LE TRÉSOR DE VALLIESRES

The cover from this third album by French progrock band Versailles is almost worth to make a review about it..... Ok, now you have taken an (extensive?) look at that artistic blend of sex and humour, let's conclude that Freud is right and go back to the music. The first time I listened to Versailles I was blown away by their very distinctive sound: a captivating mix of rock, symphonic and psychedelia featuring great, often fiery electric guitar work, pleasant flute play, bombastic vintage keyboards, dramatic, a bit theatrical French vocals and a dynamic rhythm-section. The shifting moods are frequent and the Mellotron is omnipresent, what a joy! The short song Jadis is a maverick delivering Spanish inspired acoustic guitar. Versailles doesn't make very accessible progrock but to me they sound as another unique and captivating French progrock band, SUPERBE!

"Versailles" is one of the many unknown band featured on PA. Before mine, there is only one review with a comment (the only ones which count IMO). From Erik, the symph guru.

I guess that most of the progheads prefer to describe some Genesis, Yes, Tull etc. great album over and over than to discover some brilliant bands. Of course, "Versailles" did not choose for the easiest task. Singing into French has NEVER been a plus. Especially on this site. It sounds as the language barrier has always have been a problem. And this is really a shame.

Some exceptions for the Italian symph style. But that's it. I really feel sorry for so many great French truely prog bands that are just not recognized as such.

"Versailles" second album was a great prog album and this one holds maybe one of the greatest epic ever written (well, let's not be too over-enthusiastic, maybe one of the top thirty one...). But before this epic, the listener will already go through a fantastic voyage. Musically with the opening track "Le Serment des Damnés" and lyrically with the short "Exquise Bêtise" (fantastic texts, really).

Now, "Une Saint Barthelemy Dévote". A magnificent piece of music. Wonderful and quiet intro. It makes reference to one of the darkest period of the French history (the "Saint Bartelemy" period - a religious massacre). Of course, it has some "Supper's Ready" moments. But don't you like these ???

Keyboards are grandiose, hypnotic chorus, "vitriolesque" lyrics, fabulous guitar work. Can't you cope with this ? Do you really want more ? This epic song is so brilliant, so inspired, so wonderfully played that I just can say one thing : give it an attentive ear. You will be so pleased to have done so. No doubt about that.

It is a five star track : no discussion about this. Well, actually, I hate to be so vindicative. But I just can recommend you to have a listen. I bet you : you won't be disappointed. Some spacey moments fully Floydian will transport you to the other side of the ...). A great, great song.

A gentle acoustic track ("Horizon's" & "Mood For A Day" like) will lead us to another beautiful prog moment : "Dégénerescence Obsessionnelle". Another long and gorgeous song ( over thirteen minutes). An incredible opening : outstanding guitar work, spacey keyboards. All of this during a superb intro (four minutes long). Some inspired lyrics, and here we go for a very much "ASOS" oriented song.

Brilliant symphonic and space-rock with great lyrics is a cocktail I like very much. If you also add some very nice flute solo instants, you might imagine that I am just stunned with this number as well. Finale is very much Genesis oriented ("Watcher"). BEAUTIFUL my dear prog friends.

"Avec Tous Mes Hommages" holds absolutely irreverent / vulgar / obscene lyrics (but how much I like these...). This song is the most "The Knife" oriented one that I have ever heard. Almost a cover, musically. A bit too short, unfortunately.

The closing and title track opens on a fully spacey mood (but this already has been noticed on this great album).

Once in a while I do upgrade an album. The very much inacurrate rating sytem available on PA (twenty per cent increment between each grade) makes it very difficult to decide whether or not an album deserves more than the four star rating. This one deserves nine out of ten. Since I am rather scarce (ten per cent of my reviews end up with five stars) I will just rate this album with five stars. I will downgrade it with four and a half or nine out of ten when available.

This is a great album. Have a try and review it, please !

Great musicianship, original songwriting, complex yet accessible (?) music, good lyrics. These ingredients are the ones you can find in this amazing album.

Third album from 1994 issued at same Musea records , Le tresor de Valliesres is another great album from Versailles. Again long pieces with one monster track - Une Saint Barthelemy Devote - 21 min of high class prog, killer arrangements. Keeping same attitude like on previous album, Versailles realy make some almost perfect parts, singing in french language is not something I don't like, I really appreciate it and gives a special atmosphere overall. The cover art is an intristing one, haha, great, showing what lyrics are inside. Moody atmosphere, melodic guitras melded perfectly with keyboards, a very solid vocal arrangements, what else another true great album from this unknown french band. An inspired album from all sides that needs attention for sure. 4 stars again, worth every second. Again is not a very easy album to listen , it may needed more then 3-4 listnings to fully appreciated what is here, because after the listner capture all the magic is inside is hard not to be impressed.

VERSAILLE were a four piece Symphonic band out of France who operated in the 90's and this is their third of four studio albums they released during that decade. Most pan their debut with the short songs and while the second album boasted longer tracks and it certainly has it's fans it's really their final two records that get Prog fans excited. The album covers of those final two albums is another story as I'm not a fan of either. It's very interesting to me that three of the four members here would become part of MONA LISA who operated in the 70's but put out one final comeback album in 1998 the same year VERSAILLE released their final record.

Huge respect from yours truly for this third release "Le Tresor De Valliesres" from 1994. This album is brimming with ideas and take away those four short tracks and I'm very seriously considering 5 stars, but as it is this one is definitely a keeper. Lots of surprises and they clearly put a lot into this album and most of it works quite well. I love how upfront the bass is and the vocalist singing in French is very good and we get an array of keyboards including their only album with mellotron. I'm really looking forward to spending next week with their final album as this one impressed me so much. Imagine ANGE without the theatrical vocals.

How amazing does this sound with the choirs to start before the vocalist arrives sounding very French. Bass and beats and it just soars on the chorus, like a celebration. Catchy stuff. Killer bass on this one plus a few calms and flute later. "Une Saint Barthelemy Devote" is the epic at over 20 minutes and my favourite. It's fairly mellow for the first 3 minutes before they amp it up, flute too. A change after 12 minutes with soprano vocals and a classical sound before kicking back in with some great sounding guitar and bass. Spacey guitar leads follow and how about that nod to MAGMA with the chanting and upfront bass before 17 minutes. Come on!

That sixth track is 13 1/2 minutes long and we get some cool vocal arrangements 12 minutes in but that's the tip of the iceberg as we get another track for them to stretch out and be adventerous. The closer, the title track features some melancholic synths, whispered vocals and of course the bass and guitar especially around 4 1/2 minutes to the end. Nasty stuff.

Andy at Planetmellotron gave this 4.5 stars and I need to keep this around for now to compare it with their final release as this is an album that does excite me despite the cover art(haha).