VOLUME II - LES CHEVRONS

A mysterious, enthousiastic and complex effort by this original 70's progressive rock collective. This album is possibly considered as their most popular. As usual it's largely dominated by synth chords, lyrical female voices and acoustic instruments. "Les chevrons" is a vast catalogue of epic, short symphonic rock songs with folkish accents. All compositions sound really weird, sometimes catching with irony the sound of medieval ancient dancing music. However there's nothing gothic, ambiences are colourful, luminous and turned to positive energies. "Ouverture" is an eccentric acoustic medieval incursion with chorus, organs and percussions, featuring progressive harmonies & arrengements (a lot of variations and changing textures). An humorous epic introduction. "Rien" srarts with percussive parts and chanting organs in a very folkish style, pursued by heroic keyboards, church like organ for light melodies. "Solstice" is a bizarre composition for malefic keys & fantomatic female / male voices. "Les chevrons" once again starts with a grandiose church like organ imitation, then carries on a pseudo sinister symphonic composition altered by parodies. This album delivers really strange atmospheres, with delirious, eccentric ingredients, crazy keyboards. "Masq" is just a gag, sounding like a bad score for B movie. Consequently not their best effort but a lot of humours. We have the sensation to listen to the soundtrack of a "comedy of terror".

By 1972 the line-up of Catharsis was shortened to a quartet, which would carry the band until its demise.Niles Brown, Charlotte and Allain Geoffroy were all gone and the style of the band was limited to a typical bass/guitar/organ/drums format.The remaining members Roland Bocquet, Yves de Roubaix, Charles Eddie and Patrick Moulia recorded the next album at the Studio Davout in Paris.The single ''Les chevrons'' was quite succesful and the album was finally released on Saravah under the title of ''Vol.2-Les chevrons''.

The non-presence of an extended core worked well for Catharsis and the hypnotic, sinister sound of their incosistent debut was replaced by a much more energetic approach, which was still rooted in Psychedelic Rock, but bursts strong amounts of passion and dynamics.In fact they added in their style a certain and pronounced Classical flavor, always in dark and haunting realms, often getting into serious drama with the presence of obscure chants.The music remains in the hands of Roland Bocquet, who drives Catharsis' ideas through his long organ fanfares to symphonic, psychedelic and intense textures, which can be both relaxed and bombastic.Moreover the band now holds some similarities to ANGE's debut album, having a muddy production surrounded by captivating Classical influences.A very short offering by Catharsis again, clocking at only 30 minutes, ''Les chevrons'' suffers a bit from some needed variety, as the whole album seems to be covered by Bocquet's organ moves with little space for guitar-driven textures or any other activity far from the lush keyboard arrangements.

This is a certain improvement over ''Masq''.Organ-based Psychedelic Rock with obvious symphonic vibes, played with power and passion.Recommended.