LES ÉLÉPHANTS CARILLONNEURS

The Philharmonie crew described the pressing and distribution of their first album as quite an achievement.Label offers were hard to come and they ended up publishing the record via a totally unknown publisher from Marseilles.Once the album saw the light, Cuneiform Records became interested in signing the French guitar trio.Apparently things became much easier for the recordings and output of ''Les elephants carillonneurs'', Philharmonie's second album, released in 1993.

This sophomore work by the French guitarists sounds rather different from their first effort and this fact alone marks them as a totally unique band in my books.After all, how many styles can you play on guitar and at the same time come up with a listenable record?What really differs from the first release is the fact that ''Les elephants carillonneurs'' sounds a lot more shiny and positive of a listening experience.There are still many KING CRIMSON references to the sound and the jazzy spices can be found everywhere in this work, but I can hear a definite switch towards strongly atmospheric soundscapes, which offer plenty of dreamy chords and ethereal textures.It's also fairly more laid-back with a soft guitar jazziness, but what really shocks is some, what should I call them, pre Post-Rock tunes, a term not even defined in early-90's.The album has an obvious ambiental atmosphere, which works very well despite its length, on the other hand there are these less interesting moments, which hurt the consistency of this work with the band sounding a lot like throwing an academic seminar of guitar exercises.No bass, no drums.Just lovely guitar spelling with some nice and smooth playing.

Again the album's length is not a positive assess.The best moments of ''Les eléphants carillonneurs'' deserve a wide exposure, but the lack of coherence makes this a simply recommended effort, which will be loved by guitar heroes worldwide.