DOCTEUR FAUST

Second Igor album, also released on the Pathé major label, Dr Faust doesn't need much an explanation about its conceptual content, and musically, it's fairly well in the logical continuity of his debut album. Like its predecessor Logos, Dr Faust also features the pop- rock group Triangle, but this time the presence of the group is a lot more important and noticeable. Armed with a sinister but proggy artwork, it's also one of Igor's more sombre affair, but maybe the most accessible for rock crowds.

Opening on a kitsch male multi-echoed narration that will turn into spoken female chants and choirs at later stages in the musical concept, Aimentation quickly turn to hypnotic drums and drones along with spacey chants and cosmic noises (keys and guitars). The transition in to the three-part Materia Prima piece is hard to discern, but signalled by Fournier's bass solo. Once the cosmic rock slowly segues away, the music veers to a modern classical symphonic mode, with a full orchestra that should have most Stravinsky, Mussorgsky or Prokofiev fans on the edge of their seat. Whispering vocals open an insanity phase, where illogical musical events reigns supreme, before string-scraping howling spaceship reactors bring you back to hell. Eau Ardente is no less weird with its religious incantations accompanied by firecracker percussions over electronic drones and foghorns.

Gentle harpsichord arpeggios open the Ténèbres piece, before plunging into the Walpurgis gloomy meanders. More harpsichords, this time segueing in wild electric guitar parts and other psychedelic freak outs traits draw you well beyond the most extreme GonG twiddles in the Matines and Licornes pieces. The closing Sang Pourpres ends the album in a more austere fashion, but no-less freaky soundscapes (including flying bullets) scrap their way into your now-numb brains, until its abrupt and unexpected end.

Please note that if you're familiar with Triangle's pop-rock discography, you'd have a hard time recognizing the same band. One can only dream about what the band would've achieved had they been more artistically ambitious rather than commercially ambitious. Definitely Igor's best suited entry point for rock crowds, Dr Faust is an amazing album that deserves at listen an investigation from every adventurous music freak.