VOX NOSTRA

— First review of this album —

This very interesting band is actually mostly a one-person project headed by Pierre Minvielle who composes music that focuses on orchestration and vocal intricacies. Through the years of it's existence, the project has worked with vocal soloists and choirs, but there are also times when everything is performed by Pierre alone. Whatever the focus for the album, you can bet that you will get some very interesting harmonies and orchestrations.

On the EP "Vox Populi", you get nearly a half hour of lovely compositions where Minvielle performs all instruments and most of the vocals except for the tenor harmonics performed by Eric Poilpot. The music is a dynamic blend of chamber- style music which is surprisingly diverse and dynamic. Minvielle is not the best vocalist, but that is hardly noticeable as the orchestration is top notch.

Most of the music is surprisingly lush and layered, but it's not all that way as in the case of "Sur les Pavés" which utilizes more of a spoken word style at first, but ends up with a nice guitar solo with a heavier popular style. But while tracks like "Introit" and "Plus Loin" are organized to be lovely arrangements, in contrast, "Une feuille est tombée" is more dissonant and more like a baroque-avant style, at least until it gets to the last few minutes when the guitar joins in to close off the track. To end the album, things venture heavily into rock territory with "Ils ont choisi", a heavy and chunky guitar riff- driven number that churns away building up for a dramatic and dark sense of style.

While Poilpot's harmonizations with his tenor vocals are quite good, Minvielle is much harsher and harder to listen to, so that can contradict the feeling at times, while on the final two tracks, it actually fits with the music much better. But I wish he would have picked another vocalist other than himself to help carry the dynamics better. While he often utilizes more singers on his albums, this time he chooses to manipulate vocals to create the sections that have choral/choir style singing, which is always, in this case, carried out in wordless vocalization.

I am actually intrigued by this EP as well as some of the projects other albums. While the instrumentation is excellent, and so is the guest vocals and the manipulated vocals, Minvielle's vocals end up being distracting at times and end up hurting the overall album, which would have easily hit a 4-star rating. I can't help but think that it might have been better without his own vocals, either with or without another singer or two. However, the EP is still good enough to check out even just for the diversity of the music and the great orchestration.

Vox Nostra were born during the summer of 2007 in Rambouillet, France by composer and keyboardist Pierre Minvielle.Pierre had already received Classical education and was also familiar with Jazz harmonies, while with Vox Nostra he tried to combine these elements with rock instrumentation.Recruiting three vocalists (Roxane Terramorsi, Marie-Suzanne Lacroix and Laurent Levy) along with Jean Claude Delachat on guitars and Sophie Le Coq-Cochard on flutes, he recorded the first album ''Anima'', released independently in 2009.

The music of Vox Nostra has been compared with MAGMA and not of course with no reason.Both acts move from dramatic and sinister sections to ethereal textures with impressive vocals, while Vox Nostra's four-piece choir also sings in an unusual language: All lyrics are delivered in Latin, derived from a Christian liturgy, according to Minvielle himself, creating a beautiful, Gospel atmosphere.Musically the group sounds a bit one-dimensional with the textures being driven by Minvielle stretched piano lines and careful use of keyboards, close to the style of Ad Vitam, but the proposed sound is certainly quite dreamy, with the vocals offering often another ''hidden instrument'' to the arrangements.The guitars and drums are measured, adding some sort of needed diversity, while the presence of them gives rise to a more Fusion approach of an otherwise very Zeuhl/Chamber Rock album.Stylistically the group has a strong Classical- and Jazz-tendency through the process with alternating softer and more haunting lyrical moments, but the addition of guitars and drums easily drop Vox Nostra into the prog category.While some dynamics are obviously absent, ''Anima'' has a strange, deep and unique atmosphere of its own, propably created by the Latin vocals and the dominant piano work of Minvielle.

An unknown pearl of recent Progressive Rock.Many will find ''Anima'' a bit too soft for their tastes, but this album has still a bizzare attractiveness few groups can create.Warmly recommended, especially if you like Chamber Prog or light Zeuhl.

This is the third album by this French band / project, led by multi-instrumentist Pierre Minvielle. Zeuhl afficionados may have crossed his name in the 80's as he was briefly playing on Eider Stellaire's second album. And so did too guitarist Jean-Claude Delachat (both on II and III), present here on Vox Nostra. The Zeuhl connection will not stop here, as the present album could stylistically be ranked alongside Offering or Ad Vitam; there is an important choral work (soprano, tenor, alto & baritone voices are used), singing in Latin, sustained by jazz or modern classical harmonies - Debussy among other, with those typical minor seventh chords! But then of course there is on top all the rhythmic work: those obsessive ostinato patterns characterizing the Zeuhl genre, very syncopated or broken lines that especially give an extra breathe to the harmonized vocals, changes of tempi with accelerations bringing further tension, piano clusters reinforcing the darkness and urgency of the music, synthesizer textures sustaining the tension via extended chord progressions, etc... Guitarist Delachat brings extra power with a fuzzy electric guitar playing, working as a counterpoint to the vocal declamations but he also shows a lyrical side when playing some melodic lines under them, nearly like some kind of mini soloing. Besides his vocal duties, Minvielle is also playing keyboards, bass and drums, as well as composing all the music. But don't be afraid, this doesn't sound at all like those many one-man projects missing an organic character! There is here coherence, integration and competence at play and the tunes are really compelling. My last point will go to the excellent Rhodes parts, which work perfectly in combination with the vocals: pushing, intriguing, a lot of key attack raising the rhythmic force to a higher level! If you just let go and receive all playing as a whole, you'll be reaching an ecstatic state of mind, at times exhultation and the shadow of Christian Vander the singer (not the drummer) will probably pass by your ears many many times ... thumbs up, Pierre!

you can find a good quality recording to listen to on http://www.selfprod.com/voxnostra/ I had an MP3 disc to review, but on this site I noticed how the music sounds much more dynamic. My first impression was of a tempered relaxed Magma without the ambitious elements, mixed with lighter tracks that create a feeling of a slightly religious and dedicated concentration, a bit like a mass, where Latin is used in a liturgic way. There is enough happening that even with the lighter foot edge this combination works pretty well. Especially the vocals and some tracks will remind more often of Magma, in a tempered way, and also, in a different (-the sacral song inspiration-) context. The piano/keyboards is sometimes more jazz, is rather classical and is one of the lighter elements. Not too much electric guitar is added but their approach is good. Actually an enjoyable album. It does not exist as a real CD yet but I guess this must or will happen some day.