CE TRÈS CHER SERGE - SPÉCIAL ORIGINES

Second or third album (this is confusing) from this quartet that exploit the submarine vessel like the group Nemo or Nautilus would, but this time in a very Bande Dessinée (comics) manner, with these impressive underwater life dangers on both the front and back cover of the digipak (apparently also pressed on vinyl). The group is now a quartet, but there is a flurry of guest musicians that appear here and there throughout the progress of the album. CTCS is a very different beast than their previous works, and not just in terms of sonics, but in the presentation as well. Indeed, gone are the Canterburyan soundscape and the Zeuhl intonations, but it doesn't mean that their music is that much more accessible or even less insane.

Opening on an, a capella Genèse, the album is not off to a good start, because the following Soir De Tempête is a bit of an obtuse hard-fusion piece with weird mixing choices (IMHO), directly leading (we're in the middle of 6-part mini-suite) into the minimalist Errance and the vocal-dominated interesting Serge Est Perdu, then a very punky Gong-ian Selve and the psychy searing feedback-filled guitars of Algues piece. Only the lengthy Visions piece does bring you back to Aquaserge's previous works on the present album, because we hear some Wyatt-like soundscapes, but unfortunately the finale is a silly vocal-dominated piece that might just seem built to be a sing-along in concert.

As I said above, CTCS is quite different than the U&D release, to the point that it's not that easy to tell if it's the same band at first glace/listen. Repeated listens will soften this remark, because there are less obvious hints that make the link. Personally I prefer the U&D release by a certain margin, but finding it might just be a bit difficult.