� TOUS LES ENFANTS...

Christian Vander

Zeuhl

2.61 | 10 ratings

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Christian Vander here somehow bridging the gap between Zeuhl and traditional children's songs. Necessary? Absolutely not. But its Christian Vander.

As you'd expect of an album of kids songs, the instrumentals are pretty stripped back and simple, but at times still manage an eerie feel (such as J'ai du bon tabac and Le Ballet des Sorcieres). Vocals are provided by three Vanders (Christian plus wife Stella and daughter Julie) and Isabelle Feuillebois. I'm told the CD comes with a big booklet of lyrics and illustrations to go with.

Les oies sauvages is a short instrumental of high pitch wind instruments (piccolo at a guess, my picking of instruments is poor) which is the first that interests me on the album. Many around this track are nice but simple interplay of the vocals over a basic piano bed. Others, as mentioned above, are a bit eerie, and are probably meant for the children of Kobaia rather than Earth! One of those, is the 8 minute track Ronde de Nuit (Night Watch), which is a very interesting one. The female vocalists do an excellent job together creating the atmosphere worthy of the title, a group of women sneaking around in the shadows unseen - crystal balls, witches broomsticks etc. - and has a piano melody that is quite reminiscent of the Hall of the Mountain King at times.

From there I did switch off at times as it gets quite samey, although Chanson Des Oeufs has a beauty to it despite translating to english simply as 'Egg Song'. I woke up again with the final track Dodo L'enfant Do. Back on a Kobaian theme, very slow deep chords to start with - the track as a whole wouldn't be out of place in 70s Magma.

Some bits worth a mention.... but I'd still call it for "collectors only" of Vander's eclectic repertoire.

bartymj | 2/5 | 2023-4-29

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