VINCENT DIONNE - NIL BLEU, NIL BLANC

A compilation from Dionne's two albums around the turn of the 80's (Destinations from 88 and Parade from 91), this compilation is not an anthology. Having never heard either of those albums, I can't possibly tell you if the choices made are judicious or not, but we shall let Vincent be the judge. Both albums were ethnic fusion albums with a slight new-age twist that could be easily confused as an ECM label release. Coming with its own separate ethnic artwork, the compilation shuffles tracks from both albums without much sense (at least not apparent to this writer), not even respecting the movement order of the mini-suite Transalpine (from Destination), or including it in its entirety.

The over half of the tracks come from Parade, which appears to be the better albums of the two, at least the more acoustic and instrumental (as opposed to Destinations' programmed and synthesized production). Indeed the lead-off title track (of this compilation) is a very new-agey piece as is the solemn Jardins De Roc are from Destinations and Oregon's Paul McCandless's wind instruments won't change much to the overall feel. A minor surprise in Parade, where Dionne recycles one of the riffs from Dionne- Brégent's Troisième Jour, remaining unclear whether by design or accident. Much less by accident and much more by design (and not quite as subtly either) is Ocean Tears' riff-in- seven also coming from the same album, and maybe being my fave track from the album.

One of those hundreds of album of the ethnic fusion genre, none better or worse than this one, but not really essential (and a far cry from the superb D-B duo's essential works), unless a die-hard fan of this genre.