LE SURVIVANT

French prog toilers Orion are progressing even further than their brilliant predecessor album ' La Face Visible' , a glorious release back in 2015 that found my attention , followed by my loving review, moved by the music and its important theme of The Iron Curtain. This new masterpiece also delves into the 'not so science fiction' of our ultimate demise, what with the current ding-dongs running the planet. This concept album deals with our contemporary ills: pollution, climate change, corporate dominance and political upheaval. While the subject matter may be perceived as bleak with a title like 'Le Survivant' (The survivor), the music remains sleek, silky and intense, drenched in gorgeous melodies but sublimed by a breezy guitar style that adds a lot of sunshine, hopefully not from radio activity but rather the solar protection we have enjoyed in our history. As an amateur historian, I can assure you that we are not quite civilized yet! More hypocritical world is what we live through now. Thank god there is love and art left to keep us smiling! It's this genial spirit that permeates all the tracks, taking its sweet time, to get the buzz going and it goes'..very far. As with all the classic French prog bands, the vocals are theatrical in nature and they enhance the stunning instrumental play by emoting on a fierce and impassioned level, supremely addictive, with an overall sound that thrills, throwing in some jazzier elements that infuse the tracks with maturity. The main core of Janusz Tokarz on keyboards and vocals, Patrick Wyrembski on acoustic guitar and vocals, guitarist Alain Pierre and keysman Michel Taran provide the soundtrack, aided by a slew of invited guests on guitar, bass and piano and drums. The package comes with a tremendous booklet, lush with Chagallian styled paintings by artist Michel Philippon

The album kicks off with the appropriately titled 'Big Bang', a rather ominous intro with jangling guitars, a spectral keyboard howl and some coarse guitar riffing, 8 minutes of typical French classic prog loaded with haunting vocals that provide a recap of human evolution. The pace is at times relaxed and expansive, then moody and abrasive, crowned by a jazzy guitar solo that is more Steely Dan in tone , with an added synth gust that morphs brilliantly into the instrumental 'Cumulostratus' which further reinforces the jazzier tendency, propelled by drummer Cedric Affre's cool cat shuffle. The spotlight then shines on guest pianist Paul Cribaillet who just keeps the gusto going, duelling nicely with Pierre-Jean Horville on lead guitar. Scintillating and smooth as velvet. After the Big Bang, we have atmosphere, oxygen and life.

With 'Peur du Vide', the band really set the controls to the heart of Orion with a stellar piece of music that evoke the unending human failures we strive to amass, often imperfect beings laden with self-doubt and lack of courage. The sprawling music is both luxuriant and incisive, with snarling guitars, sweeping and grandiose keyboards and beautifully poignant vocals. The sound of distant church bells from 'Crimsonville' (nod and wink) , a choir of acid rain and divine luminosity. Just brilliant!

The swooning lilt of 'Les Ravageurs' comes across as a fine tribute to the sound of Pulsar, another slick French prog band with whom Orion can share similarities, but the main melody is simply ravishing even though the lyrics spell out gloom and doom, a world of wasteful mutants, polluting parasites and ingrate exploiters, the 'ravagers' plead ignorance, imposters denying the evidence, raiders looking for another great deal to stuff their greedy pockets! Another total winner!

Sorrow permeates 'Mere Nature', as it rightfully should, seeing Mother Nature crying her deepest gasps, distressed narration and overwrought lead vocals amid the suicidal synthesized whistlings and floating guitar arrays, pulsed by some intricate drumming and rolling bass undertow. There is a jazzier Floydian touch here that elicits another serious thumbs up.

'La Planete des Fous' gets a tad angrier, armed by slowly burning guitar strains shoving the melancholia-dripping theme along, until an alarming barrage of wild synths disturb the mood, the repetitive lilt only highlighting the puerile insanity of our constant futility. The overall impression up to now is that these musicians have crafted a personal opus that has just the perfect amount of intelligent thought, restrained but expressive instrumental grace, little pretense or artifice. This imprint is maintained with the final two pieces that close the album.

'Le Dernier Arbre' (the last tree) is a mournful musical agony that shines desperate light on the despair of the modern world's continued disregard for our planet. The sullen vocals and deep harmonies play a major role here, buoyed by a nervous piano tirade, corkscrew guitar structures and a windswept synth barrage. The melody is both complex on a multi-level platform, like an armoire with each drawer creating its own feeling of intensity. It's still very accessible but grief-stricken as the piece goes forth boldly by revisiting the main gorgeous melody. Seductive and exquisite.

The title track spares no regret or remorse, 'Le Survivant' (the Survivor) maintains a Floydian feel, with a lyrical anticipation of an unknown future, another Adam and Eve or perhaps another Ark, who knows? The pace is rather pulsating, lamenting a devastated planet lost in a mutilated universe, asking, no rather begging, for at least one survivor'

Possibly one of the finest contemporary French prog recordings ever, perhaps even shoving the Ange, Atoll, Mona Lisa, Pentacle, Pulsar and so many more classics '..aside. Orion has a bright future, as this is compelling, original and seductive prog. The playing is truly spectacular, very tight and controlled, with the right amount of magic from all involved. A great package, a fab album, a masterful band'.Orion

5 French fighters

A melodically successful offering of poor-sounding prog-by-numbers New Age Neo Prog.

1. "Big Bang" (8:38) horrible two-chord rock with horrible sound production and cheezy rock music and lyrics. Sudden and unexpected shift at 6:00 leads to a completely different sound and style that is very nice, very pretty (though still rather simplistic/prog-by-numbers). Saved from a far worse rating by the final two and a half minutes. (7.5/10)

2. "Cumulostratus" (4:17) opens with New Age jazz sound coming from drums, bass, and acoustic guitar (and, soon, piano). Nice piano-guitar duet--almost Pat Metheny like--in that first minute. Very nice melodies. I don't really like this GOBI/SHASTRA-sounding nylon string guitar sound. The piano solo section gives the piano (obviously an electronically duplicated "piano" sound) a live, onstage at a piano bar sound. Again, this is pure and simply a nice tropical piano bar instrumental song. (8/10)

3. "Peur Du Vide" (6:32) again opens with cheezy Neo-prog sounds and construction. The pseudo-metal electric guitar strums are just too cheezy and take the song down every time they enter. The DAFT-PUNK-like treated vocal is not attractive here. Like a beginner's THE BOX. Some nice subtleties within the song. The keyboard and guitar solos show that this band has some talent. If they could only improve their song composition and find a different engineer or producer. (7.5/10)

4. "Les Ravageurs" (3:38) same simple bass and drums from the previous song? Odd almost ICEHOUSE sound and structure with a kind of singing style and sound reminiscent, again, of THE BOX. (7/10)

5. "Mère Nature" (3:47) BRUCE COCKBURN did this song way better in 1977. It was called "Homme brûlant". (7/10)

6. "La Planète Des Fous" (4:28) now let the gimmicks (toy piano) and quirks begin! Over the course of the first minute I find myself waiting for the song to settle into a groove--to get past the introduction section. It never happens...not even at 2:55 when the horribly distorted guitar (are they trying to get DAVID GILMOUR's sound?) power chords seem to indicate a possible change. Cool synth sounds at the halfway point but the drums are painful! (6.5/10)

7. "Le Dernier Arbre" (6:30) piano, bass and nice drumming open this in jazzy chord progression for the first 45 seconds. Then things shift into a standard slow rock ballad pace and four-chord structure. Gentle singing and seering lead guitar work throughout are less than companionable. At 2:20 the music returns for a few seconds to the cool jazzy progression from the opening, but then it all settles back into the slow ballad format. Wish they'd spend more time exploring that jazzy opening style.(7.5/10)

8. "Le Survivant" (7:35) the title song and it sounds like a demo? Is this a joke? Is this to illustrate to us the kind of sound reproduction quality we'll have at our disposal in a post-apocalyptic world? Wow! They saved the worst for last! The tracks don't even match up with one another! I would be embarrassed if this were my released as my finished, "polished" product! At 3:40 the song shifts into a much better section--though this, again, sounds so derivative of THE BOX's sound and style. And then, quel disappointment, it plays out the same to the song's end! (6/10)

In my humble opinion, this is one of the year's singularly over-hyped albums! Unbelievable!

Three star album; not something I would recommend to anyone unless they have a ton of time and want to hear everything that's available throughout the year.

It is not that unusual for a band to break up and then reform, but I am having problems trying to think of one who did it for quite such a long period. Orion were originally formed back in 1975, released an album, and then disbanded in 1980. Then, more than 30 years later they decided to reform, since when they have released more albums, including this one from 2017. Both Patrick Wyrembski (acoustic guitar) and Janusz Tokarz (vocals, keyboards) played on the debut all those years earlier, while the rest of the band comprise Alain Pierre (vocals, guitar) and Michel Taran (vocals, keyboards) plus assorted guests.

There is a well-presented booklet with lots of photographs and all the lyrics for what is apparently a concept album, but with all the lyrics in French I am afraid I cannot comment to much on that. Interestingly, this album has received quite a few 5* reviews, which I find hard to fathom as while it is interesting at some levels, it is also quite boring at others. Here we have a release which contains lots of keyboards and vocals, yet neither of those areas stand out and they all tend to wash into each other. Frustratingly there are glimpses of brilliance such as during the introduction of "Le Dernier Abre", which contains an interesting piano motif which is mirrored by the bass. However, it then all slows down and takes on a far more meandering and reflective manner and all sense of purpose is soon washed away.

There are elements of washed-out 70's symphonic combined with some of the elements of early 90's neo, and if I had been given this as a demo some 30 years ago from a brand-new band, I may have been more excited as it shows promise. But when a band has been around the scene as long as this one, and this their third album in five years, I expect a great deal more. Musically, this just drags and is rarely anything more than background music and not one to which I expect ever to be returning.