WAPASSOU

Unique and obscure 70's French Chamber Rock trio,hailing from Strasbourg.The main core of the band had no rhythm section and included female guitarist/singer Karen Nickerl, violin player Jacques Lichti and keyboardist Freddy Brua.However on their self-titled debut from 1974 there are several session help on a few tracks, including some bass, flutes, clarinets, drums and percussion.The album was originally released on Prodisc, both the Musea and Belle Antique CD reissues some years later include the two tracks of their single ''Femmes- Fleurs / Borgia'' from the same year.

The original opening ''Melopee'' is a haunting number of mellow Chamber/Classical music with flutes and violins on the forefront,pretty hypnotic but quite engaging.With the long ''Rien'' the band mixes impressively Psychedelic and Chamber Rock: dark organ sounds, acoustic passages with scary violin parts and emphatic vocals by Nickerl present the really personal face of the band.''Musillusion'' is on the folkier side of things thanks to the combination of acoustic guitars and violins with some symphonic sections added and Nickerl again in good form.''Chatiment'' is the first track to contain the slow drumming of Jean-Michel Biger, again a nice blend of organ-driven CATHARSIS-like Psychedelic Rock and violin-driven Chamber music, supported by the expressive narrative vocals of Nickerl along with a great flute section by Geneviève Moerlen towards the end.The long closing piece ''Trip'' features also the percussion work of Pierre Moerlen's brother Benoit in a track which sounds like an extended psychedelic jamming with the fiery organ solos next to the drums and percussion before finally takes some short of ANGE flame, where organ and electric guitars combine nicely.The end of it belongs to the sitar sounds of Christian Laurent.

Notice that the Musea CD reissue however will open with the two tracks of the band's 1974 single.''Femmes-Fleurs'' is a typical organ-led Psychedelic Rock cut with a steady hypnotic groove and a decent electric guitar performance, while ''Borgia'' contains some more dynamics,sounding though stylistically quite dated despite the nice organ solos.

A good mix of Psychedelic and Chamber Rock by a band with a sound of its own.Today the album has lost much of its freshness, possibly due to the lack of some true energy, but still surprises with the decent concept of combining two different music approaches.Warmly recommended.