FIÈVRE

Fièvre (Fever in French) is a very good chamber rock album, in line with the likes of Art Zoyd, with chord passages of the kind that Angel Ontalva and October Equus are used to, but listening carefully we can also hear the influence of classic prog.. Ard de Er is a one man project from Belarus, whose name is taken from the first letters of the name and surname of the guy behind it.

The album is fully instrumental. The first track, "Boite Noire" means literally "Black Box", but in French it may have a number of different meanings. The track itself starts with a cello sound which gives it a very dark flavor, this is why my mind goes to Art Zoyd. then in the second part the signature and the chord sequences remind more to the mentioned Latin Horse. Anyway, it's a very good example of chamber rock.

This is more or less what the album is made of, but there are remarkable passages here and there, like the quasi.metal drumming in the second track, but what surprised me more is the start of the little epic "Le Jardin d'Or? (The Golden Garden). It's melodic and you may expect Jon Anderson suddenly dropping in. Some passages can make think to Steve Howe even if made by keyboards. In any case, the track varies a lot, and it's full of the typical darkness of the genre.

You can also hear echoes of Emerson lake and Palmer in the closer "Dernier Element" (Last Element), very appropriate title for a closer, indeed.

In brief, Arseny Ershov shows a very good musicianship united to a lot of ideas and creativity. 4 stars for who loves this genre.