BARBARO (MA NON TROPPO)

4.5 stars.It's been 8 long years since the last PRESENT album ("High Infidelity") so I was very anxious to get the new one. I received it about a week ago and have been giving it plenty of spins. Interesting that the core six of the lineup from "High Infidelity" are still here. Roger Trigaux and his son Reginald on guitars, Pierre Chevalier on piano and keyboards, Dave Kerman on drums and percussions, Keith Macksoud on bass, and Matthieu Safatly on cello. We also get Pierre Desassis on sax, and our own Udi Koomran is back to make sure this sounds perfect (and it does). This comes with a 3 hour DVD of live material as well. I'm going to focus on the studio album only. One of the first things I noticed is that this album has no vocals, it's an all-instrumental affair.The length of this cd is just over 44 minutes of music, which for me is really refreshing after all those 70 plus minute cds we seem to get these days. Three tracks including a cover of UNIVERS ZERO's "Jack The Ripper" from their "Heresie" album. Maybe it's just me but this new PRESENT album has more in common with their first two records then the ones inbetween.

"Vertiges" is a good example of this with the collage of sounds that fill the soundscape. It's just a joy to try to pick out all the different sounds that come and go. Some great piano then it settles with cello. Some huge bass comes and goes as well. This is great as the tempo continues to shift. Intense 6 1/2 minutes in. Sax 8 minutes in. A haunting calm before 10 minutes then it kicks back in after 11 minutes. Great section. Eerie sounds as it settles before 12 minutes. Lots of cello and abrupt outbursts. The tempo starts to pick back up before 14 minutes. Nice bass lines here with guitar. The piano that follows really impresses.

"A Last Drop" opens with piano then these prominant bass lines join in. So much going on though. Check out Kerman ! This builds to an intense climax then an eerie calm follows. A pleasant calm after 7 minutes then it kicks back in. It's building. This is amazing ! It settles once again after 8 1/2 minutes pretty much to the end. "Jack The Ripper" has this dark and haunting intro (surprise) as cello joins the sparse piano. More intense after 2 1/2 minutes as it builds. It then settles with guitar and cello 5 minutes in. It kicks back in with slicing cello and some fat bass. A dead calm 7 minutes in then strange sounds come in as it builds. So intense 10 minutes in then we get a calm. It's building again with piano this time and strange guitar sounds. Suspense until 14 1/2 minutes in. It then picks back up 15 minutes in to the end.

This has to be in my top three of favourite PRESENT albums although they all are so good.