MANA PERDU

ELOHIM were a French symphonic prog band founded in the early seventies, stylistically comparable to the well- known compatriots such as ANGE, MONA LISA and ATOLL. However, Elohim's only album Mana Perdu was released in 1983. Despite being a surprisingly good album which was even re-released on CD in 2000 by Musea Records, my review is only the second one here. [Also the accidentally added other album by another group is still waiting to be taken away from the artist page.]

The opening track 'L'effet stricking' is the longest one at 12:20. In the beginning a sharp, synth-centred riff is being repeated a few times. The track is nearly on the halfway, when the CAMEL-reminding, jazzy instrumentalism gives way to rather theatrical French vocals that remind quite a lot of those in Ange. The vocals are, fortunately, very sparse in this composition. The bass played by guitarist Daniel Trutet is delightfully audible in the fusiony flexible sound. There's also a brief section with repetitive MAGMA-reminding high pitched vocals. Oh, by the way, the album has a concept about a creature named ELO 666, but that feature doesn't have any notable part in my listening experience, not only because of my terribly rusty French.

The six other tracks are more or less in the same vein, only with the vocals being slightly more central. The keyboards played by Jacques Sourisseau are almost entirely rather hollow-sounding synths typical to the 80's. This is a shame, because they drag the overall impression closer to the generic neo prog style. Otherwise the music is fairly good, melodic, Genesis-rooted symphonic prog, with an enjoyable touch of fusion. But I have to say I would enjoy the album more if there were completely instrumental tracks too. And the whole is not quite as strong as the opening epic makes you hope for. For these reasons I'm rounding my 3½ stars down. Nevertheless, this album is definitely better than one would expect from the minimal number of reviews or the release year. In France, the more renowned prog bands either had seized to exist or made poor, pop-oriented albums at that time.