EXTRA-LUCIDE

The newly born band of Forgas promoted its first album through series of gigs around the Paris region, but unfortunately personel changes wasn't meant to be avoided.The recordings of the new album found only guitarist Mathias Desmier onboard from the previous core and Forgas was also surrounded by newcomers Juan Sebastian Himenez on bass, Gilles Pausanias on keyboards and Denis Guivarch on sax.''Extra-lucide'' was eventually released again on the Cosmos label at the fall of 1999.

This second album of Forgas Band Phenomena finds Forgas musically more mature and his new bandmates collaborating in a tighter way.The result is a trully enjoyable album with too many incredible moments, as the arrangements are characterized by constant shifts between richer and smoother passages in a balanced way, while there are plenty of shattering interplays, semi-loose solo deliveries and a fair amount of melody appearing in the album.The Canterbury influence is still apparent through the dreamy keyboard parts and the jazzy twists of the album, which is highlighted by the excellent work of Pausanias on synthesizers and electric piano.Saxes remain always in evidence with alternations between extended solos and more melodic interventions in a Jazz/Fusion style, while the guitars are added for good measure when needed.Forgas' drumming is again unmistakable and the whole amalgam sounds very attractive.The 19-min. long ''Pieuvre a la pluie'' is a fantastic example of varied Prog/Fusion with tremendous interplays and tons of changing textures, while ''Annie reglisse'' contains a beautiful combination of synthesizers and saxes, creating beautiful, dreamy, unmet soundscapes.These tracks are propably the picks of an otherwise very solid album.

This is some excellent Prog/Fusion, where both emotions and technique meet.One of the gems of the 90's regarding the genre, absolutely satisfying and highly recommended.

Following on from the release of their debut album in 1997 the band planned to undertake live dates, but these were impacted by changes in personnel and by the time they went into the studio in January 1999 only guitarist Mathias Desmier was still there with Patrick. The rest of the band now comprised Gilles Pausanias (keyboards), Denis Guivarc'h (saxophone) and Juan-Sébastien Jimenez (bass) with an overall sound and approach that was very rooted in the fusion space but with less overall breadth and width than the debut. There is still one number coming in at nearly twenty minutes, but the other four are all less than ten with a total running time of just over 45 minutes.

With less woodwind instruments, and no vibraphone/marimba, there is far more space on this album which is used wisely so while Denis is often taking the lead role the others switch between providing melodic support or taking more of a backseat. During "Rebirth" Mathias plays the same note progression almost throughout, yet when he is given the opportunity he is an incredibly exciting and dynamic performer yet fully understood his role in this piece. This also allows Patrick to ensure that he and Juan-Sébastien are more to the fore, as there are far less layers to contend with while musically it feels much more like an album of its time as opposed to one from much earlier, unlike the debut. Undoubtedly the change in line-up had impacted what was taking place, but also Forgas had been able to record four albums in 10 years, and before that there was a break of 13 years when he had recorded very little, so he was able to experiment more with what he actually wanted to achieve. This often feels more upbeat and commercial, with much more of a jazz rock fusion feel than Canterbury, and one can certainly understand why after this was released they were soon signed to Cuneiform who they have been with ever since. Again, this album has until now been unavailable for the last 20 years, and it is a fine addition to any collection.