OSE

A brilliant electronic sound dimension has come enthusiastically to our minds in the autumn 2021. Thankfully I've got a email about the latest album by Hervé PICART's solo project OSE. He says this album "Zirconia" is out of the Ose Space as the epilogue of his 'Outer Worlds Trilogy'. What a good news under such a tough situation all over the world. The sleeve pic drawn by François-Auguste BIARD looks pretty orphic and mysterious, that reminds us of something positive and promising. Anyway the soundscape in this creation sounds edgier and clearer, and directly screws itself up into our inner brain. Repetitive, sensitive, and sometimes sensual synthesizer-oriented sound passions seriously kick our heart. We could feel his creativity in every single phrase, and get immersed without any notice. Not so spacey nor dignified as the prologue "Adonia" but his sincere 'productive will' and 'appetite for encouragement' can be felt obviously.

From the start "From A To Z" OSE sound world drastically explodes all over our ears. Sticky phrases produced by clear spicy synthesizers strictly knock our chest. Every tone rings our bell like a cubic ice in a whisky glass. As if we swirled the glass before drinking the whisky, fantastic digital flavour comes up to our minds. Monotonous, mechanical but plaintive, chilling, percussive attachments in "Rainbow Heart" are not bad. On the contrary "Digging In The Light (Cave Creepers' Calypso)" is kinda fantasy, that we can fully get amazed at. The melody lines and rhythmic bases are not so complicated nor dissonant but why dissappointing? That's really fine. Cool clean crystallized dry-fruity ambience can be enjoyed in "Cristal Mineur", my favourite one. A simple minor track cannot make us feel depressive nor tragic, but fantastic spilit for future. " Vertigo & Fandango (Dangerous Dreams)" is another weirdness not to throw us any vertigo nor dizziness but cheerful movements, a bit light and inorganic though. Theatrical, dramatic dream-come-true-ish apparatus can be herad via a grand one "Diamond Ghosts", which shares Hervé's positive creative waves in an aural and 'visual' manner. His sound simplicity is prety amazing. "In Search of the Supreme Gem" should be another valuable expectation under the current circumstance. Quite tough and challenging for us on the long and winding road, but brilliant gems should be over there without any suspicion ... he might mention via this song. And in the final stage we can obtain gems called safe sound great life.

In conclusion, this album is not so diverse nor innovative honestly to say but why don't we enjoy such a simple and good life under the pandemic (or post-pandemic) situation ...

Another French electronika I've stumbled upon a while before is one of excellent gems created by our electronic heroes - two Herdoners (Richard PINHAS and François AUGER) and Hervé PICART. The three talented electro-vanguards would have tried to represent another spacey world through the one-off project named OSE and a musical phenotype titled "Adonia". What a quiet, sedative, and addictive resonance the first long trip "Approche Sur A" is, melodically leaning towards "Crazy Diamonds" or "Echoes" by Pink Floyd, and seasoned with spacey, dreamy, but dry-fruity electronic spice. And repetitive, convoluted sound development should be in the similar vein of Heldon, Patrick Vian, Tangerine Dream (not in the debut days) or Yellow Magic Orchestra. Anyway they cannot exert weirdness upon their sound identity ... also as for the second shot "Orgasmachine", sounds like they would have pursued sorta musical narcissism in a good sense. Surrealistic and comfortable, immersive, impressive. Dedicated to spacey Pink Floyd, gorgeous gracious surrealism should have been their goal. We must be immersed in such a fantastic adonic dream. Recommended for every Space Rock / Electronic fan.

OSE was the project of French multi-instrumentalist Herve Picart. He plays moog, organ, guitar, bass and slide guitar. He also composed all the songs here. He brought in an Electronic legend and fellow country -man Richard Pinhas from HELDON who also plays guitar and moog but also sequencers and synths. Richard was responsible for arranging all of the electronic parts which of course is most of this record. Add drummer Francois Auger also from HELDON and we have an incredible trio.

This was released in 1978 the same year HELDON released "Interface" a similar album to this one but one I enjoy more for it's more powerful and dynamic sound. Same with HELDON's followup from 1979 called "Stand By", two albums I prefer to "Adonia" although the cover art for "Adonia" is one of the most beautiful pictures I've seen.

"Approche Sur A" opens with about 3 1/2 minutes of faint spacey sounds with twittering over top. This is tasteful as picked guitar joins in after 2 minutes. Before 3 1/2 minutes the song kicks into gear as we get this louder electronic beat which has a dramatic affect. The flavour changes slightly before 5 1/2 minutes. This is melodic and mid-paced and it's hard not to bob my head to this. It picks up before 7 1/2 minutes and becomes more serious sounding as the drums join in. The guitar arrives after 10 minutes ripping it up over the electronics and drums. So good! This continues almost to the end.

"Orgasmachine" opens with electronic beats as spacey synths come in over top. Slide guitar after a minute. Man this is good! Sequencers before 2 1/2 minutes as the guitar steps aside. Some brief guitar returns around 3 minutes. "29 H 08 MN" is my favourite song on here mainly because of the guitar. Solo moog to start as an electronic beat arrives a minute in and soon electronics twitter over top. The guitar arrives before 4 1/2 minutes then drums and it sounds incredible, like HELDON's two albums from this same time frame.

"L'aube Jumelle" opens with spacey synths blowing over the electronic soundscape. It's dark and melancholic. Relaxed organ joins in as the same mood continues. I think that's bass after 5 1/2 minutes as it trades off with the guitar as spacey sounds continue. Soon bass and guitar join forces in this relaxed and mellow tune. It does turn louder after 7 minutes. Beautiful stuff, quite moving.

"Retour Sur Adonia" ends the album as we get an electronic beat with spacey sounds over top. I'm not a big fan of that melody because it reminds me of something I don't like but it's brief although it is repeated later. An okay song to end it.

Not as adventerous or powerful as HELDON's two albums from the same period but man this is easily a 4 star album for me. I'm a sucker for guitar in Electronic music and the addition of drums is the icing on the cake. Just missing the mellotron(haha).

This is a bit of a deep cut from Richard Pinhas' extended discography. It's essentially a Heldon side project, with Pinhas and Heldon drummer François Auger teaming up with multi-instrumentalist Hervé Picart to turn out this mellow piece combining Berlin style progressive electronic performances with psychedelic jamming reminiscent of early Tangerine Dream or Ash Ra Tempel. Props also have to be given to the gorgeous cover art, which puts me in mind of the excellent science fiction art coming out of France at the time by the likes of Moebius and hits the mood of the music perfectly. Put this on when you're gazing out of your space colony on an arid world in the process of being terraformed.