DIDIER MALHERBE

This is an album of very friendly mostly instrumental music by a four-piece headed by Gong's former flute and saxophone player Didier Malherbe, who here uses far more flute than saxophone. The album has a very gentle, airy feel; there's a lack of pretty much anything that'd define rock music such as rock drums, electric guitars and bass. There are a few electronic effects but by and large this is carried by natural instruments such as piano, percussion, and some ethnic instruments such as oud and tabla. The style is located in the vast landscapes of jazz, folk and world music, with a particularly strong Indian/middle east influence, but some western folk melodies can be found, too.

At the same time it is very typical Didier Malherbe , the scales and melodies and improvisations that he delivers are very characteristic, although he doesn't place himself in the foreground all the time and there is much space for his collaborators to show their musicality, too. "Fluvius" is a very appropriate title because there is a very flowing quality to this music. Although the tracks come in different intensities and speeds, it all feels very organic. Regarding the compositions, this is predominantly jazzy, tracks are driven and usually opened by main themes, and then it goes into improvisation, and often there's some more musical variation and exploration of the main themes. It should also be said that the musicianship on this album is very good, they're all masterful mutiinstrumentalists and it's a joy to listen to them.

Coming to the rating, this is difficult. Sometimes I think that I have two ways of rating music, one very personal and one more "objective"; the first one about how the music speaks to me intuitively, the "objective" one referring to how well it is done and how well it achieves what I think it tries to achieve. But then I don't really believe in objectivity, I mean, how can my "objective" rating not be subjective as well? Which makes me wonder whether I should really rate everything in a personal fashion, ignoring the impression that at times I believe in album is "really" better than I'd rate it intuitively. What does that even mean?

For this album I've got to say that my intuitive personal rating would be 3 stars, despite the fact that "subjectively objectively" I believe that this is really a very delightful and fine album that should be worth 4 stars at least, and there's really not much to criticise about it. Well, for me personally this is just a little bit too nice and gentle and not edgy enough, and I find my attention drifting off all too easily, but when it comes back I still realise that this is very good and enjoyable and even original music. Oh, and then on top of it there's the Progarchive rating key, which asks me really to rate the album's value for the prog rock listener. In this respect it's good, actually very good, but certainly non-essential, because it isn't rock music in the first place. At the same time I have a hard time imagining any music collection to which this isn't an excellent addition, except I wouldn't put it in the prog rock folder. Ah! It's difficult, what am I gonna do? Ultimately my feelings toward this are rather warm and positive and therefore I go for 4 just to be as nice to this music as this music is to me!

This album may be hard to get hold of these days, but if you like your prog served with a good deal of jazzy salt, it's certainly worth it. Every single moment you can hear how much fun Malherbe and his band had recording this. It's a most uplifting and relaxing experience. Like Malherbe's sax playing in general, here also the compositions strike a perfect balance between lightness, energy, melody, surprising harmonies, rhythm and tempo changes and some jokes. The skill of the musicians can't be faulted, and despite the clear lead of the saxophone this is also good teamwork. All musicians get their spot to shine but in most parts every instrument contributes something essential; it's not one soloist in front and the other doing just the background.

Most of the time this is instrumental but vocals can be heard on most songs. They are never dominating but rather contribute to the teamwork and to the fun. Bateau-Vole is a wonderful opener with a strong fast and furious take off after some warming up sax in the very beginning. Whiskers begins in a very relaxed way but later comes up with a quite energetic middle and some rather astonishing changes in the last third. Indecision has vocals most of the time, although it's not a singer's song. It has rather weird harmonies, twists and turns and ends at much faster speed although it's hard to figure out how exactly it got there. I'd call this a jester's song and the vocals go with this idea. Dan-Dan is the most organic song. It starts in a very melodic way with acoustic guitar. Like all the songs its intensity and speed increase later, but without the sudden twists that feature elsewhere on the album. Suite a tout de suite can be described similarly to Dan-Dan with slightly more sea change along the way; I particularly love the relaxed but still energetic nicely flowing part in the middle; later there is more composition and everybody meets for a last gathering to finish off this great album.

Apparently this album isn't very widely known but it is a real gem; it has melodies, complexity and surprise, impressive musicianship and much fun.

Gee, something's gone seriously wrong here.

At the time of this release, Malherbe was still contributing to the odd Gong release. His contribution there was always a highlight to my ears.

On his first solo release of barely 35 mins, he managed to alienate me. Big time! "Bloom" lacks any sense of cohesion, totally different approaches heaped together in a mere five tracks.

Brazilian Carnival for starters followed by noodlings, even prose in a language I don't understand, a bit of spirited blowing in a mediocre and rather boring Fusion context just doesn't do it or me. I am left really, really disappointed. What a waste of time and effort!! The only good thing about it that it's perversely short. I don't know what's gotten into Malherbe, but he left me feeling seriously short changed.

Regardless of musical preferences, this album goes nowhere. Barely 2.5, rounded down with some regret..

Thoughtful and elegant.

Didier Malherbe came to my attention a long time ago as the excellent sax player of Gong. Apart from my preference of jazzy approaches, I must admit that the Daevid Allen era of Gong is not among my fave releases, hence Malherbe stood out and received my sole attention there. Later he completely disappeared from my radar, but never really forgotten,

Only in recent times (and thanks to his listing on PA!) I realized that he has released numerous solo projects, often under the name of HADOUK TRIO. I choose to listen to this album as to date, it has no rating/review.

My first impression is that Malherbe and Co. display a definite interest towards Arabic music without attempting to imitate such. The choice of instruments further enhances that atmosphere. There are no spirited blowing on saxes, no jamming here as Malherbe plays flutes almost exclusively and the percussive instruments are traditional, tribal drums. All this is complemented by a double-bass that adds the jazzy feel.

This band achieves a fine balance of styles, jazzy, ethnic feel with ease. The delivery is laid back and the compositions are pleasant, relatively simple without being minimalist. Anyone familiar with the German ECM label would relate to an album like this. The odd, lighthearted, funny piece thrown in wouldn't be missed, but equally not disturbing, either.

Very far from Jazz-Rock, the term "fusion" would be more appropriate, but not as a genre. Pleasant music that one could listen to all day, every day. Short of essential, part of a Desert Island" collection, nevertheless it's mature work.