SONS OPTIQUES

French keyboardist Francois Br'ant was born in 1947 in Rouen and had a decent career as a member of late-60's Psych/Jazz Rockers Cruciferius as well as Prog Rockers Ergo Sum and Nemo until the mid-70's.From this point he became a back up musician for singer Bernard Lavilliers, but in late-70's he returned with the solo album ''Sons optiques'', originally released on Egg and also King Records for the Japanese market.A handful of old bandmates and well- known musicians helped with the recordings, such as guitarist Marc Perru, with whom Breant collaborated in all of the above groups, ex-Nemo bassist Pascal Arroyo as well as Magma's bassist Guy Delacroix, wind-instrumentalist Albert Marc'ur, already known him from Nemo, drummer Emmanuel Lacordaire also from Nemo and Didier Lockwood on violins.

Breant's musical flexibility was already known from the past and ''Sons optiques'' is another good example of his diverse music tastes in composition.His keyboard and piano work is dominant throughout the album and Breant explores the territories and limits between different fields such as Electronic Music, Zeuhl, Jazz, Fusion and Avant-Garde Music.This unmet blending of course hurts a bit the album's consistency but the overall result is trully experimental in a positive way with Breant offering a virtuosic and ecstatic performance as a whole.The album has often a strong MAGMA influence with some inventive and dissonant piano textures by Breant, often flirting with obscure Avant-Garde soundscapes, and a really spacey atmosphere created by his synthesizers.He is helped by the violins of Lockwood and the percussions of Marceur to make this approach sound even more outlandish.Other tracks are certainly closer to Jazz/Fusion, especially when Jean-Luis Chautemps and Eric Letournex with their saxes take over, with superb piano/synths movements by Breant and the whole back- up group delivering a solid background.Still these pieces have an overall cosmic feeling due to Breant's bizarre electronics.The Musea CD reissue contains a couple of bonus tracks composed by Breant in early-80's at home with a sound close to a mix of Avant-Fusion and Zeuhl.

A bit too cosmic for my tastes, but ''Sons optiques'' weird mix of sounds is actually attractive and inventive.Recommended, especially if you like experimental,electronic or Avant-Garde flavors thrown in your music menu.