France is a weird country. Chauvinistic as they
are they sometimes lock themselves away from the outside world so noone
knows what’s going on and then they suddenly emerge with an album which
carries an enormous labour of love. Containing five long tracks and a
shorter instrumental epilogue a huge choir collaborates on this album by
Saens which also harbours cello and flute. Although sporting a real drummer,
nevertheless drumloops are used by none other than the great Abe Laboriel
Jr. Musically I hear snipppets from so many influences that it becomes
difficult to really label the band. From a vocal point of view Pascal
Bouquillard holds the middle between Vincent Fis (Now) and Mario Guccio of
Machiavel fame. I hear bits of Mona Lisa, Arrakeen, Now, Pendragon, Mike
Oldfield, all sifting through the music. From the pure neo-prog Saens switches to the
more folky instrumental ‘Ayanda’ which is interspersed once again by all
kinds of atmospheres including many experiental sections before ending with
a jazzy piano improvisation. It’s the same experimental feel which sets
off ‘The crawler’ before a predictable rhythm takes it back to pure
neo-prog territories. Instead of a well crafted composition however it
sometimes comes across as a mere cacophony even if they add (god knows why)
some latino elements towards the end. ‘Requiem’ is my favourite track
containing vocal battles between the bandmembers and the skilled
professional choir. Pitty about the bad choice of synthsound though and also
a big question mark as to why the band switches from English to French just
for this track whilst the choir tackles it’s lyrics in Latin ? Real flute
and cello take the short instrumental ‘Epilogue’ to a higher level
delivering the kind of music I was hoping to hear throughout the entire
album. The more I listened to this album it appealed to me less and less. If
Saens tackles another album let them approach the music as during
‘Epilogue’ and all will be forgiven ! Reviewed by John 'Bobo' Bollenberg |
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