NEFFESH MUSIC: IMA

It was great to finally spend some time with this recording. While I much prefer the followup "Ghilgoul" there's lots to enjoy here. Three long tracks make up this album released in 1977 and it's pretty cool to see some of the names involved here from Seffer's former band ZAO. Mauricia Platon adds vocal melodies but she's not nearly as upfront as she was on ZAO's debut. Still it's great to hear her. Dominique Bertram on bass played on some later ZAO releases. We also get that all female string quartet from ZAO's "Shekina" album. On drums is Manu Katche who played with Jan Garbarek. A solid 4 star album in my opinion but something is lacking personally for me to up this rating.

"Ima" is the almost 20 minute side long suite. Quite abstract sounding if you ask me. Humming sounds as female vocal melodies join in. Sax joins in after 2 1/2 minutes. Kind of an eerie vibe here as it plays out. Bass 15 minutes in as the vocals step aside changing the flavour somewhat. Some new experimental sounds start to come and go before 17 1/2 minutes. Quite avant sounding here to the end.

"Ofek" opens with sax, female vocal melodies and more. Kind of melancholic before the tempo picks up as drums, keys, bass and more jump in as the sax and vocals step aside. Love the drumming, so intricate. The sax is back before 3 1/2 minutes. The string quartet arrives a minute later. Nice. The sax is back before 6 minutes as the drums pound away.

"Noce Chimique" opens with drums and bass as keys and sax join in. Female vocal melodies follow as we get runs of sound here. The vocals become more of the focus before 1 1/2 minutes. Some discordant piano before 3 minutes as the vocals stop. Strings before 4 1/2 minutes along with some nice bass lines. Strings only at 6 minutes then a minute later sax, drums, bass and more take over. I like this section. Vocals back to the fore around 11 minutes.

Sadly as with a lot of Seffer albums I've had to piece this together from random tracks on compilations and unfortunately I've only got two out of three tracks, missing the 20 minuter. Nevertheless here's a short review.

It appears Jean-My Truong disappears from the percussion stand on this album. If you've read any of my other Seffer/Zao reviews you'll know I think this is a bad thing. Alas.

Ofek starts with a sort of Arabian feel of Sax, Cello and female vocals before breaking into a rapid jamming session where immediately I forget its not Truong on drums. It's very tight, and very good. Vocals disappear for the rest of the track and most other instruments are there just to add some rolling noise, including a xylophone(?). Strings add a jarring almost horror style effect at certain points where it becomes less of a jam, a little slower, and a very good section with the quartet mixing with sax before finishing with more of that xylophone tinkling. Really like this track.

Noce Chimique starts where Ofek left off in a way, only with more piano, and more vocals. That slightly arabic feel is back with the vocals for a minute or two over rolling drums. The piano then takes over from the vocals in a lengthy jam before a strings-only section and then the return of a saxophone. We get all arabic again for the last minute or two. Its more sectioned out than Ofek and so doesn't flow quite as nicely but still decent.

Shame I haven't got the other track, as these two aren't bad at all. Slightly better than Delire which I listened to first