(Musea, 2000)
Second disk of the French quartet, one of the best
works of last year in Europe.
Cafeine is a French quartet that threw its first disk in
1994, and newly decides to publish its second work. And the wait goes that it was
worthwhile.
"Nouveaux Mondes" it is a conceptual album inspired
by the man's desire by the conquest, and to express the thematic of each topic they
invited diverse singers of prestige in France, as Christian Decamps (Ange), Sonia Nédelec
and Jean-Baptiste Ferracci (Minimum Vital), Cyril Grimaud (Hauteville), Pierre-Yves
Theurillat (Galaad) and Julie Vander (Magma), being added to Christophe Houssin's basic
formation (keyboards), Patrick Jobard (guitars), Jean Christophe Lamoureux (bass) and
Régis Bravi (drums), achieving a varied and complex, dark, difficult disk and
characterized by the instrumental and melodic virtuosity. The band constantly changes
atmospheres during the topics, creating majestic and epic climates at the same time of
instants of great tension.
The instrumental of opening "Hubble" shows to the band for
itself in all its virtuosity, coming closer for moments to the coalition of jazz rock with
the neoprogressive. That is the biggest wealth of this album, that capacity to incorporate
all type of resources to enrich the compositions, fusing them in an everything of great
coherence, either in topics based on Don Juan like in the conquest of America or Alejandro
Magno.
An ambitious work and very achieved on the part of this very good
French group.
Andrés Valle
andresvalle@interlink.com.ar