Friday 22 September 2017

Edhels - Saltimbanques (2003)


The seventh and final album from this Monaco based band.

Edhels was a trio on this album with a lineup of programming, guitars, bass and keyboards.

Saltimbanques is a total break with the previous six Edhels albums. This is indeed almost a new band with only Marc Cecotti being the only link with the old Edhels.

Gone is the neo-prog and pop flirtations. Totally gone, indeed.

Pop and neo-prog has been replaced with a landscape full of fusion, a bit symphonic prog and lots of Mike Oldfield references. There is also references to Chinese classical music here as explored by Jean Michel Jarre.

The music is at times ambient. Those ambient pieces interchanges with some very dynamic fusion pieces. Hence, I would not label this album as a fusion or a symphonic prog album. It is somewhere inbetween those two genres.

The music is mostly driven by guitars with some help from keyboards. And the guitars sounds very good.

The music is always interesting and shows up various soundscapes. The music is also always good without really impressing me. But this album is waaaaaay better than any other Edhels albums. Check out this album on it's own merits and enjoy.

3 points   


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