MINUIT VILLE

Mostly mellow and string synth laden symphonic prog, "Minuit Ville" is yet another late 1970s offering from the French progressive scene. While Ange and Mona Lisa dramatics do appear, particularly in the opening track and the intro to the finale, SYNOPSIS generally occupies a more delicate and ambient niche that do the godfathers of the scene. They do not sound like a knock-off of any groups of their age, even if RPI forces also play a role.

Michel Bail sings in a near falsetto which actually suits the fragility of the melodies, particularly on the highlight, "Desert", which features the most assertive song structure and memorable tune of the disk, with a majestic shift from verse to chorus, and a shimmering synth section leading to a more intricate bass-led closing passage. While keyboards do dominate, Christian Hoff makes his presence felt often enough, particularly in "Ville D'Oracle", which begins in almost jazzy fits and starts before his gentle arpeggios introduce the sung portion, after which his lead sashays atop an Alan Parsons styled bass riff. He reveals more prowess on "Melodie Saoule", and here Michel Resler's bass is far more inventive, and the rhythm more complex.

If I may provide a brief closing synopsis, this debut may be a tad too timid for some, but is recommended to those who enjoy the mellower proponents of the sub genre, conveyed with continental class . 3.5 stars.

Synopsis were a French band who remained quite unknown during their brief existence; what else to expect when making symphonic prog during the late 70's and early 80's? This is the first one of their two albums. It includes only five tracks between 5 to 9 minutes in length. The music is keyboard-oriented but not in the bombastic way à la ELP or Rick Wakeman. The GENESIS-influenced style is closer to compatriots MONA LISA and ATOLL, also PULSAR or PENTACLE could be mentioned in the same sentence. All these are clearly better bands than Synopsis. Actually the thick layer of synth or organ gets tiring as there really are no great variety in sound. The guitar is happily not buried completely. The rhythm section is given a minor role, for example 'Melodie Saoule' is for the most part without solid percussion, but it has some nice hi-hat... and later on also a slightly faster section with complex rhythm, during which keyboards do their typical, continuous background layering as they always do. Some synth soloing sounds more like badly outdated and amateurish than a musical bliss. Maybe the production is not the best possible either.

The vocals are approaching falsetto and they're rather weak (still maybe better than the over-dramatic, spitty French of ANGE!), but they fit fairly well with the sensibility in compositions. I can't give a good comparison for the voice, if not the SPARKS in the most falsetto parts! Anyway, the longish compositions are often instrumentally oriented, CAMEL-like at times. Are they memorable? Definitely not. The mellow and melodic music is likely to please those who enjoy soft symphonic prog, if the weak vocals or uninspired synths are not too big problems, but nothing more, I'm afraid. Easily more than two stars but not quite full three stars. The second album Gamme (1981) sounds better and more lively.

Synopsis from France - this quite obscure symphonic prog band who mange in their short career only two albums, offer a very solid and intresting debute album. Named Minuit ville from 1979 this is good as it can be symphonic prog with lots of spacey instrumental passages, really excellent. The melodic lines , the interludes between musicians is awesome, such elegant spacey arrangements, sometimes I really think thay are as good as Eloy were in the glory days, also some Pulsar or even Genesis influences I can trace, but overall this album is pretty solid and inventive. Only the opening track as that theatrical feel to it close to Ange, but the rest of 4 pieces, 5 in total, are killer, the bass lines, the vintage keyboards all works very well here, really like a lot this album. There are complex rhythm parts, nice inspired keybaords and guitars and a very good vocal passages provided by Michel Bail . This is a cross between symphonic prog and spacey prog moments, very well melted together resulting an elegant album to my ears. All in all recommended for sure, great little known album from last breath of prog movement. easely 4 stars.