JULVERNE

However , even after a ten years hiatus, nothing new under the Julverne sun: still the same chamber prog music , hovering around classical quintets and slighly more modern contemporary music. Entirely acoustic , and driven by Jeannot Gillis and other original members Claudine Steenackers , and Pierre Coulon (the historical leader) but joined by UNIVERS ZERO members Michel Berckmans and Dirk Descheemaker, this is typical Julverne record that will fit quite nicely alongside their previous works. Among the few surprises are a Michel Jonasz song adatation , the famopus Puccini Tosca theme and a moody Sieczinski 1939-written Vienna waltz composed on the somber mood from Andreas Schönberg as the city was under the Anschluss. I am not saying it , Jeannot Gillis is in the booklet.

Still , for progheads , the interest will be limited as we are really more into Les Musiques Nouvelles than into good ol' prog rock!

If you are not familiar with Julvene (taking their name from Sci-Fi father Jules Vernes) , this CD is ideal for an introduction to the band's unique chamber music. I am a afraid the Chamber Rock term would be misused here as there is no rock elements in Julverne but if they are associated in the Archives , it would be because of the many links to other Belgian prog bands most notably Cos and Univers Zero. Michel Berckmans (U Z and Von Zamla ) Deschemaeker (future UZ) and Loos (Cos and Belgian Jazz rock scene ) are among the local stars in the line-up of all four albums. The music developped here is also very much comparable to Univers Zero (especially Ceux Du Dehors) and the more recent Present albums. Please note that two of the tracks from Les Coulonneux have been re-recorded for this occasion. The track selection is relatively well spread out over the three albums featured and can be considered as faithful as possible to represent all aspect of the group bar the afore-mentioned Emballade album.

As I said above , there are no rock elements in Julverne , so please approach this group carefully.

This third (and second last) album is actually quite different to the others . They received a lot of heat from their followers from having done such a daring project that brings you back from the start of the 20th century until the 30's. Actually this album is really almost classical music with slight jazz leanings and cabaret music (a bit like Mistinguette at the Moulin Rouge) but in terms of prog rock music , there is little to hear. Do not get me wrong a good deal of progheads will find many qualities to this album but this is really ouside the scope of the Archives.

All tracks are covers/reprises from all sorts of early century composers inckluding Scott Joplin and Duke Ellington , and some tango kings. The acoustic strings ensemble (see the picture on the opening Julverne page) is quite fun if you enjoy that type of music , but I doubt this will spin more than 4 or 5 times in your deck if you are to invest in this otherwise superb Art-Nouveau artwork sleeve impeccably reproduced by Beatball records. To me, as I mentioned in the first paragraph , the family tree was certainly the most interesting part of this release.