Detailed Reviews [Vital Duo - 2003 - "Le Jardin Hors du Temps" DVD]

Vital Duo is the Payssan brothers: Thierry and Jean-Luc. These two amazing composers and multi-instrumentalists formed the project in 1999 after they for some reason disbanded their brainchild and one of the best French bands ever existed in the history of Prog, Minimum Vital. Back in 2001, Vital Duo presented their first CD >"Ex Tempore", which is an amazing masterpiece and is certainly one of the most innovative albums released in the new millennium. The first half of this DVD, Vital Duo's "Le Jardin Hors du Temps", lasts about 55 minutes and includes nine compositions, only two of which: the 7-minute Se me dame and the 3-minute Louez son nom (see track list above) come from "Ex Tempore". All seven of the other Vital Duo compositions on the DVD are fresh. In other words, "Le Jardin Hors du Temps" is actually the new Vital Duo album with two bonus tracks. It was performed, recorded, and shot in the Mussonville chapel, a small beautiful cathedral located not far from the city of Bordeaux in France. This chapel is a gorgeous monument of medieval architecture; so everything is filled with the spirit of the Middle Ages on "Le Jardin Hors du Temps", starting with Vital Duo's music, of course. Overall, the contents of the new Vital Duo album are about that wonderful trinity of Symphonic Art-Rock, Classical Music, and Medieval music, which the Payssan brothers presented on "Ex Tempore". However, most of the numbers here are compositionally more complex than those on the duo debut album, so the predominant stylistics of "Le Jardin Hors du Temps" should, in my honest opinion, be defined as Medieval Classical Music with elements of Modern Progressive Rock. During the performance, Thierry plays a 'multi-purpose' synthesizer, cymbals, and the other metallic percussion instruments, and Jean-Luc an electric guitar, varied acoustic guitars, lute, a bass drum, and hi-hat. A couple of numbers feature vocals, and one of them: Zildeline Danse is with lyrics in one of the Slavic languages. It's just amazing to see how skillfully these multi-instrumentalists play a few instruments simultaneously. It's just wonderful to hear the sound of this duo: often, it's not unlike that of a full-fledged band. Diverse interplay between solos of either electric or acoustic guitar and those of digital Church Organ and the other synthetic, yet, very realistically sounding keyboard and chamber instruments, including synth-bass, accompanied by the sounds of bass drum, tambourine, and cymbals, are typical for most of the contents of "Le Jardin Hors du Temps". Performed within the precincts of a chapel, this album is possessed of a triple effect. Just open your eyes, ears, and soul and absorb this musical magic. The second half of the DVD invites the listener to "Les Mondes de Minimum Vital" ("The Worlds of Minimum Vital"). This is the title of the band's famous VHS, which was released and sold out in the same year of 1994. All seven of the numbers featured on that VHS were carefully remastered before including them in this DVD. Live numbers present the latest period of creation of Minimum Vital with charming Sonja Nedelec as a lead singer. Sonja's vocals with lyrics in the Breton dialect are simply fantastic. The conclusion is brief yet topical: this is the best DVD I've ever seen.

VM: June 18, 2003