POST SCRIPTUM

Jean-Pierre Louveton carved quite a prog career with his band NEMO, and ever since going solo with his JPL projects, each subsequent album of his has kept and at times, even surpassed his past accomplishments, even daring to challenge his "Le Livre Blanc" as well as the "Sapiens" trilogy , all bona fide masterpieces. JPL mans all the instruments , except for Nemo drum master Jean Baptiste Itier, Florent Ville on drums on the first 3 tracks , as well as a guest pianist and vocalist. Seven progressive tracks with a harder and darker edge than usual, perhaps in part due to the current societal malaise plaguing the world.

"Solitaire" is neither an homage to a Bond girl or even a card game precursor of video games to keep the mind occupied but an expressive theatrical insight on the human nature , the desire for autonomy and free will, finding solace in introspective discovery, as opposed to toeing the common line, a current societal sickness. JP expresses his inner spleen with not only lyrics that pound hard on the conscience but also musically, flipping raging rhythmic slashes, interfaced with seismic soloing. The mood is intense and frazzled, as only a wounded soul could possibly be.

On the other perhaps darker side, lurks the discreet stranger within each one of us, "Jekyll" yearns to express the perils of honesty in human interactions, not knowing which hands deserve to be shaken, hypocrisy waiting for its prey like a camouflaged sniper. The quavering electric guitar shudders with echoing reverberations, a merry-go- round carousel that leads to nowhere. Stéphane Vouillot's sombre piano exuding endless angst collides with Elise Bourg's jolting backing vocals to create all the needed background to vengefully retire into the murky shadows of silence.

Speaking of Elise, she joins JP on the lamenting "A L'Évidence Je Me Rends", a resilient groove of flickering guitars and somber pace, illustrating once again the faltering social fabric of a once stable and proud land, unable to cope either individually or collectively, an exhausted rant of utter surrender to the evidence of a fractured world, led by lies, fuelled by opinion and endless negativity. No one knows anymore what people really think, comfortably numb in either ovine submission or worse, forced silence. Want evidence ? It's called the Internet.

« L'Homme est un Animal Sauvage" needs no translation, an angry and forceful commentary on the inherent possibility of cruelty within the dark folds of every human's nature. The musical rollercoaster between good and evil is exhibited by the fractured polyrhythmic syncopation of JP Itier's maniacal technique, the collar and chain discarded, free to express the most primitive desires. A bruising and painful slice of rage.

The enigmatic nature of "Puzzle" offers a variety of dissonant tones that fuse majestically into an eventual picture, engaged by concussive rhythms, interrupted by a conspiratorial bass line that begins forming a pattern of false comfort, a hushed vocal guiding through the vaporous luminosity. A lost soul, a broken body walking heartless through the maze , searching for peaceful resolution. The guitar work is oppressive, I daresay even reckless, slashing at the approaching spectral phantoms with defiance, a solemn outro that glides into symphonic surrender. A tremendous track!

The ghosts do appear after all on "Les Fantomes", a coarse vibe of viper charged electric riffs that spiral like the coils of a ravenous serpent, feeding on our fears and invading our defenses . With lyrics like 'We must let the past pass, and let the future come', the counterattack is on full throttle, chasing the evil eye, cross the finish line with fist pumping in the air. Itier puts on quite the display on his drum kit, pounding mercilessly the charge forward , while JP liberates his guitar from the shackles of despair.

What else can one expect than an epic 11-minute finale, the rusty nails banged into our destiny's coffin on "Post Scriptum" ? With Louveton unleashing his talent on both thrusting bass and rhythm and lead guitars, the pace becomes at first torrid and unapologetic, finality kicks into an extended bluesy instrumental section where the lead axe becomes sulfurous and acerbic, finally veering towards the cataclysmic finale, where all the pain of the universe is expressed, a final word of farewell before the silence takes over, having nothing more to say. Freddie once said: 'Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? Easy come, easy go. Nothing really matters to me' .

4.5 proclaimed writings