QUARANTE JOURS SUR LE SINAÏ

A very deep expanse of sounds. An unfathomably wide open and uncompromising piece of music. Stylish, modern, exploratory progressive rock. "40 Days in the Sinai" is one long dream of 65 minutes divided into but two "acts" as they are denoted, though the disc does chapter them into about 30 short pieces not individually titled. They can sound a bit like Crimson at times, a bit Karcius, Lost World, Gabriel, and at times, Durutti Column. But these are mere suggestions, in reality NIL has produced a work that is quite visionary as it merges themes of past ages with music looking to the future. It's a work that is bold and complex but not quite perfect.

Tracks are often without much traditional structure but grow from moody textures of winding guitar notes, keyboards, or perhaps the harp. Often present is an unpredictable Tony Levin style of bass playing, at times mellow and other times aggressive. Some tracks will be augmented with dreamy and delicate female vocals, others with cello or sudden bursts of raging loud guitar in the surprise manner employed by Discus. There are gorgeous acoustic guitar sections and wistful passages of flute. Track 8 is the first one to mention. After some relatively calm openings, they contrast those notes against bursts of angular near-shred to good effect. Roselyne Berthet's smooth-hazed vocals instantly put you into trance on even the brief track 11, they make me feel like I'm floating on a pool of water. The next track gets quite disturbing with sinister organ over distorted male vocals and electric guitar. Track 16 is one that we stream on the site and is fairly representative of the album, except that most of the tracks do not have the female vocals. So as you listen to it, if it would interest you without the vocals, then it should be a safe bet for you to shell out the money. Track 17 is a favorite of mine, just the distant guitar notes with the wordless ethereal voice and without the constant busy bass. Track 19 features the wonderful harp over serene synthesizer with cello.very lovely.

As fascinating and beautiful as this work often is there is definitely something missing for me on the emotional level. It earns 3 stars immediately for being bold and intricate, but I can't give it more stars because it is one of those many albums that I love with my head but not with my heart. My head may do cartwheels over the many technically astounding parts but my heart is somewhat indifferent to the album as a whole. Nevertheless I do recommend this fine work to anyone interesting in quality modern prog. Unicorn did a very nice job with the artwork, providing a brief foldout booklet with a thicker lyrics book in English and French.

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