Detailed Reviews [Franck Balestracci - 2003 - "Existences Invisibles"]

Franck Balestracci (France) - 2003 - "Existences Invisibles"
(64 min, Carbon-7)

Prolusion. "Existences Invisibles" ("Invisible Existences", of course) is the debut by the French multi-instrumentalist Franck Balestracci.

Synopsis. The entire contents of this album show that Franck's main creative passion is the search for new musical forms in the land of Electronic Progressive. However, there are only four tracks here, the music on which represents a progressive electronic music. These are the four pieces located at the core of the album: Obscure Part, Les Desespoirs de Christa, Baird's Memory, and Prelude Polaire (6 to 9). Even though all of them are quieter and less complex than any of the other compositions here and, for the most part, consist of electronic structures, an amazing mysterious atmosphere, typical for the album as a whole, is present on them as well. Apart from the novelty of sound, the music on all of the other compositions here features a wide variety of definitely progressive ingredients: such as the continuous change of a musical direction, the use of complex time signatures, etc. Another important aspect of any of the best ten of these invisible, yet, very imaginative musical entities, concerns arrangements. Here, they are completely unpredictable and are mostly in the state of constant development. As for styles covering most of the CD's playing space, here is a brief definition of them. A highly original, lushly orchestrated Electronic Progressive with elements of Symphonic Art-Rock and Classical Academic Music is presented on the first five compositions on the album: Screenplay of a Movie, Adrift in a City, Le Veilleur Sous la Lune, Our Inner Theater, and Chaos Anterieur. Apart from the sections of a complete set of Rock instruments, all of them feature also those of varied string and wind instruments that, while being synthetic, sound quite realistic. Performed mostly without the use of strings and chamber instruments-related samples and sounds, all five of the last tracks on the album are about a blend of Electronic Progressive, Art-Rock, and Avant-garde and are probably the most innovative here.

Conclusion. Simply speaking, "Existences Invisibles" is the most diverse, complex, and interesting, and also the most progressive Electronic Rock album I've ever heard. In fact however, most of the contents of it exceed the bounds of this style, to say the least. In other words, Franck Balestracci's debut can be recommended not to all of the lovers of electronic music, and only to the most profound of them. While the greater part of audience of the album will consist of those whose horizons aren't limited by some particular framework.

VM: May 17, 2003