By Monk
Through the years, literature and music often have gone hand in hand. Back as far as the 17th and 18th centuries, composers were taking inspiration from the written word to produce their own works, with the likes of Mozart, Rimsky-Korsakov and, most notably, Tchaikovsky drawing from the worlds of fable and fairytale. More latterly, the likes of Howard, Lovecraft, Moorcroft, Poe, Stoker, Tolkien and many others have inspired more modern musicians, and particularly those in the gothic, power metal and progressive miens, to produce their own interpretations of the written word. Now it is the turn – not for the first time, it has to be admitted – for Jules Verne to find his works trawled for an epic musical adventure. Well, the name of the band alone should provide a massive clue as to the origins of this particular project…
Now, I must admit that I know very little about the band itself: the CD landed on ÜRHQ’s doormat with no accompanying bio or press release, something which is usually a fatal mistake and likewise would result in said submission being chucked straight into the charity box, but the concept somehow piqued my interest (well, I love a good piece of escapism as much as the next closet explorer or superhero) and so I decided to give it a spin. And a fairly pleasant audio experience it turned out to be as over the next hour or so I immersed myself in the fantastical worlds of Captain Nemo and Phineas Fogg and recalled the many adventures upon which they had taken me in my formative years.
What I did manage to find out about the band is that it was active for the first decade and a half of the millennium, establishing itself a reputation as one of the leading lights of the French prog scene. Primarily a vehicle for the insanely talented multi-instrumentalist Jean Pierre Louveton, who surrounded himself with a bunch of equally talented musicians to produce three albums before going on extended hiatus back in 2015. This release is, in fact, a completely re-recorded version of their 2002 debut album, by the original musicians, and done so against the backdrop of the pandemic that still looms oh so large in our memories (despite what a countryman of M Louveton tried to tell me the other night, with the question “pandemic? Quelle pandemic?”).
Despite having been introduced to the likes of Floyd, Genesis, Rush and YES at a relatively young age, I’ve never been the world’s biggest prog fan (although the likes of Amon Düül II, Focus and Tull still occupy a warm corner of my darkened rock ‘n’ roll heart) and so tend to approach any such generic releases, and especially those with the word “concept” appended to them, with not more than a little degree of trepidation…
And I have to admit that ‘Les Nouveaux Mondes’ turned out to be everything I would expect of a prog album of the classic mien: loads of lengthy, often extremely complicated instrumental passages, with huge swathes of cinematic atmospherics interspersed with moments of heavy drama, ebbing and flowing through constant mood swings like waves over the prow of the Nautilus. While the lyrics truly test the last remnants of my schoolboy French, this fact adds to the sense of mystery which Verne first evoked on his extraordinary literary journeys into the unknown, and the result is an album which more than fittingly serve as the soundtrack to a tastefully avant-garde remake of ’20,000 Leagues…’ or ‘Around The World…’
‘Les Nouveaux Mondes’ may not see its producers visiting many new musical worlds (sic), and it may not rank alongside many of the more well-known prog concept albums by many more acclaimed or recognizable artistes, but you certainly cannot fault the precision of the delivery of its ambition and scope. And, while I’ve never heard the original album, this enthusiastic reworking sounds as fresh and vibrant as anything you are likely to hear in the modern prog mien.
If you’re a fan of classic prog, this is definitely a “must” to have in your collection. If you have even more than a little passing interest in concept albums, this equally is a release worth tracking down… it’s certainly a much more worthy to spend 70+ minutes of your time than watching some aging ex-wrestler ham it up in depths of a papier mâché volcano…
- ‘Les Nouveaux Mondes’ is out now. You can get your copy HERE.
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