VOLAPÜK - Polyglöt

Greger
(Greger Rönnqvist)
PROG REVIEWER

French band VOLAPÜK is a trio formed around the drummer and composer Guigou Chenevier, formerly known from ETRON FOU. They are using instruments such as clarinets, marimba, violoncello and flute to create a music that blends chamber music, Jazz, progressive rock and the bands in the RIO movement. The compositions are complex with lots of improvisations and the musicians are virtuosos. With the addition of accordion many of the tracks sounds as if they could've been taken from a Lars Hollmer album. In fact the track "Voilà Pük" are a Hollmer composition written for VOLAPÜK, and listening to it you can hear that it has the unmistakable Lars Hollmer touch to it. This is a really interesting album, and I think that many Lars Hollmer fans will appreciate it. Highly recommended listening!

Posted Saturday, January 24, 2004 | Review Permalink

hdfisch
(Dieter Fischer)
PROG REVIEWER

This excellent album by French band Volapük led by Etron Fou drummer GUIGOU CHENEVRIER is one of the best and most accessible Avantgarde/RIO albums I’ve ever listened to. The mixture of world music and odd Avant stuff presented here is just perfectly done. They are using some rather uncommon instruments like the taragot, which is a bit similar to oboe or the African sanza which is composed of a series of flexible tongues of uneven length, made of metal or bamboo, fixed to a wooden plate or trapezoid sound-box. There are no real highlights on this album which doesn't mean that it is boring but rather because all the tracks are so great and wonderful that it actually defies any description. It’s not one of those RIO albums that are full of weirdness, actually the only more crazy one is the last track but nevertheless it does not lack exciting moments at all. Overall it’s a very enjoyable and versatile listen with a certain amount of oddity, maybe not necessarily to be recommended to those fellows who love their RIO as crazy as possible but I’d call it an excellent addition to any prog collection and I’d like to advice anyone who is looking for some special uncommon music, not exclusively RIO-fans to check out this album. It’s worth for many many enjoyable listens.

Posted Sunday, July 10, 2005 | Review Permalink

Dan Yaron
(Dan Yaron)

Volapuk returns with a new album, and dissapointment is certainly NOT provided here! These guys have been improving their music so much since their previous album. Unlike the other album (Slang), this one is a great RIO album. In addition, a new members (Takumi Fukushime) has joined the trio, and now it's actually a lovely quartet that plays fine RIO! As far as I know many people consider this genre boring, and I can certainly agree with them about it when it comes to few albums, especially the previous one by Volapuk. However, this album doesn't appear in the list of boring RIO albums because it's actually a great achievement by these people, and they really succeed in providing the RIO fans with good RIO tunes full of strings and other accustic instruments. Moreover, I recommend you listen to this album if you are fond of Univers Zero, Present, Gatto Marte, Cro Magnon, Art Zoyd and so on.

Posted Wednesday, August 24, 2005 | Review Permalink

Excellent release by this RIO/chamber rock group from France. I doscovered this group very recently after gaining interest in bands such as UNIVERS ZERO and I was not dissapointed by what I got. This album is a mix of jazz, chamber rock, and classical music all woven perfectly together to create a great work of progressive music. The highlights of the album would be "View Futur" and "Valse Chinoise" (soo beautiful). The last track, "L'oeuf d'Apük", from where the album gets its name, is a very comical yet sad song with a nice folk tale. It ends with a moral but I could never understand the vocals because it is said very softly...it jsut adds an element of mystery to the whole thing. Overall: great release with some apparent influences but mostly inventive. Good for lovers of bands such as ETRON FOU, UNIVERS ZERO, HENRY COW. Highly recommended

Posted Thursday, March 29, 2007 | Review Permalink