83

When it comes to the 'numbered' albums of Sébastien Gramond's discography, I usually haven't set my expectations particularly high. Usually, I end up assuming that these albums were quick one-off projects of Gramond's, just to keep his incredibly prolific rate of record making up. To my pleasant surprise though, '83' dispels this assumption by delivering one of the more heartfelt albums I have heard by Gramond. Although the music is plagued by execution issues which really hurt the overall product, this is quite possibly the most sombre and melancholic album the Frenchman has ever come out with.

Things here are driven almost entirely by keyboards, be they set to sound like a string orchestration, or even just a piano. Although there is ample room for Gramond to do his necessary improvised soloing grooves within the first very long opener, there is a large amount of the music here which feels very intentionally composed, and it really works to his benefit. Especially with track titles like 'Auschwitz 19XX', one might imagine that the subject matter here is quite a bit more depressing than what might typically be expected from the music of this quirky artist. While the music here is entirely instrumental though, the mood gets through clearly.

This could very well have been called the 'Soundtrack Album'; each track here feels as if it could very well score a video game or film. The tracks here generally lack identity or memorable melodies to them, but they do create a powerful atmosphere even just through Gramond's use of keyboards. Of course, the keyboard work here that tries to sound like violins and other string arrangements makes the album sound fake in its execution, even though there are subtle crescendos in the keyboard presentation to give it a nicer feel.

'83' is quite a pleasant record though, a fine record for sad ambiance, despite its pronounced flaws.