Short Reviews [JPL - 2022 - "Sapiens, Chapitre 3/3. Actum"]

As one can tell from the title, this is the third and final album in the series from Jean Pierre Louveton, guitarist with Nemo. There are many more musicians involved with this one than the last, but drummer Jean Baptiste Itier (also of Nemo) is still there, the only musician to also feature on the last two releases, which were basically solo ventures by Louveton. Lyrically this concludes the trilogy about human history, all in French, but musically it is so closely related to his time with Nemo that fans of that amazing band (undoubtedly one of my very favourite French acts) need to get this not only due to JPL and Itier playing on this but directly due to the musical qualities. Louveton has a love for the symphonic, yet also enjoys crunching his guitar so the combination is always an interesting mix, so much so that he has been indicated as crossover within PA but that is because he crosses so many different sub genres within the progressive scene as opposed to playing music which could be thought of as part of the crossover sub-genre itself. He is a musician who follows his own style and the result is an album where the listener is never sure where it is going to go, just that there will always be plenty of guitars, some nice symphonic keyboards and orchestral moments, and someone who knows exactly what he wants to achieve. The result is an album which is thoroughly enjoyable the first time it is played, but the more it is listened to, the more layers there are to uncover. Apparently, this is also now available as part of a 3 CD boxed set containing the other two albums in the series, and that will be a delight.