that would keep the unique avant-garde musical form alive and well in the French underground during the prog starved 1980s.

After releasing its intended debut turned sophomore release "4 Visions," ESKATON was propelled to the top of the French underground and praised for its wild and unhinged take on Magma inspired zeuhl only with a fresh energetic infusion of crafty ingenuity. The band had gone through more than a few lineup changes but retained the same lineup from "Ardeur" for its third and final album FICTION which was released in 1983. A fourth album was recorded and intended to be released as "Icare" but never saw the light of day and after guitarist / keyboardist Giles Rozenberg left the band in 1984, the band would disintegrate and fall into obscurity until the Soleil Zeuhl reissued the band's cassette only canon into the proper vinyl and CD formats.

While both "Ardeur" and especially "4 Visions" showcased an ambitious zeuhl band that displayed a virtuosity and creative edge above and beyond much of the competition, those two albums were very much steeped in Magma worship unfortunately often sounding like a Magma clone to my ears. The third album FICTION on the other hand showcased a creative new beginning (or ending as destiny would have it) that found the band deemphasizing the overt Magma influences and finding its own unique stamp on the world of zeuhl. While still delivering the bubbling zeuhl bass grooves, steady rhythmic drive and ecstatic and even giddy female vocal playfulness right out of the Stella Vander playbook, ESKATON delivered a strange mix of zeuhl that added the more contemporary sounds of new wave in the form of repetitive keyboard patterns, synthesized sounds and an occasional bouncy even danceable drive.

Despite the adaptation to the demands of the early 80s that favored catchy synthpop and pop punk fueled ear worms, ESKATON kept these tendencies in check by keeping the musical flow dark and mysterious with crafty even angular keyboard workouts, jazzy drumming outbursts and the unmistakable zeuhl-ish mix of a rhythmic drive and stentorian choir technqiues. The strangest and most unique part of the album surely comes from the dueling vocal performances of vocalists Amara Tahir and Paule Kleynnaert who together provide a sort of rapping technique to trade off vocals on such tracks as "Plus Et Moins" and "Le Cinema" which implant a primeval vocal rap similar to Debbie Harry's on the mega-hit single "Rapture" from Blondie. While that sounds like a recipe for disaster, this bold move is used sparingly throughout the album's run in between the oft instrumental or more traditional sounding zeuhl tracks.

The album also features more electronic based slow burners such as the short instrumental "Paranthèse" and "La More De Tristan," the latter of which even features a few nods to the Canterbury jazz keyboard sounds that had been nurtured into fruition by the likes of Soft Machine and Hatfield & The North. The results of all this fusion of traditional zeuhl with an infusion of contemporary craftiness makes FICTION perhaps the most innovative of all the three albums of its canon. While not nearly as technical and lacking the virtuosic display of fiery zeuhl action that "4 Visions" delivered in abundance, FICTION has unfairly taken a back seat to its more popular sibling however there is no doubt that FICTION is the most unique album of the band's all too short career and delivers just the right amount of new influences to make the album a very compelling listening experience although prog purists may cringe and call it pandering to the world of new wave which was dominating the music scene in 1983.

There are two very different versions of FICTION with differing track orders: the original version which emerged, and the 2005 Soleil Zeuhl reissue which for whatever reason displayed the album with tracks mixed up per the band's request. In addition the newer version also features five tracks that were supposed to comprise the "Icare" album which was slated to be the fourth ESKATON album however due to the band's proclivity to deemphasize the progressiveness of their music and veering into the watered down world of pop which FICTION does indeed point to, the more commercial tracks were scrapped leaving five extras that more or less followed in the footsteps of what was laid out on FICTION. Yes indeed FICTION does find a progressive rock band adapting to the 80s however ESKATON forged a unique bridge between two seemingly disparate worlds quite successfully and although the band would soon drift off more into the pop world before disbanding, FICTION is without a doubt more on the side of progressive zeuhl than anything remotely new wave. I know i'm in the minority but this is my favorite ESKATON album.