NEFFESH MUSIC: GHILGOUL

Anyone who's into Zeuhl needs to get their hands on this album. Most feel that this is Seffer's best solo album. After he left ZAO he hooked up with future ZAO bassist Dominique Bertrand who he would play with on ZAO's last studio album in 1994. Also drummer Francois Laizeau would jump on board. He played with MAGMA, OFFERING and Bernard Paganotti's "Paga" album. The guy can flat out drum. In fact this album is worth getting for the rhythm section alone. Interesting that Seffer also brought the all-female string quartet for this recording.They played with Seffer on ZAO's "Osiris" album and he was obviously impressed with them. Seffer plays sax of course but also piano, and man he caught my attention with his keyboard work on this record.

"Dag" opens with sax and piano as drums and bass join in, then here we go before 1 1/2 minutes. Check out the drum work ! The soundscape after 2 minutes is incredible. The bass, drums and piano are intense while the sax plays over top. What a display ! After 4 minutes all I can say is "I'm not worthy". The violins come in slicing away as this Zeulish rhythm continues. "Sifra" opens with piano as violins join in before a minute. This continues until we get a complete change 5 minutes in as the sax and drums take over. Killer sound after 6 minutes as the bass and drums lay the groundwork and piano plays over top. Violins come back in ripping it up. "Dailn" is the only track not composed by Seffer as Dominque Bertrand did this one. It kicks into a rhythm quickly as bass and drums rumble with sax and piano playing over top. Violins then join in. Huge bass lines in this one. "Larme" features piano and those Zeuhlish vocal melodies we all know and love (Seffer sings them as he did on ZAO's second album). Sax joins in then drums. Violins come in later.

"Ghilgoul" is the almost 17 minute title track. What a way to end this album. This is very different from the rest as we get these multi vocal melodies that are quite haunting with sax. The vocals stop before 4 1/2 minutes as piano and sax take over. The vocals are back before 6 1/2 minutes but even more eerie this time. The violins come in around 7 1/2 minutes as the vocals stop again.They're back before 11 minutes with sax as the strings stop. Violins are back after 13 minutes as vocals and sax stop. The piano returns. I should mention that there's 4 bonus tracks here with a different lineup. 3 tracks from 1980 and one from 1985. Over 30 minutes of great music. These extra songs are so impressive.

A must for ZAO fans, but also for Zeuhlites everywhere.

Ah, this is more like it. After a run of four awful reviews in a row I thought I'd cheer myself up with this excellent album from a guy who's name I've no idea how to pronounce. This leans more to the Fusion end of the spectrum - something I'm ok with in small doses, but after listening to this on my bike last week I can honestly say it's a tremendous album. I just found out he was the bloke who played saxophone with Magma for their first two albums before moving on to 'Zao'. I knew there was something familiar about the sound. Saxophones usually annoy the hell out of me but this sounds super. The volumes of the instruments are perfect and there's that old favourite of mine - reverb on the strings and pianos. The album is full of energy and colour and is simply beautiful. Quite dreamlike in places and certainly one of the best jazz albums I've heard. Big thumbs up!