Detailed Reviews [Stereoscope - 2006 - "Stereoscope"]

Prolusion. In a way, STEREOSCOPE can be viewed as a place where Jeremie Grima and Sebastien Bourdiex (the masterminds behind the French outfit The Black Noodle Project) take rest from their hard progressive labor. Inasmuch as the latest CD by their primary band is next on Vitaly's agenda, I can put a link to the corresponding review right now.

Analysis. According to Jeremie and Sebastien, this album was born as result of their love for acoustic, minimalist and folk music, which only partly corresponds to the real state of affairs. No folk music here, nor any genuine minimalist music. The CD features 13 tracks (nine songs and three instrumentals), most of which still display the guys' deep homage to their teachers in absentia, Pink Floyd. In other words, here they continue doing what they do in The Black Noodle Project, just in a more overt way, with a much wider use of acoustic fabrics and with a semi-minimalist (or perhaps just simplistic) approach. With the exception of The Beauty with the Colt , which reminds me of a minstrel song (the only relatively up-tempo number on the CD, by the way), all the songs are ballads in the style of either Pink Floyd or Roger Waters-solo, despite the fact that none has a featured rhythm section (present only on the instrumental Upon a Sky Corner) and that the piano parts seem to be another story altogether. Here is the typical picture: slow acoustic guitar and piano, often in conjunction with (clearly Gilmouresque) fluid electric guitar solos, soaring slowly over slowly moving synthesizer chords, while the vocals of Jeremie and Sebastien instantly evoke those of Roger Waters and David Gilmour. As for the instrumentals, Open Book and Upon a Sky Corner are musically not unlike the songs (minus vocals of course), while The Typewriter finds one of the guys typing on the typewriter, and the other playing acoustic guitar. That's all.

Conclusion. The sound of the recording is warm and pleasing, as is also the music, but only as long as it is viewed out of the context of progressive music, and its certain derivativeness overlooked.

VZ: Agst 24, 2006