LA DÉBOUSSOLE

Eleventh album of Ribeiro & Alpes, and for this writer, the last one worth a listen (the next albums are non-Alpes album) and gets even closer to standard Chanson Française. With Mollet and Lemoine still in the writing dept, Ribeiro gets systematic writing credits of her own, showing her increasing control.

While the cellos and other drone instruments are long gone, this album's prime singularity is the funky (almost Kobaian) bass that seems to dominate these the short tracks. Many of the tracks are simply vehicles for Ribeiro's excellent voice (here recorded a tad too loud, IMHO), but there seems to have a slight inspiration problem. It sounds like Catherine had loved to death the previous year's movie of the Broadway musical play Haïr, mixed with some Jacques Brel at times. Tracks like Ne Pas Partir and especially « Dis moi qui tu embrasses », where the opening verses of "Let The Sunshine In" intro of the finale of Haïr are very familiar. This of course is not accidental as the bass is also very reminiscent of the movie's score adaptation. While a good deal of these tracks are still entertaining, few are "prog" except for La Nuits Des Errants. Clearly of most interest for progheads in this album is the rework of 72's Paix track, which gets a good modernized revisit part of which is due to the general uplifting of Alpes' line-up. Ribeiro really unleashes in it with some Janis-like squeals, which draw some near orgasmic spine chills. Different but just great as their first version, this will also be Alpes' last piece of bravado.

Understandably so, with the music scene changing severely, the shift of power was inevitable towards shorter sung songs and therefore the tongue-in-cheek tile of La Déboussole (the un-compass). Unless a total nutcase for Ribeiro's vocals (this is very understandable), I'd recommend progheads the greatest care in venturing further than La Déboussole. Catherine will record homage albums to Edith Piaf and a few others (all very worthy), but we tend to slip severely away from the focus of this site.

What the...??!! Well I wasn't expecting this. Quite a departure from previous albums. Bordering on 'Disco Ribeiro'. I don't care - I could listen to her all day with no complaints. This one's quite a bit more straight forward than all the others. Her voice is still 'to die for' though. Clearly, New Wave bands have had an influence on the group here. Perhaps it was a good thing that they packed it in here rather than face the possible ignominy of taking on board that early 80's overproduction that destroyed many a Prog band in that decade. This is still pretty good stuff though - more through Ribeiro's vocals rather than Alpes who seem to have latched on to that keyboardy and straight drum thing that occurred around this time. Pretty good, but not a relevant entry point to this fantastic band. Leave this album till last and then you'll notice the huge shift in sound.

The last album for CATHERINE RIBEIRO + ALPES found the band succumb to the pressures that psychedelic and progressive artists of the previous decade had been falling victim to for the latter half of the decades that being abandoning long experimental tracks in favor of snappy and catchier pop hooks. The band's final album LA DÉBOUSSOLE which literally translates into English as "Discomfiture" which means frustration, disappointment, lack of ease and the most damaging "D" word of all: defeat. The band literally stamped their frustration on this final album which basically found RIBEIRO's solo career of chanson and funky grooves mostly replacing the wild and uncompromising progressive rock and psychedelia that the band staunchly retained until the previous album "Passions."

While "Passions" was already heading into shorter more accessible songs, the album still retained enough of the band's classic style to be recognizable. On LA DÉBOUSSOLE most traces of the past had been abandoned for funky bass grooves and a simple percussive backing however keyboardist Patrice Lemoine still managed to sneak in a few trippy organ runs and heady atmospheric effects. Once again the band underwent a final lineup change with RIBEIRO and Patrice Moullet welcoming violinist René Werneer and drummer Pierre Gasquet to the team however bassist Francis Campello stuck around for this final chapter of ALPES where he unleashed his most serious funk chops. Despite the simplified poppier song structures, RIBEIRO delivers her usual vocal bravado with her poetic depth still finding its way into the mix however once again everything is delivered in the French language.

Despite the shorter tracks, the band did manage to include the 11 minute "L'Oiseau Devant La Porte" which most resembles the band's former glory with the more familiar song structures that graced the previous albums but even here the funky bass is the dominant force which ends up sounding like a clash of two distinct worlds, namely the pop chanson solo career that RIBEIRO had launched in 1977 with her debut solo release "Le Blues de Piaf" which clashed with the experimental progressive rock and psychedelic folk sounds that ALPES had crafted throughout the 1970s. Likewise the album ends with an updated new version of "Paix" in the form of "Paix 1980" which incorporates the funky bass grooves and modern commercial flavors to the track that appeared on the album that is the band's best known and most popular. The rest of the tracks are all focused on a quick delivery system however RIBEIRO's vocal style that displays an emotional depth beyond the average singer sounds a little stilted in these simplified tracks.

While it may be tempting to hate this album for its reckless abandon of the band's classic sound, it's actually not a bad album at all showcasing the band adapting to the times as best they can although it certainly is the weakest album in the entire RIBEIRO + ALPES canon for sure but like many progressive acts, ALPES displayed a knack for adapting their classic style to the brave new world of funk and disco without sounding ridiculous. This is by far the most forgotten album in the entire ALPES catalogue and has pretty much been out of print since its original pressing however it has found new life on the excellent box set "Intégrale des albums originaux 1969-1980 - 9 CD" which features every album from 1969's "Catherine Ribeiro + 2 Bis" all the way to this final effort LA DÉBOUSSOLE. Personally i find these prog artists gone pop albums to be fascinating as it creates a bizarre tension and a touch of surreality that no artist would've ever conjured up left to their own forces. The end of the line for ALPES as the band would call it quits in 1981 while RIBEIRO herself continue her solo career singing classic French chanson. R.I.P. ALPES and in 2024 R.I.P CATHERINE. A true legend of the French underground.

3.5 rounded down