ASTRO - LOGICAL

"Astro-logical" was my first Edhels experience back in the early 90s, and it certainly was something like a shock to me: sure it impressed me as an accomplished musical work and a catalogue of very original ideas, yet I wasn't really prepared for what was comprised in it. Weird layers and counterpoints played on plenty of digital keyboards, a large amount of dissonances and atonalities, atypical interplays between guitar and synth, abrupt tempo shifts or an apparent lack of them, even a couple of Frippian guitar soundscapes. each individual idea sounded so brilliant, yet the amalgam appeared to be so unarticulated, that all I could do for my initial listens was to wonder where the music was heading to and why was I so left behind. Until one day, during my fifth or sixth trial listen, it hit me: this is a masterpiece, with its bizarre sequence of surprises being a crucial part of its particular greatness. After two albums built within the neo- prog frame, this Monegasque-French ensemble decided to go for it big time and create something challenging in a most frontal manner: the Zodiaque subject that serves as the unitary concept for the album's repertoire was more than appropriate as a cohesive reference for this musical adventure. Just like any travel across the mysterious yet appalling astral infinite space, the succession of motifs performed on synths, guitar, midi-guitar and drums (mostly electronic) is designed to grab the listener's attention and take it across plateaus and valleys still undiscovered, a wide room for unforeseen turns and potential accident. There is still an orchestral feel working in the subsurface as a foundation for the sonic landscape that takes place all throughout the album: all in all, Edhels' symphonic essence is still there, only refurbished with a refurbished, bolder artistic ideology. 'Belier', 'Cancer' and 'Lion' are amongst the most dense and challenging pieces in the album (the latter two being my two "Astro-logical" faves), while 'Vierge' incorporates a slightly softer ambience built upon a jazz-pop oriented rhythm pattern. 'Scorpion' sounds to me like 80s KC-meets-Jarre-meets-Latimer, a bizarre mixture that works beautifully. The longest number is 'Verseau': it combines the new line of work with the clear melodic neo-prog stuff that Edhels used to do earlier. The neo stuff meets its most prominent expression in 'Sagittaire', which makes it an oasis of nice simplicity amidst this forest of complexity. The eerie closure 'Poissons' brings a final air of ethereal calm, in the vein of 80s Vangelis - an introspective end for an exciting album whose artistic qualities make take some time (if ever) to be revealed to the ears of demanding listeners. At least, that's what I get from my own experience. So this is not a recommended introduction to the musical world of Edhels, but most certainly this is one of their most brilliant efforts.