FunkFreak75 A French Jazz-Rock Fusion band whose collective sound is very close to that of BRUFORD--and not just due to the stylistic and sonic similarities to the drummer who happens to lead that band.

Line-up / Musicians: - Marius Lorenzini / electric & acoustic guitars, vocals - Ann Ballester / acoustic & electric pianos, synthesizers (ARP Odyssey & Omni, Oberheim polyphonic), vocals - Josquin Turenne des Prés / bass, guitar, vocals - Alain Gouillard / drums

1. "Vedra" (6:35) very impressive musicianship over creatively fresh multi-tempo music. Everybody raves about this drummer's talent but is anybody listening to the bass player? Who does he think he is? Percy Jones? Nice bluesy motif in the third minute that sounds quite Canterburian despite its more-skilled guitar player. I also love the switch in guitar sounds that Marius Lorenzini uses for his next solo: very cool! Overall, the song is somewhat melodic despite its choppy, staccato structure and frequent and quickly-shifting motifs but so full of life and wonder! (9/10)

2. "À la source du rêve" (7:45) opening with a sound palette that is more befitting the Second Wave of (with the use of electronic percussives and "pretty" chord choices). I very much like the different, slower pace to this one: it allows for more space between the instrumentalists. The real song starts at the 1:35 mark when a BRUFORD-like near-disco-funk weave leads the way for keyboard master Ann Ballester to lay down a pretty cool synth solo. Acoustic guitar is next--here sounding a lot like Jean-Luc Ponty's recent guitarist, Daryl Stuermer. Drummer Alain Gouillard's drums sound like Bill Bruford's--not just his style but everything about those toms! A good song with a very impressive sound palette and mighty impressive individual performances from each one of the quartet. (13.75/15)

3. "So Deep Inside" (5:45) bass and guitar interplay in the instrumental passage after the vocals is incredible how similar they are to Holdsworth-era BRUFORD's Canterbury-tinged sound--a feeling that is only reinforced with the unexpected appearance of Ann Ballester's singing voice. The rhythmatists playing beneath Ann's voice and, later, her piano solos, are tight but perhaps a bit too stiff, but the instrumental passages that follow are incredible! And the bridges are so RTF-like (even YES-like)! I love the ARP solo in the fifth minute with the flattened out rhythm support. Cool finish to a rather mind-boggling song. (9/10)

4. "Le temps d'un solo" (5:43) piano and acoustic guitar fly through some very complex lightning fast arpeggio runs like some famous Belgian duo to open this before everyone clicks into their electric selves, carrying forward the riffs that started it for some seconds before settling back into a piano-based jazz-rock motif over which Marius Lorenzini solos with a distorted wah-effect giving his axe a kind of muted-trumpet squawking sound. Nice bridge leaves us back in the same motif for yet another extended solo of guitar squawk. The three other band members stay pretty tightly-committed to the supportive weave beneath (despite Alain's irresistible urges to flourish and embellish). I'm amazed at the way the whole band can create a horn-section like effect for the bridges. Very impressive. (9.25/10)

5. "La ville en béton" (5:00) guitarist Marius Lorenzini is back using yet another muted-trumpet sound for his guitar (one sounding very much like some of the "old-time jazz" sounds Jeff "Skunk" Baxter used on Steely Dan's early albums.) Ann opens with some ARP play but then backs way off to help supply the rhythmic support to Marius' multiple-sound-choice guitar solos. Man! This bass-and-drums duo are so tight! Their solid performances must give the soloists quite a little confidence to dare to do pretty much anything they well please. Male singing voice! What? Yet another unexpected occasion. (Singing in French, of course.) Looks like that remarkable rhythm section offers all kinds of risk-taking confidence! (Is this what Demtrio Stratos felt with AREA?) Amazing song! (9.5/10)

6. "La fille du ruisseau" (6:45) this one sounds like it could have come straight off of RETURN TO FOREVER's final studio album, Musicmagic--at least, that is, until the muted-trumpet guitar and ARP synth start dueling in the fourth minute. Group vocals enter over STEELY DAN-like Fender Rhodes chords singing in French. They certainly add a certain disarming charm to the music--(just as the female b vox singers do on Royal Scam, Aja, and Gaucho). The on-going to the finish duel between Ann's ARP and Marius' rock guitar is awesome. A strong song if a little less intense than the previous ones. (13.5/15)

7. "Alone, Completely Unknown" (6:55) a mutli-part song in which I hear definite tinges of Canterbury as well as RTF and/or Brand X starts out with a whimsical Chick Corea intro before falling into a whimsical male v. female vocal exchange (conversation?) singing in English! Impressive and fun bordering on both funny and cute! The "conversation" between the guitars and synths seem to be mirroring that of Ann and Marius. Around the four-minute mark we are taken into a different kind of dreamy rabbit hole with a new slower, more spacious motif over which Ann solos on her Oberheim synth both prolifically and abundantly. The supporting motif reminds me of something from the 21st Century band NIL: very mixed in meters--which allows Alain a little more room to show off on la batterie. Cool song--especially since I love the music of both the Canterbury Scene and Nil. (13.75/15)

Total Time 44:28

I love the fact that the French were that rare breed who were secure enough in their sexuality that they could live with a female among their ranks (albeit a very gifted female--in the form of keyboardist Ann Ballester); no other country I can think of (certainly not the English or Italians) seemed to be able to think of a female instrumentalist being equal to the task of being a principal unless it is as a vocalist or perhaps flutist. At the same time, I'm a little bewildered at the fact that this band obviously felt the need or urge to have vocals as integral parts of the bulk of their songs. And to sing in English--something that seems so rare for (and degrading to) the French! Perhaps it was the Bruford-Annette Peacock or Gayle Moran effect. Even more impressive is the individually unique sound and sytle this band is able to project despite being obviously influenced by many Anglo and American projects: they sound like but they are not such-and-such band.

A/five stars; a minor masterpiece of sophisticated and multi-dimensional Jazz-Rock Fusion from a power house quartet of electrified virtuosi.

Sean Trane I’ve known ES for decades, having been given a copy of this album back in those days, and while I was still a bit too young to appreciate JR/F, I kept on regular but rare rotation, wondering why ES was not at least as well known as RTF, EH, WR, and MO as well as SM, or BrX…. Of course the superstar status of the members of those previously-mentioned groups, looking at ES, none of them reached the heel as far as fame was concerned. Clearly all four musicians were more than excellent at their trades,the most impressive being bassist Josquin Turenne induced a slight Zeuhl twist that is completely absent in other JR/F groups. Graced with a superb and intriguing artwork, Aliquante was ES’ second album (that was news to me still in the late 90’s, though) and it was to be the second last (I was aware but had also never heard the album), so I remained with a largely misinformed opinion of this group for decades. BTW, Ballester and Lorenzini were romantically involved.

Now having wisely stayed away from ES’s debut (only heard it twice at a friend’s house), it’s clear that Aliquante is from another galaxy than its predecessor. One of the main drawback of the debut is Ann Ballester’s vocals, which coupled with her rather good electric piano playing sounds like a third rate Steely Dan, something that will pursue the group to the end of its career. While all four musicians have clearly improved compared to the debut album, the main difference is that Aliquante is an-almost instrumental album: only two tracks are sung, the rest deploying a very solid and aerial JR/F somewhere between RTF and MO, but never reaching the awesome amount of virtuosity so present in those groups. While Vedra starts clearly on a Caravan-derived line, the track quickly develops a speed where our Canterburians couldn’t have followed. Even if newcomer drummer Gouillard‘s play is very reminiscent of Collins’ in BX, the group is often on RTF grounds without the ultra-funk of later albums (as I said Zeuhl is more applicable), but obviously the execution speed is limited. If they indeed overstretch their limits (the start of Temps D’Un Solo), it immediately sounds bizarre or out of tune.

And once Ballester’s vocals do come in the band, they sound better controlled but could’ve been done without as well, but if you don’t mind Steely Dan, you shouldn’t find much problem on this album. According to Ann, the recording of the album was rushed by their new label RCA, which might explain why it has much less vocals than the other two, but you might want to consider this a blessing. As for her keyboard playing, she’s right up there with her fellow musos, and there is little discussion about her choice of synth sounds, a trap that her much more illustrious compadres (Hancock, Zawinul, Corea) couldn’t avoid.

Whether the two bonus tracks are a useful addition is rather of a personal taste, but they’re both early writing/recording stages of the first two track of the next album Horizon Digital, but they beef up a rather short original album, so if Aliquante is the only album you’re planning on getting, they provide enough added value to the album, if you don’t mind their last album’s much more vocal statement. .Clearly the group’s better album, you’ll probably have to start with this one, while knowing that it’s probably the least representative of their works.