EDITION SPÉCIALE — Aliquante (review)

EDITION SPÉCIALE — Aliquante album cover

Album · 1977 · Fusion

4.5/5 · 2024-10-11
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.