Noco Music - ST 1987

Here, as promised, is the last Noco Music album, from 1987. When a progressive band reaches such a late date we never know what to expect, and indeed this year or 1986 seems to be the cutoff where the last holdouts gave up permanently the progressive spirit (with a couple of notable exceptions like Alcatraz). There is still a little bit of the old magic -- at least once one gets past the first 2 throwaway tracks. You will discern the same sweet combination of vibes and sax sounds, melancholy and distant, like Paul Verlaine's "voix lointaine et calme et grave... [avec] l'inflexion des voix chères qui se sont tue" [Mon Reve Familier].

What about the eighties influence? Let's look at the back cover-- is the band wearing silly tight suits with very thin ties? check. Do they sport mullets and the shorter guy has a moustache like Hall and Oates? yup. Are they banging on drums in shiny robotic outfits a la Devo? you betcha. Setting aside the photography though we can admit there is still quite a bit to enjoy on this record, which was essential to complete the discography of this unusual band, as mentioned earlier, consisting of the brilliant duo of Emmanuel Séjourné and Philippe Geiss.

If you listen to the two samples below, you can almost believe you are back in the late seventies in the heyday of prog, when the future looked bright for complex, classical-influenced, intelligent, virtuoso-played, melded-with-jazz music, before punk and new wave turned the clock back to simple music for everyone, a clock that currently is still turning backwards so fast it's breaking the reverse speed of sound. Whatever that might be.

La descente du Rhin


Procession