SI, PARTIE 1

Very interesting release from France. These guys are experts at contrasting the mellow and heavy passages, and besides they also use mellotron. Enough said ? Not quite.The vocals are in French and add a nice flavour to their sound as he can be quite theatrical at times. I've really grown to love this record and like tszirmay said in his review i'm going to seek out their back catalogue now.

"Douce Mort" features so many tempo and mood shifts, but at almost 17 minutes in length you'd hope it would right ? It opens with different sounds coming and going including piano, drums, mellotron and guitar with no real melody until after 2 minutes. And it's a good one, with a nice heavy sound. It settles right down after 3 minutes and whispered vocals arrive a minute later that build in strength as mellotron waves wash in. This is all so good. The tempo picks right up as a full sound comes in. Vocals follow. We get some heaviness for 2 minutes.Yes ! A calm returns 8 minutes in with lots of piano for 2 more minutes. More heaviness, and it sounds amazing ! It's very catchy 14 minutes in as vocals, guitar, synths and bass lead the way to the end of the song. The bass is quite heavy. "Ici, Maintenant" opens with piano as reserved vocals come in. Heavy drums and guitar 1 1/2 minutes in as passionate vocals arrive. Great passage ! A calm after 3 minutes is broken 4 minutes in as it gets heavy with organ added this time. Ripping guitar follows. Vocals after 5 minutes are back. The final minute of the song is mellow with strummed guitar and vocal melodies. "Miroirs" opens with riffs as the organ screams. It settles when vocals come in. Lots of synths 3 minutes in and a heavy sound 4 1/2 minutes in. The vocals are almost spoken at this point although they become strong to end the song. "Si" is so fragile for the first 2 1/2 minutes as vocals tremble and keys and bass lightly play. Drums start to change that 2 1/2 minutes in. Here we go after 4 minutes as it gets heavier. Guitar solo 5 minutes in with some strong vocals a minute later with organ runs.

"Apprentis Sorciers" is the 20 minute closer, it opens with some fine bass as piano, guitar and drums create a jazzy flavoured sound. Synths open the way for a terrific guitar solo. This leads to a full sound 4 1/2 minutes in as organ arrives, and it sounds great. It calms down quickly before building to a powerful sound 7 minutes in. A catchy section follows that is again sort of jazzy before a guitar solo 9 minutes in. The song pretty much becomes silent 10 1/2 minutes in before vocals and then piano come back. Some bluesy guitar after 12 minutes. It's building again in power until 14 1/2 minutes in we're there. Nice. It settles right down again to a beautiful section with piano,guitar,light drums and then vocals 16 1/2 minutes in.Moving. It's slowly building until an incredible sound 18 minutes in including vocal melodies. The final minute is brighter with some great drumming, piano and guitar.

This was such a pleasure to listen to at the end of this long winter we've had. Prog helps when spring seems so far away. Lots of snow still just like on the album cover.