Detailed Reviews [Palo Alto - 1998 - "Transe Plan"]

Prolusion. According to the CD booklet, "Transe Plan" is a live in studio recording where all the compositions were created and performed impromptu and feature no overdubs.

Synopsis. "Post-modernism" and "impressionism" were the first things that came into my mind when listening to this album. However, I am by no means sure that it's possible not to go beyond the painting-related terms when describing musical works, so here is another, more traditional and concretized, definition of music presented on "Transe Plan". All seven of the tracks here are of a unified stylistic concept representing a post-modernist Jazz-Fusion with elements of impressionist RIO and avant-garde Electronic Rock. Is it still not that clear? Well, it's hard to describe music that is itself indescribable. So I'd better depict the most typical details of this album. OK? Let's go. Labyrinth-Jungle (2) is the only composition here that consists exclusively of fast and intensive arrangements and is in addition filled with flavors of music of the East. The basic arrangements on all of the other tracks on the album are for the most part slow, even though the solos of synthesizer, acoustic guitar, and bass that form them weave their 'webs' like being completely laid back from each other. Quite the contrary, the parts of alto saxophone are mostly fast and, sometimes, even wild, so the tempo contrasts are among the central hallmarks of "Transe Plan". The parts of electric guitar are present only on Sing-Song (5), and those of cornet and bagpipe on Labyrinth-Jungle and Moite Equateur (2 & 4). A few tracks feature vocalizes, among which those on still the same Labyrinth-Jungle are especially impressive. Sing-Song is the only real song on the album, though all the vocals here are narrative-like and are done in the vein of those on Univers Zero's "Heresie". What's especially interesting however is that all the arrangements on the album are in the state of constant development, and yet, they're at the same time just filled with hypnotism.

Conclusion. "Trans Plan" is certainly an extraordinary progressive music entity and is a must have for those into "post-modernist", "impressionist", and all the other possible experimental directions of the so-called New Music, which, though, is experimental itself.

VM: June 24, 2003