YOCHK'O SEFFER

Eventually Seffer would start his solo career beginning with his "Neffesh Music" series which included his first three albums. "Delire" from 1976, "Ima" from 1977 and "Ghilgoul" from 1978. What makes this compilation album "Noce Chimique" so important are the five unreleased tracks from the "Ghilgoul" period. Back in 1995 a similar compilation to this was released under the "Neffesh-Music" title. When they re-issued this in 2011 they decided to change the final three tracks along with the cover art and album title.

So we get one track from "Delire" which is awesome because one of my all time favourite drummers Jean-My Truong is on that one, and he of course is from ZAO. That song is "Orkana" by the way. The closer "Fifra-Variations" is from "Ghilgoul" and is something else. This is live, and the story goes that the Hungarian pianist and Hungarian violinist both told Seffer before playing this one that it was too difficult for them. And these two musicians are incredible by the way. So Seffer tells them both just to improvise while he plays the main piano parts. So a trio of two pianos and violin and you should hear this! It's just surprising the passion and power on display.

Dominique Bertram is the main bass player on this recording and from ZAO, along with the Margand String Quartet who also played with ZAO, and they are on three tracks. Finally we also get the great Maurica Platon adding her incredible vocals to that opener and some wordless stuff too elsewhere. This compilation is the perfect companion to that "Ghilgoul" record. In fact, if you include these two records along with a few of the early ZAO albums, you will have some of the best music ever recorded in my opinion.

That was my initial takeaway as I re-visited this all last week was that this music really is on another level compared to a lot of what I'm into. Seffer has a unique "sound" that's for sure when playing the sax. Ornette Coleman was one of his favourites and an inspiration to him for sure. This compilation really is a must in my opinion, and will be paired in my collection with "Ghilgoul" the prefect match.

However in the meantime he hooked up with Christian Vander and played on the early jazz-oriented Magma albums and after joined Zao where he played sax, clarinet, flute, tarogato AND piano. With seemingly endless talent SEFFER first collaborated as a solo artist as a collaborative effort with Christian Vander and friends to create post-bop album before unleashing his own version of jazz-tinged zeuhl in 1976 with this debut release DELIRE. Adding the secondary band name Neffesh Music (music of the soul), SEFFER released three albums with this one being the most wild and ambitious with little though paid to the transcendental nature of what would come. DELIRE featured six tracks at nearly 39 minutes offered a wild mix of free jazz, jazz fusion, avant-prog and zeuhl.

Interesting for a zeuhl band, Neffesh Music lacked not only guitars but also featured no bassist (which future Neffish albums would feature). Sounding something like a mix of 20th century classical music and jazz, DELIRE featured a cello, bass clarinet, viola, violin and percussion with SEFFER handling the saxophone and long list of keyboard styles. The album remains one of those rarities that has still never been released beyond its 1976 first edition on the Moshé-Naïm label however readily available with a few click on your computer keyboard! Given the presence of so much wind instrumentation and a piano, this debut is undoubtedly more steeped in SEFFER's musical familiarity of avant-jazz however the chamber music elements give it a strange Stravinsky style.

This is fairly chaotic music with complex arrangements that offer strange counterpoints, independent musical processions that sometimes work together and others purposefully clash. Imagine the piano antics of Cecil Taylor with a chamber orchestra and you can imagine the freaky virtuosity exploding like fireworks. The zeuhl influences do occur however they hardly dominate especially in the most bizarrely twisted title track which takes avant-jazz meets chamber music to extremes with no Magma references whatsoever. This is b y far the most atonal and free jazz track of the entire album and sounds like a modern classical orchestra is battling it out with a free jazz ensemble. Totally wild and unapologetically demanding. The ending comedown track "Ima" which takes the jazzy saxophone playing into a more meditative state in the vein of Indo-raga with a buzzing drone effect with some chanting female vocalists joining in. Perhaps SEFFER's dabbling in jazz-tinged Krautrock?

It must be stressed that this album sounds nothing like Magma, Zao or even the following Neffesh albums and actually doesn't sound like anything i've heard. The unique mix of avant-jazz with modern classical chamber music crafts an interesting stylistic version of third stream however the album itself is quite diverse from beginning to end with easily digestible tracks more on the psychedelic side and of course al those gnarled instrumental workouts that come towards the end of each side of the album. While this would definitely be considered difficult music listening and very unclassifiable as far as pigeonholing a distinct genre, the craftsmanship on this is mind-blowing and every musician performing is the cream of the crop. If you don't like atonal free form jazz and crazy 20th century classical then don't even bother with this one but if that's your bailiwick then this is one you can't miss!

The angelic devil is confusing as for its inspiration, is it related to the origins of the composer as it is specified on some covers of the disc? It is a piece where confusion reigns and at the same time, there's durable but certain routing towards the end of the piece. After a short introduction with strings, we see this fast and oppressing piano. Towards the fifth minute, we sink even more in this madness with the appearance of the grating violin, harsh, sometimes bountiful. Then the saxophone makes its entry, in a calmer way, only the rhythm by piano remains worrying.

After that piece, we still have a dark reverie, calmer but the tone is still as oppressive, it is simply a superb piece of piano, I would like to make more nightmares like this one..

Bela bacsi emlekere is a fast and pleasant piece of about 3 minutes 30, the storm of the first 2 pieces seems to be over, and a little more joy comes out of this piece, but with a quite specific filter that makes the atmosphere heavier.

Griserie magyar carries well its name since it is melancholic, a net of a distressing piano with discordant notes passes, one cannot help thinking of one of the Caprices of Paganini so much the violin is in all its states.

Bunkos continues here in the melancholic register with a maudlin violin, everything accelerates and ends in apotheosis with some distorted piano notes. it is not my favorite though.

Mizwa closes the album with about 10 minutes of theme less interesting than the first track, it gets lost in all directions without having the same strength, the same "anguish capture" of the previous opuses. Only the finale seems to be really worth listening to.

So we have a quite homogeneous album, well in the vein of Zeuhl, although I am not an expert in the matter. This is my first album by Yochko Seffer, so I don't know the previous artistic works of the composer, but I can already say that I appreciate it a lot. I give a 3.5/5 to this album, I lack the hindsight to see the extent of the talent of the artist but the first try is rather successful.

First off, I like the style the album gives off. It has this aura around it, like it is a dream filled with horns, drums, and pianos, which gives it a very nice mystical aura. Furthermore, I do like how clean the sound is. The production and mixing is definitely fairly good too. In addition it does have that improvisational and weird vibe that is persistent with a lot of Zeuhl records, especially those of the 70s. I dig it, it's nice to hear some good Zeuhl jazz.

However with these praises, I still feel like this album has a lot of misses. For one I think this album is rather repetitive. This could be rather attributed to the fact there is only three instruments, but I'd like to think it's HOW the instruments are played, since even bands with only three instruments can make some great music, just look at Rush and ELP. To me, nothing really changes much. I never feel like the music is progressing forward and forward naturally, it just feels like it is in one tone and pitch and only rarely gets really weird. Heck to me this doesn't really feel like a Zeuhl record, more like a Fusion record with a pinch of Zeuhl. It sort of left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth because I expected Zeuhl music, not Fusion, and I love Fusion.

So while I still do like it as a neat little album, I cannot say I fully enjoyed this one. It left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth due to it's rather bland repetitiveness and the fact that this does not feel like Zeuhl and more like Jazz Fusion. I won't say I recommend this one, maybe I could maybe for a Fusion album, but not for a Zeuhl album, and even then, if you don't mind the repetitive sort of sound the album has going for it than this album will be perfectly fine, but if you do mind, I'll say you are best looking for another album.

Gyehenna-tuze is faster paced, but follows the same setup of saxophone and piano. It's as suspenseful and dramatic but the change of pace makes it a much more interesting track for me. Following the halfway point of the track the jamming saxophone fades away and we are treated to some brilliant piano work which is a highlight of the album.

Natsar II is a very short track, making use of chanting Zeuhl vocals over both piano and saxophone sections.

Mizwa Part 2 starts very calmly in contrast to Natsar II, but is played slightly off-key, still giving it that slightly suspenseful alien feel. Saxophone pieces from half way in complement the same airy piano playing, and overall for me this is probably the best track on the album.

Its more of the same in Galgal, a lengthy track which to be honest is too similar to the opening track to be of much interest to me, as is Daath at the end.

Definitely worth listening to Gyehenna-tuze and Mizwa Part 2, but other than that it does fizzle out a bit for me. Better than Chromophonie 1 though.

I've had to piece together this album using a combo of Spotify and YouTube to listen to all the tracks.

The title track is mainly a piano/violin piece, with a little guitar thrown in. Seffer's piano is the pace setter for Horvath on violin. Its relatively high paced, and the piano riff in particular gives the track a sort of 'duel' feel to it. Half way through it fades back a little, with Horvath plucking at the strings and Seffer playing softly but still keeping up the pace. This only last for a minute though as Horvath then goes into overdrive with some rapid and sometimes jarring work. This and the piano faces away, replaced by saxophone and guitar for the last couple of minutes. Its certainly interesting, but does feel like its missing something.

Os-Gyoker probably wouldn't be out of place on an early Magma album. It's quite a dirge which doesn't get out of first gear other than some occasional frenetic and distorted violin. This contrasts quickly with Bela bacsi emlekere, which although with plenty of jarring notes is relatively chirpy and upbeat to start with. Again, strong interplay between piano and violin as it goes back to the style of the first track. The remaining three tracks are much more about the piano, and to be honest, I got a bit bored as none of them really lead anywhere. Seffer is clearly talented but for me it just doesn't hold interest for long enough.

Somewhere within the realm of avant jazz / Zeuhl, this is... pretty good.

Dag opens with a great rolling bassline and drums, with Seffer's sax/piano interplay at the fore. The jarring piano chords in particular give it a slightly Zeuhl feel, as does the appearance of the string quartet in the second half, which play an eerie suspenseful tune which contrasts completely with that bass and drums which don't change at all throughout.

Sifra begins with extraterrestrial piano before violins join in to give it a fairly melancholy feel. A sudden change on the 5 minute mark brings in the sax, bass and drums, in a lengthy passage fairly similar to Dag with the piano increasingly jarring, but still really excellent.

Dailn is a short track that puts Dominique Bertrand at the fore with brilliant bass, before Larma which is the most Zeuhl- like track, beginning with typical Magma-style vocals and a much slower, military tempo.

The title track Ghilgoul begins with ghostly, wailing vocals, joined by a faraway sax. Very haunting. The vocals fade away after four minutes and are replaced by piano in a duet with the sax. The string quartet continue the slightly haunting theme, particularly plucking strings, reminiscent of a psychological thriller.

There's also several bonus tracks with other guest musicians if that wasn't enough for you.

Definitely an excellent album if you're fans of eerie jazz & zeuhl