LIVE SURANNÉ

Well, I too, have received a PM from someone representing Fractale and inviting my attention to their works. My comments here are based on a combination of checking out this person's private preferences via his ratings of other works and the three very short YouTube links available on PA. I have not heard this (very short!) album in full - and probably never will as a result of my "homework".

My reasons are many-fold.

Firstly, I am not immune to ZEUHL as a genre as I am very fond of Jazz and more so Jazz- Rock, but the Avant-Garde side to the genre is not something I'd salivate over. That led me to bypass numerous - otherwise credible - works owing to personal preferences. A ZEUHL fan, I am not.

Secondly - and even more importantly - this very person who approached me gave SOFT MACHINE - Seven a 3 star rating! Now, that's really serious in my world. One of my very fave albums where both Karl Jenkins and John Marshall deliver a breathtaking performance rated 3 (good, but not essential)? No thanks, you've made my dentures rattle and nearly fall out.

Now, onto FRACTALE. I could be seen as a spiritual, New-Age, gracefully ageing hippy-type and the fractals are part of my general interest. Computer generated images of a mathematical formula where even the tiniest bit contains the original shape and further magnified, the tiniest of that bit does it again - ad infinitum.

Quite something to wrap your mind around, delivered in splendid visualization. The documentary "Colors Of Infinity" narrated by Arthur C. Clarke with pleasing guitar licks by the very David Gilmour (sound lifted from the Pan-Americana DVD by PINK FLOYD) is a must to see for every thinking person. You may care to note that perusing this documentary on the fractals (Mandelbrot-set) assisted me to understand what I've been told over and over, but could never wrap my mind around before. That there is NO TIME, OR SPACE and that realization came without using any illicit substances..

Well, the band FRACTALE, doesn't seem to do justice to their name via their music (of what I've heard). Multiple horns playing in unison can come off well by the likes of B.B.King's band, but here it's, but a waste of breath and effort.

The music itself is enjoyable, but rather an overkill where more horns won't necessary make it better. I'd rather BACK DOOR, a trio with bass, drums and sax delivering a storm, but more on that some other time.