Ceux du Dehors

by

Univers Zéro

Edit

This is the third and best Univers Zero album, and on this one they adopt a grander, more symphonic sound, without losing their high originality.

The music is quite dark (though less so than on the previous album "Heresie"), and its quite dissonant and very strange and gothic. One of the tracks on this album is inspired by a H.P. Lovecraft story, and its Lovecraft's mixture of the gothic and the strange that one comes to think of, when hearing this album. Also there is a Belgian folkmusic tone here, as well as echoes of medieval music. The music also has a strong melancholy beauty amidst the gothic strangeness.

The emphasis in the sound is on the interplay between woodwind (oboe, english horn, bassoon), violi/viola, harmonium,piano, organ, mellotron, electric bass and drums. Especially the sound of harmonium is so atypical of this Belgian group.

The musicians are very tight, and their playing is very impressive. Especially woodwindplayer Michel Berckmans shines brightly here. Most of the compositions are very strong, the last two or three aren't, but it doesn't matter that much as the rest of the music is so brilliant.

One can definitely hear echoes of Magma (most notably in Guy Segers'bassplaying) but also in the intensity of the music. One could also say that should Béla Bartók have composed for a progressive band it would probably have sounded like this.

This album is definitely the highwater-mark of the "Rock In Oppostion" progressive music movement intitiated by Henry Cow's Chris Cutler. For those who thinks that Prog was dead as a music force during the Eighties this album proves them wrong.

This album has my highest recommendation, it's a masterpiece indeed!