EMBALLADE

Julverne is another one of these bands that belong to the Progressive Chamber Rock scene from this incredibly vivid Belgian scene. The japanese CD reissue actually incuded a Pete Frame-like family tree of this scene that includes Univers Zero , Cos , Present , X- legged Sally , Aksak Maboul , Present , Arkham , Pazop, Present and some more (most of these bands are included elsewhere in the Archives.

This third (and second last) album is actually quite different to the others . They received a lot of heat from their followers from having done such a daring project that brings you back from the start of the 20th century until the 30's. Actually this album is really almost classical music with slight jazz leanings and cabaret music (a bit like Mistinguette at the Moulin Rouge) but in terms of prog rock music , there is little to hear. Do not get me wrong a good deal of progheads will find many qualities to this album but this is really ouside the scope of the Archives.

All tracks are covers/reprises from all sorts of early century composers inckluding Scott Joplin and Duke Ellington , and some tango kings. The acoustic strings ensemble (see the picture on the opening Julverne page) is quite fun if you enjoy that type of music , but I doubt this will spin more than 4 or 5 times in your deck if you are to invest in this otherwise superb Art-Nouveau artwork sleeve impeccably reproduced by Beatball records. To me, as I mentioned in the first paragraph , the family tree was certainly the most interesting part of this release.