UNIVERS ZERO [AKA: 1313]

What a slap in the face Univers Zero gives you in terms of an introduction to their music. I cannot think of one group that dared so much at once in their debut album as UZ did at the time, bar some other RIO outfits. Mostly an acoustic band (bar the bass and some of Trigaux's guitars), the music coming out here is a cross of Zappa (Uncle Meat), meeting Henry Cow, Bela Bartok or Charles Ives, yet it has a distinct rock flavour, but maybe not in a widely-accepted manner. Thev music is anything but light hearted, rather sombre and oppressive always flirting with dissonances, but never going over the top with them (as was frequently the case with Henry Cow). If I can be so naïve as to remind you that UZ is one of the six signataires of the Rock In Opposition chart, you might just understand that UZ is as much about their music as they are about aesthetics of their music. For this debut album, UZ is a septet and the huge majority of instrument used are of the classical persuasion.

It is of course never easy to describe such difficult music, with either words or images, but the acoustic world that UZ is presenting us is a dark, nightly, rather solemn and sinister underworld made of ambiances and angst of finding sheer horror round the street corner in London's smog late XIXth century. The 14-min+ Ronde is a wild opener, with the violin taking first role, while the much shorter Carabosse (after the fairy-witch) is more in the space of Berckmans' bassoon while Daniel Denis' amazing and inventive drumming and percussions rules the backtracks.

If the first side of the vinyl was mostly Daniel Denis' works, the second side will be Roger Trigaux's oeuvre. Not that good old Roger's "songwriting" is any lighter than Daniel's, far from it, but his music is clearly more rhythmic and repetitive. As on the previous side, the music hovers between Stravinsky and Balkanic oriented "folk-classical" music with some strong Magma influencers (Denis did play for the group and remains nowadays a friend of the Vander tribe) and represents one of the best example of chamber rock. In some ways their music can be likened to early Gryphon (the acoustic and instrumental nature of the music), but UZ is nothing medieval.

Please note that UZ's music is not easily accessible to the average Joe and therefore cannot be easily recommended to everyone. But in their genre, this group represents peak of what can be done in that kind of music. And this is only their first album of a lenghty career. Certainly a more influential band than a popular one, UZ is one of the gardians of the progressive music's integrity.

This remains the best introduction to this reviewer's favourite superhero member of Mr. Cutler's RIO league of nations. Their music can be likened to incidental music suited for a gothic suspense thriller but their impact on our favourite genre is anything but.

While many more traditional rock bands induce anticipation and expectancy through the use of melodic guitar riffs, UZ don't grant you that luxury, preferring to impel you through their music using rhythmic tools that produce unease in the listener - sawing violins, instrumental drumming with an often urgent, military feel and iterative discordant string lines bent over uncooperative and unfamiliar time signatures.

All this could convince you that 1313 is a demanding listen. It can be, but it's not as stressful as you might expect - reprieves are built into the music following classic and appropriate light and shade writing and although most notes are suspended over deliberately unsatisfactory chord sequences and cadences, the effect can be soothing as often as it is unsettling.

Previous reviewers have remarked that UZ have more to do with contemporary classical than with rock music, yet this reviewer has no schooling or background in that field to speak of, yet enjoyed 1313 from the first listen. They're such an important band with so few reviews and I can only assume that this is because the difficulty in acquiring the taste of this variety of music is overstated. Try it, you'll see.

Back in the days when a prog fan had to seek out their fare, struggling to find those little prizes, the endless quest, personal and financial sacrifice and constant scorn from a Steve Miller and Carpenters-loving world, Univers Zero was no joke. Startling, brave and years ahead of their time, percussionist Daniel Denis led a chamber septet that rocked, or a rock band that liked to play parlour music... or both, and its history is crucial to the development of European progressive and avant garde music. Their roots began in 1970 with Arkham, the black and brooding Brussels group who traced their inspirations to the Canterbury school in England, particularly Soft Machine and its minimal jazz-rock adventures. Arkham's final concert took place in 1972 and its members went on to play with such legendary acts as Magma, Aksak Maboul, and Pazop. Daniel Denis formed Necronomicon (not the German band) with Claude Deron, finally emerging as Univers Zero in 1974. By 1977 he had some very good help from guitarist Roger Trigaux, bassoon player Michel Berckmans, violinists Marcel Dufrane and Patrick Hanappier, bassist Christian Genet and harmonium player Emmanuel Nicaise. This line-up would produce a music so new and disturbing that it would set the tone for much of the Rock In Opposition that came after, an influence that is deeply felt even today.

On their debut '1313', an unnerving violin and its bassoon counterpart sputter to life, followed by a twisted lot of various strings and trashed drums sounding like a makeshift set of kitchen utensils for the 14-minute 'Ronde', off-putting, squeaky and fantastically progressive. Daniel Denis and friends clearly wanted something more-- to split music apart, bring it back together and revel in the pain of that process. And though the pieces are entirely acoustic chamber music played with precision, the Zeroes did it with a rock spirit no less bare-knuckled than any of their contemporaries. 'Carabosse' murmurs with psychotic tendencies, and 'Docteur Petiot' has the band letting go with inspired darkness, nightmarish delirium, broken toys, and shades of Bartok and fellow Belgian composer Albert Huybrechts. 'Malaise' plays out like a drug withdrawl and 'Complainte' rusts its way out of this troubled record, and us with it.

Progressive Rock in the truest sense, doom music for grown-ups, every fan should have some Univers Zero around... you have to. It's the law

UNIVERS ZERO's debut is mostly an acoustic affair that recalls Stravinsky and Bartok. Yes this is Chamber music and although this record isn't as dynamic as "Heresie" it's every bit as good depending on your taste. It's funny that when I was listening to "Heresie" at work a lady told me it sounded like her Halloween music, and when listening to "1313" a man in his fifties asked me "Do you know what music is playing ?" I said "Yes, it's UNIVERS ZERO from Belgium, they were influenced by Bartok and Stravinsky." He quickly corrected me on the way I pronounced Bartok (haha) and as he was leaving the store he told me "By the way I like your taste in music".

"Ronde" opens with violins as other sounds are added as it plays out. It kicks in 1 1/2 minutes in to a higher gear. I really like listening to all the beautiful, intricate sounds. It starts getting darker 7 1/2 minutes in until we get a really intense passage with eerie violins 9 minutes in.The song slows right down 12 minutes in to another fearful, tension filled soundscape. "Carabosse" has lots of violin melodies as well as the usual collage of sounds. This one isn't as dark as the first one.

"Docteur Petiot" features guitar with horn sounds, drums and percussion as it all builds and bursts into an energetic little number. 4 minutes in the song calms right down and it becomes dark and gripping before 6 minutes. "Malaise" actually has a catchy melody. It changes 3 minutes in relying more on atmosphere. The original melody is back 4 minutes in. Good song. "Complainte" features slowly played violin melodies on this the shortest song.

If your into the classical side of music, or Chamber rock that's a little on the dark side, have I got a record for you !

So You Say You're Ready for Some Challenging Music???

The music that Belgian band Univers Zero makes sounds more like "classical" music than rock, even though it is neither. The term "modern chamber music" is most fitting though that still does not quite capture the strange creature we have here. Two violins, a bassoon, and a medieval keyboardist playing harmonium and spinet combine with a rock rhythm section and an occasional clean guitar to create a music that sounds most like works of 20th century composers Bela Bartok and Igor Stravinsky. Even then, the rock rhythm section transforms the sound into something that really exists nowhere else. On their debut album (initially a self titled "Black Album" but later renamed 1313), the band seems most rooted in their classical roots. Later albums will see them push the limits of their strange niche, especially under the influence of other RIO and avant-prog bands. But for me, it is this first, least rock-n-roll, album that is the best of them all.

The music of Univers Zero is dominated by melodic and rhythmic figures that first lead and then support, alternating between near unison and polyphonic sounds. The opener "Ronde" is an over 15 minute piece that is unquestionably dark, but also somewhat jubilant. It's almost if a group battle hardened alligators were having a drunken party. That is, we're listening to some weighty characters who are a bit lumpy around the edges but are still very dangerous. This sense of contrast is everywhere. The drum rhythms are repetitive, but extremely syncopated and complex. The melodic instruments pull weird, dissonant sounds from their back pockets but every note seems intentional. In comparison, the darkest moments of KC's LARK'S TONGUES seem like appetizers for this intricate main course.

1313's strength lies in the variety of emotional scenes portrayed (HERESIE, for instance, is so constantly dark that it loses a little of its emotive power for me) and in the ability of the compositions to transcend the repetition of melodic themes (something I hear on the band's more modern albums.) Like the best classical music, there is essentially nowhere on this album where I think to myself as a musician "Maybe that wasn't the best choice." Instead, I get to be a pure listener, absorbed in the mood and scene created by the composer and players. This is what music, or in fact, art in general, is at its absolute best. It transports you to another place. I do not stand back and observe this music. I hop aboard and it carries me on adventures of the imagination.

As a prog fan, one of my favorite UZ songs ever is the track "Docteur Petiot." The song is based on cyclical falling riff in 7 that would even work in a (prog) metal context. Again, the song opens with this riff as a lead element and then it is later used as the backbone for the rest of the song. Similarly, subsequent melodic themes turn and twist in variations before returning. If one song ever truly embodied classical and rock ideals simultaneously, it would be this one. Incidentally, the visual I get from this song is a middle aged woman lost in a strange large house, getting progressively confused and frantic as she tries to get out. Finally she lays down in a deserted room, resigned to both her capture and her lunacy. (I did mention that UZ is a little dark, didn't I?)

I also appreciate very much that 1313 employs almost none of the clanging, abrupt transitioning that is very much in vogue now, not only in avant-garde music but prog in general. Certainly sections move in tonality, instrumentation, and rhythm, but I never feel the clang of the dead stops and turns that seems to be an artistic element used not only in music but recent cinema and visual art as well.

The only hesitation I have in giving this album a masterpiece rating is that I feel like I should be judging it on a completely different scale than virtually anything else on this site. Before writing this review, I bought the new CLIVAGES, listened to some Stravinsky, and had some serious thought about what I enjoyed in this music. In the end, while it is undoubtedly complex, pushes on the outer boundaries of musical genre, and dares to moods far darker than teenage Goths even know exist, this music is good because it allows my inner critic to fall away. It creates scenes into which I am immersed, my imagination alive and absorbed.

Among the best of the best. 5/5

They say that time flies when you're having fun and I've definitely had a blast reviewing album after album within the last couple of months. The occasion has finally come for me to unveil another highlight in my music collection and so for my 300th review I bring you Univers Zero's debut album!

My Univers Zero journey actually only started about a year ago when I spontaneously purchased Uzed and after being so immensely impressed by what I heard on that record I just had to hear more from this exciting band. After carefully reading up on all the band's releases the choice fell between the debut album and Heresie. Although I was warned that these two albums were far more acoustic in their tone than anything I heard on Uzed I put my faith in the hands of the prog gods (or spirits) and once again they smiled upon me!

1313 or simply Univers Zéro starts off with the haunting sounds of Ronde that remind me a lot of the Main Title Theme From Jaws but that's also where all comparisons to any other existing music ends. The rest of the track is basically Univers Zéro doing what they do best namely creating new innovative music in the genre that even by 1977 was already becoming stale and uninspired. Michel Berckmans' bassoon playing is just magnificent and it definitely steals the show on quite a few occasions although Daniel Denis' jumps often into the action and shows some of the most versatile drumming techniques that sometimes even make me wonder whether he makes the stuff up as he goes along!

After the 15 minutes that you are bound to never forget comes the short composition titled Carabosse which, together with Complainte, work like transitional interludes which take the listener's mind off the everything that came before and recuperates him/her for the next round. In case of Complainte it works like a perfect outro to the album which makes it easy to give the album another spin or two right after the first time. The placement of these compositions is just brilliant on this record because 15 minutes of intense music followed by 3 minutes of peaceful chamber music sounds completely natural to my ears.

The two back-to-back 7,5 minute compositions titled Docteur Petiot and Malaise turn this album from a masterpiece to one of my top 20 favorite albums of all time! Docteur Petiot has a noteworthy middle section where Daniel Denis gets the opportunity to play some erratic drum-patterns which definitely ignites the question that I raise earlier, but the fact is I love every second of it!

After being completely numbed by the previous performance Malaise comes to the rescue and delivers another mind boggling experience. This composition would have easily become a highlight on any other album but here it fades somewhat in comparison to the first two lengthy pieces which says even more about the overall quality of this recording.

I should probably give it a rest now since I could discuss 1313/Univers Zéro until the cows come home and in result bore you to tears. Just do whatever you can to seek out this album and find it all out for yourself!

***** star songs: Ronde (15:13) Docteur Petiot (7:45)

**** star songs: Carabosse (3:47) Malaise (7:58) Complainte (3:22)

1313 is the album that kicked off the chamber rock movement in Belgium, a dark brew of early 20th century classical music performed with rock drums and a non-conformist - not to say anarchistic - state of mind. While I love Universe Zero a lot, I can't share the general enthusiasm for their debut album as their mix of modern classical, avant-rock and zeuhl is still somewhat immature here, it doesn't reach the standards of excellence they would reach on later albums.

1313 is just the start, it has great compositions but not the unique vision of later albums. What UZ basically does is to create music similar to what Stravinsky did 60 years earlier and perform it with a small classical ensemble including electric bass and a rock drum set. Hence the term chamber rock. What I miss here is that they don't go beyond that first stage to become something else, something more personal that better integrates the classic and the rock elements.

My main gripe is that the percussion doesn't blend in very well yet with the other instruments. Sonically the drums seem to be in another place then the rest of the music, and from a compositional point of view they don't add anything to the pieces. They provide rhythmical accents but it's not the prominent pulse that would take UZ's music in more compelling and original directions in the 80's. I also miss some of the fury and grim atmosphere of the following album Heresie.

I think the album might have worked better for me without the drums, but then it would stand so close to the music of Stravinsky and Bartok that a comparison would be unavoidable and - unfortunately for UZ - not in their favour.

That's what the rating means here, this is really a very good album that would rate 4 stars if I hadn't heard any Stravinsky yet, but I was raised on that music and compared to the 5 stars that I would give to Petrushka and Sacre Du Printemps, this can't possibly have more then 3.

It's rock in opposition without that much rock. Yet, Univers Zero's debut album is one of the finer representations of the genre. The violin lines and bassoon work are the piercing forces here as they are the most noticeable. But, in the two Roger Trigaux penned pieces (''Doctor Petoit'' and ''Malaise''), the subtle guitar creaks are very punctuating. Daniel Denis's drumming is simply spellbinding as it has the most unorthodox style and approach I've ever heard, even with plenty of listening experience with Bruford and Vander.

The last song is the only one that really isn't memorable. Even the short ''Carabosse'' is a mini-highlight of its own (sounds like a house of creaking doors). The most memorable aspect of 1313 is the sinister, spooky atmosphere the pieces create. I almost feel like watching a Scooby-Doo marathon when this album is spinning to enhance the mood. It gives me mental depictions of cemeteries, catacombs and corridors during the after hours. ''Ronde'' captures the essence of 1313 quite well with its many dynamic and time shifts; some of the more suspensful moments come when the drums momentarily cease playing.

It's one of the best albums that makes you think Halloween almost as much as MDK is the best depiction of the apocalypse I've heard. It's one of those albums that focuses on mood and it works insanely well if you let it.

In 1977, when progressive rock in the United States and Great Britain was crumbling under the pressure of the greedy major record labels and the scorn of petty rock journalists, Univers Zero arose out of Belgium with their new take on RIO and chamber rock.

The songwriting at this time for the band, as many here know, was shared by Daniel Denis and Roger Trigaux. Denis' compositions (Ronde, Carabosse and Complainte) tend toward the darker, and more orchestally based. Think Stravinsky writing for horror and suspense movies. Trigaux' writing (Docteur Petiot and Malaise , probably because he is a guitarist, have a bit more of a grounding in rock, with repeating patterns and complex time changes.

I love both composers' styles here. When I'm in a darker mood, Denis' pieces affirm those feelings. Lighter moods go with Trigaux' deep but playful tunes. And for this to appear at a time the industry why trying to dumb down was just a miracle.

Univers Zero might not have invented chamber rock - Henry Cow's work from In Praise of Learning onwards often approached it, and of course Art Zoyd's chamber rock debut preceded Univers Zero's by some way. But it was Univers Zero who took the idea and really ran with it, dropping the improvisational impulses underling Henry Cow and the dissonance of Art Zoyd and replacing them with tightly composed, technically complex and brilliantly performed pieces. Dramatic, frightening, and innovative, their debut album is a tour de force, the opening Ronde being a particularly powerful demonstration of the potentials of this new style of theirs.

While I can appreciate the stunningly fresh feeling this music must have evoked when it first appeared in 1977, I have to agree with some of my fellow reviewers here that UZ's music will mature and evoke more emotion on future releases. Still, the compositional skill and vision presented here, coupled with performances from musicians who were obviously masters at their instruments, makes me want to rate this album very highly. Denis' drumming is, as mentioned, so unusual--much more akin to the work of a classical orchestra's percussionist. The clarity of the recording of all of the instruments is another very welcome, appreciated features here. Makes me understand where Robert Fripp and Co. must have found a lot of their ideas and inspiration.

Favorite songs are the opening epic, "Ronde" (14:58) (especially its middle section with Denis' frenzied drumming) (9/10) and the lighter "Malaise" (7:47) (9/10).

4.5 stars (because the band has so far yet to go) but I have to include this one among the pantheon of 'masterpieces' because of its astounding freshness.

UNIVERS ZERO is one of those unique musical forces that managed from the getgo to forge their own sonic sensationalism by lurking in the crevices that exist below the established musical genres. The genres are the musical peaks like those of mountains that attract the attention of the masses.

UNIVERS ZERO took certain aspects of the peaks of classical, jazz and rock in the form of 20th century chamber music and created something dark and mystical yet accessible enough to distinguish it from musical gibberish yet remaining outside of the norm. A musical tightrope act that they succeeded in forging through carefully arranged compositions that take their time to unfold.

UNIVERS ZERO managed to masterfully infuse these genres on their first album 1313 in a strange way that took the chamber rock antecedents from musical entities like Art Zoyd and Henry Cow, classical ones from Bartok and Stravinsky and free-jazz like constructions that actually had patterns to them and create interesting yet peculiar musical developments that always lead somewhere that makes total sense once the mystery of where they go has been presented.

UNIVERS ZERO created a musical masterpiece with this first album that interested me upon first listen and still does time and time again. This is a totally acoustic affair and although at times it teeters on pure chaos it always resolves itself with a logical balancing act that ultimately leaves a pure satisfaction with the musical developments that persist throughout the entire run of this excellent debut album.

One of the five founding members present at 1978's very first 'Rock In Opposition' festival in London(don't ask) Belgian avant- gardists Univers Zero belong to that strange little sub-set of groups who have essentially been thrown-in with the prog-rock crowd as a result of their inherant weirdness, the utterly unclassifiable nature of their sound, but most of all because there was simply no place else to put them. Branding Univers Zero under the label of prog-rock is therefore not only incorrect, but dangerously misleading as some listeners have discovered, for this is not rock music as you probably know it. Dark, challenging, deliberately obtuse, influenced by 20th century classical music, chamber music and rock 'n' roll(really?) and featuring a line-up of seriously capable musicians armed with acoustic instruments such as bassoons and obeoes, Univers Zero are, very probably, every record company executives darkest nightmare. Of the five groups present at that very first RIO concert, Univers Zero are arguably the most inaccessible of the lot, making even British avant-jazz jokers Henry Cow seem bright and breezy in comparison. Therefore it shouldn't come as a surprise to learn that this was a group that largely operated outside the margins of the known Music Biz universe, in the process becoming influential members of the RIO movement's subsequent get- togethers. Self-released in 1977, the group's eponymous debut is now regarded as a cornerstone of the genre, and on paper it seems like an intriguing proposition, yet the reality is rather more disturbing. That's because one of the main tenets of the RIO sound, and a core piller of it's DNA, is to utilise intricately-woven and deliberately-unsatisfying melodies and chord sequences to create a sound unlike anyother, meaning that to the average rock fan the music of Univers Zerio must sound acutely awful. However, those versed in ways of prog-rock may find more crumbs of interest than most, if only for the way the music is constructed, and not because of the way it sounds. Whilst for some the RIO movement was an exciting platform for creating original, daring and thought-provoking new music, for pretty much everyone else it was just a bunch of overly-intellectual art-twits indulging in inaccessible silliness. Some of the music is of course valid, but for many the experience of listening to this record will prove rather unpleasant. Subsequent listens do reveal the complex disposition of the compositions, the subtle and shifting textures and the surprisingly strong rock 'n' roll influence, yet the relentlessly confrontational nature quickly becomes gruelling, making this a hard listen for anyone in search of actual entertainment. Yes, it's impressively played and original and all that jazz, but in the end none of that seems to matter. Give me Foreigner, Journey or Styx anyday. STEFAN TURNER, STOKE NEWINGTON, 2015

If you ever really wonder what Rock in Opposition sounds like, or if someone asks you what it is, then you put on an album by Univers Zero. That's about as good of an introduction as you can get. Of course, it branches out in all kinds of sounds and styles from there, but it's still a good start.

This album is all about traditional, orchestral style instruments, only not in an orchestra as much as in a chamber ensemble. But even then, you don't want to make the mistake of thinking you are going to be listening to baroque style music, think more along the lines of impressionistic music. Seeing as how the band cites Bartok and Stravinski as influences, then that should give you an idea of what you are going to get here, but with more contemporary percussion than with orchestral style. Throw in different string instruments like violin and cello, harmonium and some brass, then an occasional guitar and bass, and you got the idea.

This is definitely not rock or pop in any regular sense. If you are familiar with RIO or Avant-prog, then this sound is something that you are used to hearing. But, as this band is one of the pioneers of the sound, they are the ones that helped establish the genre. Expect complex melodies and time signatures with a lot of dissonance. Also, on this album at least, things are more raw then they would be in some future albums.

Many compare Univers Zero with Art Zoyd, and the comparision makes sense, at least in AZ's early stages. UZ is a lot more tight sounding as the music is more structured where AZ is more improvised. This album, called 1313 for the catalogue number, is not as dynamic and a bit rougher than their future releases would be. But it is still top notch quality music, much of it inspired by works of Lovecraft and other dark artistry. The music definitely fits that niche. But, some may also think because of this that the music is soundtrack style music. That is a mistake. It's much more complex and is not tied down to imagery, but much better composed with a structure.

Of course, this isn't music for everyone, but mostly those that have a love for avant-garde style classical music or for those that love adventurous music of any genre. Highly recommended to RIO/Avant Prog lovers as an essential album.