LE DERNIER MOT

PHILHARMONIE was the project of guitarist Frederic L'Epee fresh off his two album stint with the great band SHYLOCK in the late seventies. When that band folded Frederic went to a Conservatory to study harmony, counterpoint and compositions and upon completion of that he formed this band who had a five album run in the 90's. After this album (translated "The Final Word") Frederic formed YANG with his drummer here from PHILHARMONIE. YANG has released three studio albums so far. Of the ten albums that L'Epee was on that these three bands released the second SHYLOCK album(Fever Island") is my favourite of all followed by "A Complex Nature" by YANG both are fairly dark and heavy albums at times. This particular PHILHARMONIE album is the best that they did in my opinion and it's more let's just say discreet sounding where they all hold back from being showy. Not a lot of breakouts but mostly that KING CRIMSON style with L'Epee doing his best Fripp interpretation which is the common denominator of these three bands.

I really like the "sound" of this album as this three piece play drums, Warr guitar and Frederic playing bowed and plucked strings as it says in the liner notes. There's a lot of discipline(pardon the pun) on this album where they keep things in line. And while I prefer the darker and heavier sounds of "Fever Island" and "A Complex Nature" this is an album that brings a lot of satisfaction to me musically. Again it's that "sound". And in light of this we get an album where there really isn't even some standout tracks for me, this is all good and it clocks in at under 48 minutes over seven songs. It was that opener though that moved me to put this on my play list last week. Sounds build as drums join the guitars and the contrasts will continue throughout this track. As I mentioned earlier KC's "Discipline" is a marker for what we have here with the intricate, complex guitars and really good drum work. Clearly Frederic's schooling helped so much here when it comes to composition and counterpoint especially.

Of SHYLOCK, PHILHARMONIE and YANG I would have to say I lean towards SHYLOCK followed by YANG then PHILHARMONIE. Headphone music right here.