NEUF SONGES

French band from Creyssensac, found by guitarist Jean Lapouge in 1976, at a time when he had sufficiently developed his composing skills.He was accompanied by his longtime follower Daniel Renault on drums along with bassist Denis Lefranc and Christian Paboeuf on wind instruments.A first demo was recorded in winter 1978/1979, followed by an album, ''Neuf songes'', which was handed to ECM in chase for a contract, that never became true.However the material along with some other recordings was collected by Musea Records and released in 1992 in CD format.

With an expanded line-up including seven guest musicians on brass/wind/string instruments and Lapouge presence always on the forefront, ''Neuf Songes'' explores the boundaries of Chamber Music, Jazz-Rock and RIO, around the time Lapouge was inspired by the music of HENRY COW, MAGMA and EBERHARD WEBER.One can find several different orientations in Noetra's arrangements.The guitar-dominated parts turn from energetic Jazz-Rock to harmonic Chamber Rock in a blink of an eye with the light support of violins, cellos and flutes, always offering some fine interplays and a deep atmosphere.But there is a strong tendency towards Modern Classical music among Lapouge's ideas with dominant use of trombones, saxes, clarinets and oboe, eventually coming up with a small orchestra performing delicate Chamber Music.But also much of the material stands somewhere inbetween the two styles, where a dynamic rock section with a jazzy edge leaves its place to the Classical-influenced solos of the string and wind section.Overall this is over 70 minutes of compelling and highly adventurous musicianship with a great technical level.

In Lapouge's biography the listener can find the reason this material was never originally released.It turned to be some of the album's technical flaws, but the general deep and ''difficult'' approach allows some.Thanks to Musea the album has seen the light over a decade later and comes up as an effort, which fans of the aforementioned styles are sure to appreciate.Recommended stuff.

French ensemble NOETRA was first and foremost the creative vehicle of composer and guitarist Jean Lapouge. Active in various line-ups in the late 1970's and early 1980's, Noetra was the band that almost made it. ECM were initially interested in signing them, but as more material was produced the interest declined, and while the band did carry on until 1985 they never managed to release anything when active. Enter Musea Records, which some years later managed to convince Lapouge that the material recorded back then was worth releasing on CD. At the time of writing the end result of this process has been that material for three full length productions have been salvaged from Lapouge's archives.

While not without minor flaws, Noetra's "Neuf Songes" is a production that clearly merited a CD release. Fans of chamber music and chamber rock appear to be the main audience for this production, and in particular those with a taste for music of this kind closer to classical music than rock should find this album to be one that merits an inspection.