AU-DELÀ DES OMBRES

A one-shot project (so far anyway) lead by the lone Robin Gaudreault, who is a clear fan of 70's pastoral symphonic prog stuck between Harmonium and Genesis, but with a modern sound. Gaudreault wrote almost all of the music but not the lyrics, plays the vast majority of the instruments, bar the drums, flute and some electric guitars. So clearly the boss is Robin, with people hovering around him, clearly out to bring him the complements he is not able to bring out himself, even if he knows how he wants them to turn out in the final oeuvre. But this wish to master every aspect of the album is also his Achilles' heel. Obviously this oeuvre represents a lot to him and took an enormous amount of work to develop (probably against many odds too), but the results is blatantly naïve and sounds like neo-prog (sorry, not a fan) and certainly share the flaws of the genre. Clearly Gaudreault at this stage of his life does not have the necessary mastery to achieve an ambitious record successfully as he was hoping to do.

Yes the music is sometimes recalling early Genesis (the guitar arpeggios) and Harmonium (again the guitar but underlined by a Mellotron), but one of the things that ruin the effort (outside the derivative aspects of the music) is the loud actual drumming and some very awful sounding synths reminiscent of the early 90's. Clearly the album develops a schizophrenic mind quite quickly, hesitating between a typical 90's Neo-prog (Collage way of actualizing the classic prog) and a typical 90's Retro-prog (Änglagard type of reproduction of classic sounds). Apart from the French lyrics (relatively weak in the inspiration , but sung-out in a neutral French in a voice that does not move me much), the overall feeling (or concept) of the album is about a fairytale of freedom, peace and love that can only appear very naïve if inspected closely. There are some lovely moments (generally the guitar arpeggios underlined by the mellotrons and dominated by a flute) , but a few minutes later, they are ruined by a solid and basic drum (dominated by a dreadful snare drum sound and too much leaning towards metal music), dated synths, not always successful violin.

Among the better tracks are the opening Course Aux Papillons, the title track and the bass overloaded finale Ardeur Ternie, all of which are more in the retro-prog vein (this means that the modern-prog aspects are played down)

Among the definitely weaker tracks are La Traversée (the chorus is unbearably bad to this writer's nerves, but apart from the intro, the neo-prog is simply uninventive), La Rose De Stalingrad (same remarks than before, even if the lengthy middle section is correct, at most, taking cheap shots at Harmonium), Infantes (with its falsely naïve, but forcedly derivative intro of Genesis), the awful (but thankfully short) Mille Couleurs (again the unsufferable lyrics and chorus),

I guess one of the things that bothers me most about this album, is Robin's voice, which is never bad, but very bland and neutral. A very naïve, amateurish and derivative work, not devoid of charms either. Hoping that if Gaudrault is to give his musical passion the means of a second chance, the results will be much more convincing. But creating a real group might be the first step towards that achievement. This review got re-wriotten just before getting rid of the album to prog-buddy Arsillus, who will no doubt write a better review than mine, proving that unwanted albums can find a new home where they will find more spinning time and more affection .-)

All yours, Arsillus.