GÉNÉRATION SANS FUTUR

In the same year of the re-release of the debut album the Art Zoyd are in the shops with the third studio effort an one new element. The first thing that hits the listener are the bass chords played by a grand piano, an instrument never used before by the band.

Patricia Dallio is the new entry in the lineup and the first 2:30 minutes which are the intro to the longest track of the album are a sort of welcome. Then "La Ville" develops with the usual bass, guitar and brasses on an obsessive rhythm. After 5 minutes we are immerge into the darkness with Zaboitzeff and Eckert screaming something that I don't understand. They stop and the piano takes their place. There are no trivial passages. Everything, even in the most chaotic moments, seems to have its place but it's when the rhythm stops that the darkness is totally black. Who cries what? Is it the lament of whom? The track's title doesn't say anything. So let's quit with the attempt of "interpreting" the meaning and just let us be transported in a descending spiral by the brasses to stop when the bottom is reached, when after 10 minutes the cello wakes us up in a hidden room and we start looking around. It's incredible how this compulsive, disharmonic and dark music can be relaxing at the same time. In this rhythmless phase it could remind to the De Profundis of the Estonian Arvo Part if it wasn't for the bass that adds a touch of jazz-rock to what is for me classical music. In the last two minutes the symphony becomes paroxistic with the piano contributing with just three/four notes, the rhythm given by the cello and the brasses making the rest. A pause, then the coda

The sudden end of La Ville is the starting point of "Speedy Gonzales". The track title is a sort of joke, the music is not. Yes it can remind to a fast mouse running in a cartoonwith a sombrero, but you need to use a lot of fantasy. Does it represent the "Generation with no future" hypnotized by the TV? I don't know.

Let's go to the B side where a bass piano note sounds like a gong. There are major chords, so this appears to be an "easy" track, in the sense that it contains many elements that I could define "recognizable". It's the title track. The first secion lasts for one third of the track, then the "gong" returns to introduce the same major chords but played by different instruments (apparently) so it's not the same thing as before. The bass arrives to disturb the mood and we are in the middle of a jazzy chaos with bass and drums in the base and the piano launched in a free-jazz session. The trumpet cries like it's trying to be a sort of Stella Vander. The music grows chaotically with trumpet and sax riding the waves of piano and drums. The crescendo of chaos has a sudden stop and what follows is a totally different section. Another stop. Another grand piano chord...and it's done.

"Divertissement" is a fusion of contemporary classics (cello and violin) with jazz (bass, mainly).Neither the violin accents can disturb the mood. After 2 minutes the cello takes the rhythmic role. Here' is where, I think, the Quintorigo may have taken the idea for their strings cover of Deep Purple's Higwhay Stars. But it's just a bit more than a minute, then we are back to a classical environment. It sounds like a Requiem. Like Speedy Gonzales, calling this song "Divertissment" (Funny thing) seems to be a sort of a joke.

"Trois Miniatures" (Three miniatures) is the most jazzy track of the album. The guitar is clean like it was played by Stanley Jordan or Al Di Meola, there are swing moments, but always without losing the darkness which permeates the whole album. The fact that the author of this track is not the usual Zaboitzeff is evident. The composing style is more traditional and less challenging. A very good track to approach this band.

I'm not sure if it can be considered a masterpiece, but it's surely an excellent album, enough for the 4 stars