RIO Festival: Salle Gaveau and Zao

So, after a lengthy hiatus of more than 25 years, Rock in Opposition reared its head once again in a disused quarry in France. The complex was interesting, a kind of outdoor sports centre with concert hall and auberge, and it was the ideal size for an event like this. There was a brief opening ceremony featuring the organisers, including Roger Trigaux of Present who was the main force behind the festival, and then it was on with the music.

Salle Gaveau kicked things off. A Japanese band unfamiliar to most of the audience - their debut album was only released in February - their set was one of the highlights of the weekend. They're a mostly acoustic quintet that was formed by Natsuki Kido, guitarist with Bondage Fruit and mainstay of the Tokyo underground. The rest of the line up is double bass, piano, accordion and violin, and the music is chamber rock with a hefty dash of Argentinian tango; there's a similarity with Almaailman Vasarat or perhaps a less sombre Art Zoyd. The first piece seemed a little ragged round the edges, but then Natsuki switched from acoustic to electric guitar and things got tighter and more exciting. All the players excelled; violinist Naoki Kita lead from the front with great flamboyance; pianist Masaki Hayashi demonstrated a superb, jazz influenced technique; bassist Keisuki Torigoe produced a range of sounds by bowing, plucking and by using the body of the instrument as percussion; accordionist Yoshiaki Sato alternated between holding everything together and playing incredibly fluid melodies; and Natsuki unleashed all kinds of wizardry on his axe, including some frenetic Fripp-style cross picking on one especially manic piece. Having heard the album, which they pretty much played in its entirety, there was a fair amount of improvisation going on during their set. This is something which can undo many bands but Salle Gaveau have the chops to pull it off with aplomb - definitely a band to watch out for in future. At the subsequent press conference it emerged that the name came from the venue of the original Dada exhibition, that the band didn't feel the need for percussion and that, Natsuki aside, they weren't terribly familiar with progressive rock. They stuck around for the whole weekend and seemed to enjoy most of what they heard, though. The audience were extremely enthusiastic, and the festival got off to a flying start.

Then came Zao, featuring Zeuhl legends Fracois Cahen and Yoch'ko Seffer, founder members of Magma who quit in 1972 and released some fine Zao albums over the next few years (their debut is especially recommended). Cahen played grand piano on this occasion, while Seffer mostly played clarinet and soprano sax. The rhythm section was in the solid hands of bassist Gerard Prevost and drummer Francois Causse (sometime member of Pierre Moerlen's Gong, according to Aymeric Leroy). Unfortunately their vocalist, Cynthia Saint-Ville, had been hospitalised, so for most of the show they played as an instrumental quartet, using taped or sampled vocals on one piece. The music was solid but unremarkable jazz fusion with a hint of Zeuhl, well played but rather unmemorable. I suspect that things would have been better if their vocalist had been present, but in the event most of the performance fell a little flat. Seffer's playing occasionally recalled his Hungarian background, but this wasn't the right context for that style of music. Things picked up greatly at the end of the set when violinis Naoki Kita joined them for the last piece - totally unrehearsed - and if the results weren't exactly tight the presence of the extra musician on stage inspired the most exciting and dynamic playing of Zao's set.

All in all a good start to the festival, with much more to come. It was especially good to see the Japanese RIO scene represented by such a superb and more or less unknown group - hopefully next time we might get Le Silo or Koenjihyakkei.