Notebook / Archives / "music"

Je viens juste de recevoir en provenance des Pays-Bas (de Plato.nl, qui fournissait une version autographiée par le compositeur Arjen Lucassen pour les premières (pré)commandes) le deuxième single tiré de l'opéra métal The Human Equation de Ayreon/Arjen Lucassen. L'album marche vraiment bien dans le pays du gouda (il passe plutôt beaucoup à la radio et les ventes sont très bonnes, même pour les singles) ; c'est en effet rare de voir sortir deux singles pour un seul opéra métal, genre plutôt souterrain.
Je prépare une très longue critique de The Human Equation, mais c'est pas si simple, car j'ai la version deluxe (édition limitée), donc en plus des 2 CD il y a un DVD et un très très beau livret. Et je ne veux pas égratigner ce chef d'oeuvre.
Je vous propose donc la version présente sur le single du titre Loser, un morceau dans un style folk metal avec une voix à la Alice Cooper. Arjen ne se fout vraiment pas de la gueule de ses fans, c'est rare de voir quelqu'un aussi passionné dans la production. Ainsi le titre a été entièrement réenregistré. Les vocaux sont toujours de Mike Baker (exhubérant, génialissime !), avec l'incomparable Devin Townsend pour les screams et grunts (il y en a d'ailleurs de nouveaux dans cette version), ainsi que le final black/death. Mais c'est cette fois Peter Vink qui se colle à la basse ; Arjen était déjà excellent sur la partie basse, mais là ça dépasse tout ce que je pouvais espérer. Le fabuleux Ed Warby est toujours à la batterie (c'est un batteur de death à l'origine, une véritable machine, qui arrive presque à me faire oublier Portnoy), et il a ajouté une nouvelle touche au morceau, par exemple en martelant l'intro au didgeridoo de ses baguettes. Dans les instruments folks, signalons Robert Baba au violon électrique, Jeroen Goossens au didgeridoo et John McManus à la flûte. En passant : l'utilisation de la flûte traversière sur The Human Equation est terrible, j'aimerais pouvoir être aussi bon :-|
Mais Mais Mais !!! Arjen m'a comblé, car il affronte en duel clavier/guitare Joost van den Broek !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Déjà présent sur l'album, Joost (le nouveau clavier du sublissime groupe néerlandais de prog métal After Forever – critique de Invisible Circles, leur dernier album, à venir) nous signe encore un solo impressionant sur son nord (si quelqu'un a 2000€ dont il ne sait pas quoi faire, il peut m'acheter un clavier numérique chez Clavia pour remplacer mon Yamaha).
Je vous propose aussi le teaser du clip vidéo Loser (clip toujours aussi campagnard que le premier lol), mais je vous conseille de faire un tour sur le site de The Human Equation pour écouter des extraits de l'album complet ou des singles.

Il y a quelques mois de cela, je me plaignais du manque de bons groupes en France (du moins, de groupes que je puisse être apte à apprécier)... et bien je me suis trompé, car il y en a, et ils rivalisent avec ce qu'il y a de plus créatif au monde. Mais comme pas mal de choses bien en France, ils n'ont apparemment pas trouvé une grosse maison de disque leur ouvrant ses portes, alors ils sont distribués aux pays des yankees, chez Season of Mist, ce qui au final est plutôt un signe de qualité, je pense. De qui est-ce que je parle depuis toute à l'heure ? Suspens... hein hein... De Penumbra, un groupe de métal gothique, taquinant le death et le black métal, et instanciant avec minutie le meilleur du métal symphonique (quoique il s'agisse ici plus de métal de chambre parfois... si vous me permettez l'expression). L'album par lequel j'ai découvert ce groupe à écouter a-b-s-o-l-u-m-e-n-t est Seclusion, le dernier en date.
Mais commençons par une présentation du groupe. Le maître d'oeuvre de Penumbra est Jarlaath, chanteur black/death de la petite équipe, mais qui effigie aussi au hautbois. L'autre membre fondateur du groupe (c'était en 1996) est Dorian, le guitariste. L'idée à l'origine de la formation était de se détacher de ce qui était produit à l'époque en métal, notamment en essayant d'introduire au mieux les influences classiques. Après plusieurs changement de line-up pour les différents albums et les concerts (sans compter les vocalistes supplémentaires en live), en 2003, Penumbra est ainsi composé des deux membres fondateurs, de Zoltan au clavier (un membre du groupe arrivé en 1998 et parti en 2002, de retour pour le 3^e album), de Anita Covelli au chant féminin (elle avait déjà participé au 2^e album sur certains titres), Agone à la basse (pas toujours très présent) et apparemment pour certaines voix de fond (depuis 2001), Arathelis à la batterie (bravo mon gars !) et Néo en seconde guitare. Ajoutons sur l'album l'excellent baryton Hubert Piazzola, le basse Damien Surin, les altos Emilie Lesdros et Emmanuelle Zoldan, la soprano Ameylia Saas, ainsi que Loic Taillebrest à la cornemuse et à la flûte. Notons cependant que Dorian a quitté le groupe fin 2003 pour s'éloigner de la scène métal, ce qui est un peu dommage car je trouve que c'était plutôt un guitariste bien sympa dans ses riffs, très mélodiques.
Donc que vaut cet album ? Vous le savez déjà, je l'ai dit, c'est un chef d'oeuvre de métal gothique. Des textes géniaux, une musique mélodique et accrocheuse, des choeurs absolument bien utilisés, un son de guitare bien réglé, des harmonies vocales surprenantes, de l'originalité, du classicisme et de la perfection. Et ceci va jusqu'à la pochette, dans le style de ce que produit Ledroit/Pontet pour les Chroniques de la Lune Noire (à lire si vous ne connaissez pas ! j'ai toujours eu un faible pour la succube Desdemona) : une fille de dos, ou plutôt une Gorgone-méduse, nue, avec un tatouage tribal des plus attirant dans le dos. Si tu te reconnais dans cette description, les serpents en moins, alors contacte-moi :)
Nous avons donc huit titres, qui s'enchaînent sans qu'on s'en aperçoive... ce qui fait qu'on est légèrement en manque le disque terminé... le bouton play étant de nouveau de rigueur pour se réinjecter ce fabuleux élixir.

1. Tragical Memories. Après une introduction dans un style proche des chants grégoriens, la guitare, après avoir hésité, déroule sa rythmique mélodique avec la batterie, et la voix black/death de Jarlaath impose sa vision gothique, assez vite rejoint en fondu par la divine voix d'Anita, puis par la voix de baryton qui se charge du refrain. Malheureusement, comme pour le premier titre sur Once de Nightwish, il semblerait qu'il y ait eu une hésitation entre une intro courte et une intro longue, car on se voit doter d'une transition ratée à la batterie... mais ce titre mais tout de suite dans l'ambiance, quand on l'a écouté, on sait que l'album sera grandiose !

I long to bring you back to life
Whatever means I have to use
Black magic
Love
A mysterious cult
I don't care
I don't care


2. Cursed Destiny. On enchaîne directement avec la suite de l'histoire, toujours avec trois voix (le baryton au refrain). Les nappes clavier mettent bien dans l'ambiance et la guitare rythmique est toujours aussi mélodique. Les passages atmosphériques à la guitare sont jolis mais un peu trop faciles à mon goût. Ils enchaînent d'ailleurs sur un passage très musique classique, sur lequel le clavier pose des nappes nasales afin d'introduire le hautbois, puis les choeurs, appuyés par une guitare rythmique annonçant le retour de la voix black/death. Superbe.

Shall I reveal the truth
Or leave them in ignorance
These puppets want to be like you
And decide on their destiny


3. Seclusion. Introduction relativement sombre et mécanique ; l'entrée de la cornemuse provoque une rupture. Titre sympa constitué d'un dialogue entre les trois voix principales, même si le passage atmosphérique à la cornemuse, bien que très joli, est un peu écrasé par une guitare rythmique légèrement lourde (lol).

I'm so eager to touch your skin
To see your eyes
To feel you that I kill
I kill
In his blood I can see
How hateful I can be
In the name of
In the name of love


4. The Prophetess. Dans la même veine que le deuxième titre : guitare rythmique mélodique, dialogues intéressants et voix superbes, avec en plus un côté arabisant très original. Notons un très beau chorus entre les choeurs et les grunts basses.

When I hear these words
Failure and destiny are so linked
I stand frozen by her eyes
Petrified like those who saw
Medusa

I won't reveal the answers
That I have seen in you
Go ahead and kill me
Because my life is through

She has this cruel beauty
I can't see you in her
But I know better than no one else
What is behind such a face
I have to slay her
Looking for my answers
I won't ask her anything else
Not even the end of my story
Has this world its perversions
As delicious as our own
How can we renounce to such gifts



5. Hope. Introduction calme voire printanière mais pas assez longue pour s'éloigner de la sombritude ambiante. Les harmonies vocales sont très travaillées entre la voix black/death et les grunts graves, ce qui tranche avec les enchaînements aériens de la voix féminine. On a ainsi de superbes fondus entre des notes tenues éthérées et le retour de voix black/death, toujours soutenus par des grunts ou des échos de voix type whispers. On trouve dans ce titre un passage parlée en français, mais ça fait drôle à côté des paroles en anglais. Le final est une réponse à l'introduction : très printanier.

Hope
I refused to say it
Thinking it was
The only privilege
Of the weakest ones
Of the weakest ones

Not believing
In hope meant for me
That I decided
On my destiny
All these suffering
I'm ready to endure them

Just to find you again
Just to find you again



6. Crimson Tale. Encore une introduction calme avec un piano puis des nappes, avant l'entrée d'une guitare rythmique lourde... qui ne laisse pas présager le retour du hautbois. Ce dernier amène en planant un déluge de riffs de guitare (ça pleut vraiment), qui va tourner tel un orage dans ce titre. Des choeurs puissants, une voix de soprano sympa qui passe par là... Ca s'écoute sans sourciller.

Crying tears of pain
Dying in the end
Rescue me
Rescue me
What has become of our love
Deep rooted
Feeding my blood
Like a candle
Fading away
It's doomed to death


7. Conception. Encore une entrée en matière plutôt lente, avec une flûte cette fois. Les guitares sont très belles et plus épiques. On a des échanges vocaux assez planants... mais la flûte revient rapidement suivie par la voix féminine, lente, accompagnée d'un violoncelle... qui prépare mal au final très puissant, au hâchoir rythmique électrique. Le clavier fait un peu hair metal des années 80 (Europe, ça vous dit quelque chose ?), mais ça passe plutôt bien, surtout dans le final.

Remember
Remember this passionate love
So innocent
We lived an immortal life

The pain still lingers
From this weird embrace
We still bear the marks
Of our vows and vices

Come with me
And rejoice in my tears
Let our bodies be one
In this last embrace
And the fruit of this union
Will live for ever



8. Enclosed. Titre concluant l'album avec grandeur (l'album devait s'appeler Enclosement à l'origine). C'est génialissime, apocalyptique, triste, le temps est suspendu ! Rien à dire, écoutez, car on y retrouve tous les ingrédients qui font de ce groupe un ensemble bougrement créatif et à écouter absolument !

Why can't I move
Everything's confused
How did I get here
Strange I feel no fear
My body's floating
The earth is moving
Oh set me free
Please forgive me

Come to me
My sweet angel
I will set you free

ACHETEZ CE DISQUE !

Note : dommage que leur premier album, Emanate (distribué par Adipocere Records) ne soit plus disponible, il faut se contenter de The Last Bewitchment, en attendant le prochain impact gothique :-(

Live here by Dream Theater: Home (Live) from Through Her Eyes, the EP of Metropolis Pt.2: Scenes From A Memory.
Well, James LaBrie screams a bit too loud, but this live version is musicaly interesting.

I watched Evanescence's Live at Rock in Rio Lisboa (Portugal) almost three times, and I must confess it's certainly not their best live performance.
There are good things, like the more and more rocking voice of Amy Lee, the show of John LeCompt and Rocky Gray, and the new song, a cover from KoRn, Thoughtless, with Amy on her new piano, a Baldwin (used in Thoughtless, Breathe No More, My Immortal and the introduction to Bring Me To Life).
But there are far too many bad moments! First of all, on songs like Thoughtless, with piano and guitars, it's sometimes not easy to hear the piano: what are Evanescence's sound engineers doing?? This piano is also a problem for Amy's hairs: they are often trapped by the mic (on Thoughtless and Breathe No More), but I must admit there was some wind, and it looks quite cool. In Lisbon, they had a wonderful scene, with a giant screen behind them... but the only video rendering they did with it was to display the Evanescence's logo: that's all what you can do while performing in a kind-of-gothic show?...
But the really bad player in this game is Terry Balsamo. Well, Ben Moody is not the best guitar player in the world, but he has feelings, and he knows how to perfom live. Terry does not move (the cam refused to follow him lol), his clothes are not in the spirit of Evanescence and his solos and riffs are not as good as those of Ben. Consequently, songs like Farther Away (remember the rain of riffs in the intro and the ending ethnic drum line of Ben in Cologne?), Zero (remember Ben's synth guitar effect on the solo?), and Whisper (remember Ben's apocalyptic riffs?) do not sound as cool as in the past: I miss you Ben! Ah, and the best: on Going Under, Amy must make a sign to Terry for him to shut up his guitar lol.
And no new song. Only a cover. What are they doing?? Well, I love this cover (although I do not know the original song), but you cannot live all your life with the same songs. Finally, for your pleasure (and mine), here is the video of Thoughtless (the concert is in high quality, not like this excerpt)!

Il est 3h du matin et, sur M6, ils diffusent des clips vidéo : comme d'hab' quoi !
Et non ! car là c'est Nemo de Nightwish qui passe !!! M6 se met au métal ! Ca va-t-il durer et progresser ?
On peut se le demander... mais cette diffusion n'est pas si innocente que ça : avec un Once dans les meilleurs ventes d'album partout en Europe, souvent en première place, il pouvait pas faire autrement... M6 : un peu le couteau sous la gorge ?

Vous devez maintenant vous demander : pourquoi étais-je à la Fnac ? Bien sûr pour y trouver des disques, non pas pour draguer. En l'occurence, je vais parler de The Dark Secret de Rhapsody, que j'ai donc acheté, en Limited edition, sous la forme d'un digipack contenant un DVD bonus.
Pour ceux qui ne connaissent pas ce groupe italien, en gros, c'est du epic metal ; Rhapsody est le fondateur de ce genre musical, ou du moins, le groupe-phare. Ils sont certes copiés depuis quelques temps (citons par exemple les français Fayriland avec leur premier album Of Wars In Osyhria), mais ils ont plusieurs touches personnelles qui les rendent très particuliers.
Le compositeur principal, le génialissime maestro Luca Turilli, est un grand amateur de la musique classique (notamment Bach, Paganini, Vivaldi) et de musiques de films (Goldsmith, ainsi que le très sombre Elfman)... En fait, il est plus qu'amateur, il est profondément marqué par la musique classique (italienne, entre autres). Je ne connais pas tout les albums de Rhapsody, mais le Dark Secret est terriblement marqué par Vivaldi, et ses projets solos sentent bon la musique baroque (le permafrosté King of the Nordic Twilight et l'apocalyptique Prophet of the Last Eclipse sont excellents). Luca a commencé la guitare assez tard (16 ans), mais il jouait du piano et le la flûte avant de se lancer dans des aventures à 6 cordes. Cela a influencé ses solos par exemple, puisqu'ils sont basés sur des arpèges, et non sur des scales comme d'autres guitaristes. Notons aussi que je connais peu de groupes qui donnent autant d'importance aux flûtes à bec, et étant flûtiste, je suis comblé ! Bref, musique baroque, musique sacrée, musique des troubadours du Moyen-Age, musique de chambre... ils essaient de mélanger tout cet héritage à leur musique moderne.
Mais revenons à l'epic metal. À la base, c'est du speed metal, donc des gros riffs de guitare rapides et pas très mélodiques. Ne vous trompez pas, c'est pas si simple à jouer que ça, surtout de garder une rythmique aussi rapide et constante. Luca Turilli n'est pas un guitariste de la dernière heure, et il le prouve à chaque nouvel album ! C'est aussi lui qui écrit tous les textes, dont l'histoire se situe toujours dans des mondes heroic fantasy. Ajoutons à cela les orchestrations du clavier du groupe, Alex Straropoli, qui rajoute les harmonies (c'est l'autre grand compositeur, s'occupant généralement de toutes les parties orchestrales/symphoniques). Le chanteur, Fabio Lione... on apprécit ou on apprécit pas : c'est un chant assez « gueulard », haut perché, mais pas trop non plus ; cependant il a une véritable voix, c'est juste qu'il faut savoir l'apprécier... Ajoutons Patrice Guers à la basse et Alex Holzwarth à la batterie qui assure bien leur rôle (quoique parfois je préférerais entendre des percussions médiévales plus souvent).
Sur The Dark Secret, s'ajoute l'acteur Christopher Lee (Star Wars, Lord of the Rings) qui déclame tous les textes de l'histoire. Et oui, car le Dark Secret est une évolution du epic metal voulu par Rhapsody, ce qu'ils nomment l'hollywood metal, ce qu'il faut comprendre comme la fusion entre ce qu'il faisait eux-mêmes avant et les musiques de films. Pari réussi ?
Et bien mon avis est mitigé, aussi bien sur l'album, le DVD qui vient avec, et le concept même d'hollywood metal.
Expédions rapidement le DVD qui contient un mini-film sur la saga heroic fantasy de Rhapsody, The Emerald Sword, à l'intérêt cinématographique limité ; aussi un making-of vraiment minimal (même si c'est sympa de voir Straropoli et Turilli, surtout quand Turilli parle anglais avec son gros accent italien lol ça vous donne envie de manger des pâtes !), interviews dans lesquels on voit surtout Christopher Lee, pas très convainquant dans ses explications... et rien sur l'enregistrement, ou si peu. Ensuite le clip vidéo du titre Unholy Warcry, et le même titre en 5.1 (d'un usage limité pour moi qui n'est pas d'équipement 5.1, mais ça se trouve le mixage est génialissime...). Bref, on est très très très loin du DVD fourni avec The Human Equation de Ayreon/Arjen Luccassen (dont je vais parler dans une autre entrée, ça vous n'y couperez pas, car c'est peut-être l'oeuvre musicale de 2004, dont vous n'entendrez jamais parler... n'est pas Jennifer de la StarAc' qui veut).
C'est justement ce DVD qui montre grandement l'une des faiblesse du hollywood metal. Même si Rhapsody commence à être très connu, respecté et tout ce qu'on veut, je ne pense pas qu'ils aient les moyens des studios hollywoodiens. Or, leur musique ce rapproche de la bande son d'un film comme The Lord of the Rings, et le budget nécessaire pour mettre en oeuvre leur saga est énorme... or leur clip vidéo fait un peu pitié... Pourtant, quand j'écoute un album de Rhapsody, j'imagine toutes les scènes, toute l'histoire, tout est toujours fabuleux et mythique... Voilà, c'est tout, les films font « kitsch » (on me rétorquera que les groupes métal sont souvent kitsch lol). Maintenant, comme le dit Christopher Lee dans le making-of, on assiste peut-être avec cet album à un tournant dans l'histoire de la musique. On peut en effet imaginer qu'avec les progrès de l'animation virtuelle, on arrive bientôt à mettre en scène des films en images de synthèse à faible budget, mais incroyablement réaliste et tout à fait adapté à la mise en images de sage d'heroic fantasy, une sorte de Chroniques de la Guerre de Lodoss (Record of Lodoss War) de synthèse. Je l'espère. Espérons aussi que le metal prendra de l'ampleur sans se perdre. La musique classique n'est plus first-class, je ne vois pas en quoi le jeu de guitare de Turilli proche de celui d'un flutiste baroque pourra conquérir des foules immenses.
Passons à la musique en elle-même. Signalons tout d'abord que The Dark Secret n'est pas un album mais un mini-album, l'album complet sortira à la rentrée. Nous n'avons ici qu'un aperçu de la suite de la saga The Emerald Sword.
Autant dire tout de suite qu'il y a du monde sur cet album : entre l'orchestre Bohuslav Martinu Philarmonic Orchestra de République Tchèque, deux groupes de choeurs (l'habituel Epic Choir et le Brno Academy Choir), un ensemble baroque (la flûte à bec est joué par un certain Manuel Straropoli.... sûrement un membre de la famille d'Alex), Rhapsody, Christopher Lee et toutes les équipes techniques, on arrive facilement à plus d'une centaine de personnes.
Cinq titres :

• Unholy Warcry (Edit Version), le titre principal. Du pur Rhapsody, avec de sombres orchestrations de l'ensemble de cordes pour soutenir les riffs de la guitare. Ce n'est pas varié, et si comme Pierre-Jean vous n'aimez pas le côté « grandiloquant » de Rhapsody, vous allez souffrir, car les choeurs en rajoutent :-)


• Thunders Mighty Roar, Storm de Vanessa-Mae à la sauce Rhapsody, ce qui n'empêche pas que ça sonne puissamment Vivaldi. La maîtrise de Turilli à la guitare lors de ses interventions est impressionante, le clavier/clavecin suit bien, appuyé par un ensemble de cuivres imposant. Pour le reste c'est du Rhapsody traditionnel.


• Guardian Of Destiny (English Version) qui est introduit par une flûte baroque, une guitare classique et un tambourin. Ca fait vraiment musique de troubadour. Puis une voix soprano se pose tranquillement sur la mélodie de guitare avant l'arrivé de Fabio, très calme. On entend une cornemuse en fond (je me trompe peut-être). C'est le titre où les choeurs sont le mieux utilisés je trouve (excessivement dramatiques, accompagnant la voix de Fabio), avec un soutien de l'orchestre impressionnant et une flûte à bec très mélodieuse.


• Sacred Power Of Raging Winds. Titre à la structuration bizarre de plus de 10 minutes introduit par une guitare dantesque. Un duel violon / flûte à bec intéressant, débouchant sur un solo à la flûte à bec qui me laisse bouche bée vue la qualité du son obtenu (et des effets de vibrato/trilles vraiment osés). Intermèdes classiques de grandes qualités, que cela soit pour la musique baroque ou les parties symphoniques, solo guitare toujours aussi léché, solo clavier sympathique : moi je dis bravo, mais manque de structure cohérente lol. Bref, jugez par vous même, il est en écoute sur ce site !


• Non Ho Sonno (Remix). Ca sonne très musique atmosphérique gothique (genre certains passages de Penumbra), et ce n'est apparemment pas composé par Rhapsody... je ne sais pas ce que ça fait là, mais c'est sympa, ça fait musique de films...

Au rayon métal de la Fnac Forum, y'a une vendeuse brune, collier clouté (autour du coup), bracelet clouté, chaussures cloutées. Mignonne et charmante en plus. De noir vêtue. Brune... je l'ai déjà dit... brune...
Ils savent mettre tous les atouts de leur côté à la Fnac !
Bref, il a fallu attendre qu'un client vienne l'aborder pour lui poser une question pour que les autres clients comprennent que c'était une vendeuse. Ou alors ils étaient trop timides pour l'aborder. Menfin elle rangeait des disques, ils ne voulaient peut-être pas la déranger.
Je ne sais pas.
Mais c'est une bonne raison pour aller plus souvent à la Fnac lol.

TF1 shall have a policy that George-Alain is the best guitar hero in the world.
I am hopefully wrong... mea culpa.
Amen to the Star Academy!

Samedi je suis tombé sur le concert de la Star Academy sur TF1 (ils squattaient le Parc des Princes). De jeunes garçons et filles étaient en train de chanter Je saigne encore de Kyo devant plus de 40000 personnes.
Et l'incroyable s'est produit : George-Alain m'a gratifié d'un solo guitare hallucinant, rien que pour moi, dans mon poste de télévision, alors que j'étais à moitié nu à la sortie de ma baignade (il tentait de me séduire le bougre...). Incroyable, je n'ai jamais entendu quelqu'un débiter autant de notes si imprécises dans leur hauteur... je me demande d'ailleurs s'il avait accordé sa guitare avant... Non, non. C'est pas ça. Je n'ai pas l'oreille musicale et G.-A. est un guitar hero, John Petrucci ne doit d'ailleurs avoir qu'un rêve dans sa vie : devenir aussi bon que George-Alain avec une 6 cordes... ça doit être ça.
En plus de ça, ça chantait faux derrière, dingue. Pourtant, du Kyo, c'était pas dur...
D'ailleurs en parlant de Kyo, je dois dire que l'année dernière encore j'avais un petit faible pour eux : ça changeait de ce qu'on pouvait entendre sur les ondes françaises, et l'on peut dire qu'ils ont un bon sens de la mélodie. Mais les ayant vu avec leur gros melon se réclamant faire de la musique métal... je pouffe.
Tiens : pouf !
Arf !
Fouf !

Ca faisait longtemps que je ne vous avais pas parlé d'Evanescence... et bien dans les jours qui viennent, je vous prépare un petit lot de réactions et de commentaires à leur sujet (je dépile mes idées). C'est bizarre, mais j'ai l'impression d'être le seul de leurs fans à être encore lucide sur leur sort.. Le groupe est vraiment dans la mouise, je le dis depuis un moment, et ce que je disais commence à arriver. Par exemple leur dernier single Everybody's Fool semble être un échec, aussi bien sur le plan des diffusions radio que TV (j'y reviendrai dans une autre entrée, car sur ce coup leur management c'est bien gaufré). Comme j'ai écrit tout ce que je pensais sur ce blog, et bien tout cela est daté. On pourra pas me dire : « Oui, mais tu dis ça maintenant, à l'époque tu pouvais pas savoir... ».
Bref, j'étais pas venu vous parler du fait que je suis un grand chroniqueur musical... enfin du moins un des derniers qui soient passionnés. Non, j'étais venu vous présenter un moment complètement ébouriffant qu'Amy Lee nous a réservé sur Cartoon Network dernièrement. Elle a participé a une émission (sûrement pour faire plaisir à son frère, mais aussi pour se rappeler de bons souvenirs) et a même été jusqu'à écrire une ode pour la chaîne, complètement délirante, mais surtout très vraie sur la vie qu'elle mène actuellement. Triste dans l'enfantin. C'est aussi l'occasion de la voir jouer de la guitare, ce qui n'arrive pas souvent. Le passage “Don't make the mistake I made, the rock star's life is sad. We're living on a tour bus, this is... pretty bad.” est bidonant !... mais c'est aussi celui qu'on entend avec un pincement au coeur :(
Elle a mentionné cette intervention dans une interview récente :
“(...) I do like to act, but it's more likely you'll find me behind the scenes."
Lee has appeared in front of the cameras again since filming "Everybody's Fool," although she's not quite sure how she feels about it.
"My little brother is 10 and of course he loves Cartoon Network, and it's my favorite channel. So I went to the Cartoon Network and did an interview with a puppet and I wrote a cheesy song on the guitar about Cartoon Network and how much I love and miss it on tour, and it was really stupid," Lee recalled, smiling at the memory. "I kind of regret it, but not really. My little brother had a blast. And we got all kinds of free toys and stuff, too."
The Cartoon Network was hardly a stretch for Lee after "Everybody's Fool," in which she dresses up for various commercials, including donning a pink wig for one in Japanese (...)” (mtv.com : Evanescence's Amy Lee Hopes To Get Into Film, Rages Against Cheesy Female Idols)
Tel que c'est dit, je trouve qu'on comprend mal si le “I kind of regret it” fait référence à son intervention sur Cartoon Network ou au fait qu'elle regrette l'époque de son enfance où elle était assise devant la télé.
Toutes les interventions d'Amy Lee sur Cartoon Network se trouve sur le site du fan club italien (je n'ai mis que la chanson, mais y'a également plusieurs petits sketches à zieuter).
Enfin bon... Amy a un bel avenir en tant que Chantal Goya internationale, si ça carrière de goth-star ne marche pas comme prévue.

Même avec la réduction de la TVA que la Fnac.com effectue chaque année pour la fête de la musique, on est encore loin d'arriver aux prix pratiqués par Amazon.fr.

• Lacuna Coil in a Reverie : 18,42€ (Fnac) vs. 14,94€ (Amazon.fr), soit un écart de 3,48€ ;
• Tiamat Prey (limited first edition) : 20,71€ (Fnac) vs. 16,78€ (Amazon.fr), soit un écart de 3,93€.

Je suis dégoûté !! J'ai l'impression que j'ai perdu quelques euros là.
Avant hier je suis allé faire un tour à la Fnac Forum pour quelques achats en musique. J'aurais dû me rappeler que j'avais déjà remarqué qu'en dehors de « Le prix vert Fnac », mieux vaut ne rien acheter à la Fnac ou sur Fnac.com (sauf exceptions ou remises fidélités ou impossibilité de se procurer le produit ailleurs...). La preuve :

• Nightwish Once : 18,50€ (Fnac, « prix vert ») vs. en rupture chez Amazon.fr (?) ;
• Lacuna Coil in a Reverie : 20,89€ (Fnac) vs. 14,95€ (Amazon.fr), soit un écart de 5,94€ ;
• Tiamat Prey (limited first edition) : 23,48€ (Fnac) vs. 16,78€ (Amazon.fr), soit un écart de 6,70€.

The master, Ben Moody: Line 6 Spider II amp.

Rocky Gray: Sabian cymbals (setup) & Tama drums (japanese interview and advertisement)

Terry Balsamo: Ibanez RG Prestige electric guitar (advertisement)

John LeCompt: ESP Guitars (interview)

My comment: ESP guitars are for “bourinos-bourikitos” lol: Richard Z of Rammstein, Devin Townsend of Strapping Young Lad, Kirk Hammett and James Hetfield of Metallica, etc. But I do not like their colors and designs, too agressive for me...

End of the story:

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Okay, it's now time for all of you to taste my sounds. This section deals with all my musical activities, past and present, and you can hear many old works in mp3. Some of you knew the existence of this webpage which was under heavy construction, but now it is officially and publically released, with original worksheets.
Things to come!

Let's start with two interviews of Amy Lee from Evanescence (via EvBoard.com: New (Old) Ev Articles *UPDATED*).
The Point Web-Only Interview: Amy Lee of Evanescence Interview by Adron Buske Transcribed by Amanda Rodgers: very interesting, with a good question about Lies (from the album Origin, one of my preferred song from Evanescence) and the appearance on vocals of Bruce Fitzhugh (the vocalist of Living Sacrifice):
1057thePoint.com: Do you think the dual vocal thing was inspired by the duet on your earlier EP, Origin, with Bruce Fitzhugh, the vocalist from Living Sacrifice?
Amy: See, this is the thing, we don't consider Origin a real CD. It's really funny. We made it look like a CD and we were really only using it as a demo to show to record labels. That was before we had a record deal. Then we were like, "Well, if we're doing all these songs…" These were all recorded in our apartment. We put them on the CD and made them look like a CD and now people think it's the 'early works of Evanescence.' I was so mad about that, I'm really so much more proud of our newer stuff. I mean, it's stuff that's good, but it's nothing like our new stuff. We've really grown as a band and even some of the songs on Origin are the same songs on Fallen, but were just done right, now that we have the money to or the backing from the label. We had Bruce Fitzhugh, from Living Sacrifice, come in and do a guest vocal on the song called "Lies" (on Origin), which is really cool; he's a friend of ours. We're friends with the band Living Sacrifice. Rocky Gray, our drummer, played guitar for Living Sacrifice. That was when I was in high school. Gosh, that was so long ago. It was all experimental back then.
And a candid interview: A Whisper and A Breath From Evanescence by Tim Cashmere.
What upset me is this story of front-woman, maybe one of the many reasons why Ben left the band. Amy is not Evanescence. Even if Ben and Amy were always doing interviews together after or before live shows, Amy began to do things alone more and more (in the press for example), or Ben was throwed with the rest of the band. Yes, Amy is a great vocalist, but Ben is a maestro with his own style. Just listen to the two now-splitted-Evanescence songs on The Punisher: The Album: Seether featuring Amy Lee: Broken, and Ben Moody featuring Jason Miller & Jason "Gong" Jones: The End Has Come. This last one is in the spirit of Evanescence, just without Amy Lee (and you can imagine what it would have been with Amy, that's sad...). When I read:
TC: Let's talk about the cover, how do you feel about being the focal point of the cover?
AL: Well I'm the lead singer, so it's kind of to be expected. Honestly, even I'm guilty of this, when you see a band, be it their video or live or whatever, you remember the lead singer. It's a lot easier to remember one face rather than four or five. It's just part of the job, I don't mind it. Ben minds it sometimes, he gets upset, but he'll live.,
I get very angry, cos if she would have wanted to be a part of the band, she could have made it. Look at Dream Theater, they are ONE band: each individual in the band is a very talented musician with his own personnality, you do not have James LaBrie on a cover. There was even fans thinking that "Evanescence" was the real name of Amy Lee! That's really bad that composers cannot be recognized for what they are... So I can completely understand the point of view of Ben in the Evanescence: The Split interview on mtv.com (this article is a must read, I will write another entry about it in the future), and I cannot accept little sentence from Amy like “Ben leaving was a very good moment. We got to the point where the band was really unhealthy.” (from the article Survivor in Blender - the ultimate music magazine – the title of the article is really stupid, and the photos are obviously not the best ever made, Amy seems to have chicken legs lol). Clearly, when we watch interviews of the band, Ben was always with the rest of the band, and the guys seemed to have fun together; so now when I read John LeCompt saying that Amy is true, it sounds really strange to me (and I respect the other band members, I am very respectful of someone like Rocky Gray who can play guitar, bass and battery at this level... hum smashing Sabian cymbal like one of my idol, Mike Portnoy). I remember a time when Amy was saying that Evanescence was her and Ben, the other being considered as musicians interpreting their music; now she says that they feel like a band... what a change!
To conclude this rant, I must confess I am troubled by what will be the next album. Fallen was a very good album, but too close from a concept album, too consistent, maybe too engineered/produced. I think I prefer Origin, which is more experimental, harder sometimes (Lies) but also with impressive ballads (Anywhere), even in Lavigne's pop-rock style (Where will you go) and the wonderfull Even in death. Without maestro Moody, the essence of Evanescence is gone, we have great performers with an unbelievable singer who can write haunted lyrics. My fear goes on an over-produced album... I hope it won't happen.
You can read one interesting point of view about Fallen in Fallen, by Evanescence by David Martin and follow the thread entitled Origin.. Greater album than fallen? on EvBoard.

New series of cool websites about Evanescence:

• Haunted Me: a brazilian website with a big library of interviews;


• Evanescence is... not a christian band.com: a really complete website, made by an early fan, with scans and rarities like two great sections about Ben Moody and David Hodges, and one listing of side projects (Kill System, Sould Embraced...);


• Childish Intentions is this crappy band: a very strange website whose title comes from the past of Evanescence;


• www.BringMeToLife.Com: a french website, so interesting for french people lol;


• two new websites with a few cool things: Falling-Forever.com and Dying Again.

And to finish, I must take the time to mention two great bands with girls as front-women which I discovered wandering the web: Eva (USA) and Die Happy (Germany). The first one is an electric evolution of an acoustic band, and the second is an empowered melodic metal band. And if you want to know what's happening in Little Rock, you can take a look at a new band from Evanescence's city: Between The Second.

Success is defined by today's MTV icons through material gain. Real artists like guitarist Tim Donahue and Dream Theater singer James LaBrie define success as the progression and evolution of their music; if fame and fortune happen to be part of the end result, so much the better.
(On Dream Theater: The Official Site: Info – Tim Donahue's "Madmen & Sinners" featuring James LaBrie (2004))

Tonight and yesterday's night, I dreamed of Evanescence.
The first dream was about Amy Lee. I was doing a personal interview of this drama queen in her house, asking her about many things: the life, music and the rest. All was very good until my question about the way Ben and her were used to compose music (who wrote what?) and when I asked about the departure of David Hodges and Ben Moody (I do not know who left the first). I saw a little white and pink piano... and today I found this sad story about Amy's brother (photos 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6). She had a very sad childhood, it seems to be (I was very sad today learning a bit of her family story), but I think she is actually a millionaire, so why are their parents obliged to sell her piano for only US $6,600.00 (auction on e-bay), that's fewer than what I earned in one year for my book, so she, with a multi-platinum album!!! Hum... misunderstanding... maybe...
The second was about the arrest of Ben Moody for drug traffic lol. I was playing a very stupid friend.
Well. All these facts are going to make me feel obviously strange. First: serendipidy (the piano) is crawling into my nights... that's terrific! Second, I listen too much to Evanescence. When composing, if I start to write something with choirs, strings and all the orchestra (in Orff's style), when I need electric guitars, I fall into Whisper... that's not good for my creativity... Let's find something original for our masterpiece ;)

Available on YtseJam Records website:

• When Day and Dream Unite Demos 1987-1989
(2 CD);

• Tokyo, Japan 10/28/95
(2 CD);

• Master Of Puppets
(1 CD).

Tonight I ordered the german version of the MAXI single Bring Me To Life from Evanescence, which contains the title Missing (I only own the Enhanced MAXI single with Farther Away and the video of BMTL).
BUT I ordered it on Amazon.co.jp (Japan), it's a product coming from Germany via the USA!
I hope that Amazon really has this disc somewhere...

A few weeks ago, Ben Moody opened his own website: just a few news for the moment, but this guy seems to have many projects in his pocket: musical projects and... movies projects! More on VH1.com's Artist Main: Evanescence: Ben Moody Bringing Kelly Clarkson's Music To Life. We can learn there that he is still working with David Hodges (in studio, Evanescence are Amy Lee + Ben Moody + David Hodges); this fact is interesting: will David Hodges continue to work with the new Evanescence, or will he go to work with Moody (or both...)? In an interview following the Rock Am Ring 2003 show of Evanescence, Amy Lee said that she is a bit tired of touring and want to go back to write music; on the contrary Moody loves to perform live (and in fact he is a very good live guitare player, better than in studio I think). So my question for the moment is: who was writing music for Evanescence?
Nevermind, Evanescence won 2 Grammy's, and this ceremony was a moment of peace around the band: Amy, Ben and David were all there (more on Ben's website: Evanescence won 2 Grammy's).

Other cool Evanescence websites to explore:

• Evanescence Website, a very complete italian website, with a dedicated Moody's section;


• AllStarz.org's Evanescence websites: Amy Lee fansite and Goddess Of Imaginary Darkness: Evanescence;


• Evanescence Eve ***Japanese Fansite*** (in Japanese with an almost complete discography).

Music activism seems to be in the air (Downhill Battle). I am personally not a pro-RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America), but on the other side I am not against (things could change). Okay, fight the RIAA to get good music on radio, but it won't change the main problem (cos the RIAA is a false problem): people do not want to buy music anymore. When I tell friends that I bought this albums and MAXI cd-s, they look at me eyes wide opened... To buy music is nomore a reflex. If the buying-real-products-usage is broken, we could solve easily that problem with subscriptions systems, but pirates will still prosperate, it's soo easy to copy...
Nevertheless, I am a pro-sharing activist: I listen often to music on Amazon.fr/.com or fnac.com before buying something, and I like to encode MP3-s for friends when I love songs, hoping they will buy the album. MP3-s are socio-technical viruses, spreading very fast and widely. We must fight against those stupids anti-copy systems and too restrictive right management systems, okay. For me social software seem to be the final solution: use social networks systems to confine music sharing to small networks of friends (the further of the epi-center you are, the worst will be the quality of my shared MP3-s).

So, if you like stupid spoofing, watch the PEPSI / APPLE SUPERBOWL PARODY 2004, or if you love dumb (but funny) ads, take a look at What a Crappy Present (our society is going mad, why are we starting to exchange presents? It makes me sad...). Another one: Send Them Back!! (good kind of activism, good play on words with the verb "to steal" in our dematerializationing and ubiquious economy).

(Via Joi Ito's Web: Pepsi / Apple Superbowl Parody )

Comme cela avait été fait pour Muscle Museum à son époque, un coffret regroupant tous les singles/MAXI de l'album Origin of Symmetry va sortir (oui, cette fois pour de vrai, après plus d'un an d'attente!) ; date de l'impact : 27 janvier 2004... Dans la foulée, le premier coffret est réédité ; encore une bonne occasion pour compléter sa collection du groupe le plus Rachmaninovien à l'Ouest de Vladivostok. Ou de vider son compte en banque, selon le point de vue. Ces coffrets vallent entre 45€ et 50€ pour 9 MAXIs, ce qui fait 5€ le MAXI, soit environ 1 MAXI gratuit dans l'affaire. Les sites de vente en ligne comme fnac.com ou amazon.fr ne sont pas encore surs (coffrets toujours annoncés indisponibles), la faute à cette année d'attente. La meilleure solution pour les acquérir semble encore d'aller en magasin.
Le premier coffret était vraiment très très bon, contenant quelques performances live (acoustiques) mais surtout de nouvelles chansons, souvent très intéressantes par leur aspect alternatif. J'espère que la qualité sera au rendez-vous pour ce nouvel opus.

(Via Muscle Muse qui a couvert les retards de cette annonce depuis de nombreux mois.)

Yeah! that's a good idea.
When I will have re-installed all my music software and plugged mics and MIDI cables, I might try to do some musical patterns blogging: read, watch and hear the creative process step after step.
At the end, is this *really* a so good idea?...

Last year, when talking drums with Emmanuel, I said him I did some percussions in my childhood and that with time I discovered in me small aptitudes to write scores for percussions. As a small example, I released a remix (well, a sort of “proof of concepts” lol) of SouvImage Part 6: And into Paradise....
The MP3 file is very big (11.7 Mo for 5:07 min – 320 kbps, stereo, 44.1kHz). The mix was done with Digital Sound Planet's Quartz AudioMaster Freeware (it was my first try with this tools). I am so sorry for the crappy sound when there are too many instruments (grand piano wide range chords). :-(
As I said before, I will make new versions on these songs and all will be remixed (and many parts also rescored). Same story for the name of the song, the scoring, strange chords and instruments: I will explain all of that later.
Keep watching!

As all of you know, I am a big fan of Evanescence, not because they are “in the move” but because of their originality (ah... yes, and I was happy to read here someone linking Evanescence to Enya, whose music was introduced to me by my brother, but that's another story). Undoubtly it could change very fast: after their first album, Fallen, I need more, and... *further* (the classical side would be cool).
Indeed all is not going in the good way: in late october, Ben Moody left the band; Ben was Evanescence's co-founder (composer and lead guitarist) with Amy Lee (composer, vocals and piano). Well, Ben (aka “the void”) is not the best guitarist in the world, but it seems to be a very good composer, I mean someone able to glue many influences in songs. A love affair could have been the origin of this departure: there is a rumor about a persistent love relationship (frozen or not...) between Ben and Amy (unfounded?). Ben might not have accepted the new relationship between Amy and Shaun Morgan from Seether (well, I doubt that this guy is the best choice), band which toured with Evanescence (more here, here and here, the second link from Metal Underground . com saying that Amy could sing on next Seether's album, the third talking again of the rumor between Ben and Amy).
In mid november, at the 2003 American Music Awards, Evanescence made their first appearance without Ben, being replaced by Cold's guitarist Terry Balsamo (at the beginning of this affair John LeCompt, the second guitarist, was handling front guitar):
Evanescence gave their first American performance since founding member and guitarist Ben Moody unexpectedly took leave from the group during its recent European tour (...). Dressed in a colorful poodle skirt, black tank top and sporting flower-shaped tattoos on her forehead and neck, singer Amy Lee led the band through a powerful rendition of "Going Under." During the pre-show, when asked what super power she'd like to have, Lee joked about wanting Wonder Woman's Lasso of Truth because, she said pointedly, she just wants "people to be honest."
You can find photos of Evanescence performing at this ceremony here, on the wonderful Evanescence: Fallen Creatures website.
Evanescence and Cold met on stage but feelings may not be at the top between the two bands (at least between Amy and Scooter, the Cold's singer).
Nevertheless, after having postponed many shows cos of the brutal departure of Ben, the new line-up-ed band seems to be going... on.
On Moody's side, the news are even more surprizing: according to mtv.com, he “volunteered his talents” to Avril Lavigne's staff. He joinded the team of songwriters for her second album, and he might touring with her... or not, according to Yahoo's Launch:
Meanwhile, former guitarist Ben Moody is reportedly working with Avril Lavigne "on a track or two" for Avril's upcoming album, according to a posting on the Avril fan site, Avrilbandaids.com. Unconfirmed reports suggest Moody may also join Avril's touring band.
On Amy's side, Wes Borland (ex-Limp Bizkit) could write songs for Evanescence:
Borland said he is also in talks with Evanescence about producing some tracks for their next LP. "I would like to give it some of that old-world vibe so it sounds like a band of gypsies," Borland said. "I want to give more depth and richness to the guitars, but at the same time make them not as processed and more organic."

If you have time, watch the wonderful video clip of My Immortal, filmed in the gothic quarter of Barcelona, Spain. You can also take a look at the making-of (Behin the Scenes).

For more informations, see [exodus]Evanescence or evanescence.info.

For those of you who know me for a long time, you know that music has always had a big place in my creative works (until 1998...). Now, with less time, it remains my principal “cultural” activity. I spent many years in a city-wide music conservatory, studying solfege, rythm (I played percussions, xylophon and metalophon). After a few years, I started learning flute, and some years after, recorder. I only regret that I did not spend enough time developping my musical knowledge and doing exercices (and learning piano – I own however a YAMAHA PSR-410 electronic keyboard very useful to compose – or guitar). But I loved composing music in my spare time, that was very entertaining moments.
At this time I met many cool people who are now very good friends (for those I still see): Pierre-Jean who played (and still plays) guitar and composed (and still composes) music (and his brother Mathias who played violin, and who plays drums now), Mélanie who played piano and flute, Nathalie who played piano and cello (and who was singing with Oriane), Stéphane who played piano and composed (and who went to university to study musicology). I mainly composed music with Pierre-Jean, but we tried to do something with Stéphane. Pierre-Jean and I wrote a little title for two flutes and guitar which was interpreted by him, me and Mélanie (and played for an examination in 1996 in a very extended version by me and Pierre-Jean), Pierre-Jean who founded a band where Nathalie (and Oriane) sung, and where his brother played; well, I have now problems to watch all Pierre-Jean's musical activities...
As I said in a previous entry, I plan to record these creative works. There are SouvImage (15 minutes long, but there are two versions, cos I lost a big part of the songs after a disk crash, so I rewrote many parts of these creations, which sound quite different), a small musical background music project for a game, and some experiments for another dead project: Light versus Shadow. I will remix and record these scores as they sound at this time, with my old soundcards. There are very poorly composed scores, but I love them, there were my first notes put on a sheet. However we plan to go to studio with Pierre-Jean to record with real instruments the extended version of SouvImage: Part 1 (the original extended acoustic version with acoustic guitar, recorder and flute), and maybe another new metal version. ;-)
That conducts me to another point. When I was learning music, I listened only to Jean-Michel Jarre, Vangelis, and Starinc (the “Synthetizer Greatest” series). I started listening to Queen in 1993, who was my very first real experience with rock. I worked for the 1996 baccalauréat listening to Dream Theater's A Change Of Seasons and The Prodigy's The fat of the land (including the insane and psycho track Breathe), but they were exceptions to my glam rock period.
Undoubtedly my musical influences are now so large that all I could actually write will be very different from what I wrote in these past times. And we have now new incredible tools like digi-sequencer software which we can write very impressive title at home with. Yes, I will restart to play flute and recorder, these are my primary front/lead instruments, but I want also to learn bass-guitar (I love YAMAHA's bass guitars, and take a look at YAMAHA's new MagicStomp muti-effets) to play and write metal music. I will see what it will produce. Maybe it could be very crapy, but it might be the start for some strange experiment.

Well, but that wasn't my purpose. I wanted to talk here about what I listened to this year! The major change/opportunity came from the buying of a DENON Micro Component System (D-M50 system with a DRR-M30 cassette deck). This system do nothing but the sound, only the sound. Tha's why we must buy audio system, isn't it?
I will start this list by the sequel of my likes.

I love motion picture soundtracks (well, scores in fact – good website here and very good here): John Williams naturally (take a look at this excellent website: John Williams Fan Network), but Elliot Goldenthal and Danny Elfman too (those two last being far darker), the poetic Joe Hisaishi, Howard Shore, Michael Kamen (passed away last year), Hans Zimmer, James Horner, Ennio Morricone, etc. I am trying to get as many John Williams soundtracks as I can, but sometimes I give other maestros their chance... This year:

• Midway (1976) – Original motion picture score. Music composed by John Williams, music conducted by Rick Wentworth, performed by The Royal Scottish National Orchestra (1998, Varèse Sarabande Film Classics)


• E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial – The 20^th Anniversary (1982/2002) – Original motion picture soundtrack. Music composed and conducted by John Williams (2002, MCA Records)


• The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing (1973) – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack. Music Composed and conducted by John Williams, music from the unused score composed by Michel Legrand (2002, Film Score Silver Age Classics) [This pressing is limited to 3,000 copies]


• The Fury (1978) – The Deluxe Edition (2CD). Music composed and conducted by John Williams, performed by The London Symphony Orchestra (2002, Varèse Sarabande) [Limited Collector's Edition of 3000 copies]


• Home Alone 2 – Lost In New York (1992) – The Deluxe Edition (2CD). Music composed and conducted by John Williams (2002, Varèse Sarabande) [Limited Collector's Edition of 3000 copies]


• The Indiana Jones Trilogy (1981, 1984, 1989). Music composed by John Williams, The City of Prague Philharmonie Orchestra & Chorus conducted by Nic Raine (2002, Silva Screen Records)


• Minority Report (2002) – Original motion picture score. Music composed and conducted by John Williams (2002, DreamWorks Records);


• Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets (2002) – Music from and inspired by the motion picture. Music composed by John Williams, music adapted and conducted by William Ross, performed by The London Symphony Orchestra and London Voices (2002, Warner Sunset / Atlantic Records) [with limited edition CD-ROM]


• Catch me if you can (2002) – Music from the motion picture. Music composed and conducted by John Williams (2002, DreamWorks Records)


• The Batman Trilogy – Batman (Danny Elfman) . Batman Returns (Danny Elfman) . Batman Forever (Elliot Goldenthal). Music conducted by Joel McNeely, performed by The Royal Scottish National Orchestra and Chorus (1997, Varèse Sarabande Records)


• Ennio Morricone – Film Music – Music for Piano – Chamber Music – Symphonic Music (2002, Milan Music) [4 CD BOX + 28 Pages Booklet]

Classical interlude. I bought «à la Fnac», mainly by Deutsche Grammophon or Decca Classics: Schuman – Piano Works interpreted by Wilhelm Kempf, Orf's Carmina Burana (Eugen Jochum), Mozart's Musique Maçonnique (István Kertész), Mozart's Requiem (Hervert bon Karajan), Haydn's Messe de Sainte Cecile (Jochum) with Mozart's Messe "Du couronnement" (Fricsay), Mozart's Grande Messe en ut mineur (Fricsay). All come from Deutsche Gramophon, except Mozart's Musique Maçonnique from Decca, but in the «100 classiques» collection where you can find title from Deutsche Grammophon (globalization: these two brands are owned by Universal Classics). Yes, I try to go on with my classical musical knowledge... I have to learn, a lot.

After that, I will do a little travel through France. I listen less and less to french music. Only one reason: french music is in a very bad creative state (we have hopefully bands like Matmatah). That's all. I buy a bit of music from french artists, but I do not listen to them very often, and sometimes it's more to ask me: what are them becoming? Among them we find Pascal Obispo: my father (and the rest of my familly, but he found the disc) offered me the live 98 (1998) for my last birthday; but Obispo is beginning to write always the same thing, so I am a bit afraid of what will come with the next double album... and the lyrics are going dumb and dumber. But the new comer is here: Calogero, a friend of Obispo. After his latest album (see this entry), I bought his first one, Au milieu des autres (2000). I like this guy and he his a bass player, so we can hear songs with good (melodic) bass lines.
In the set of those who are beginning to be less productive, we find Yann Tiersen. His last live performance, C'était ici (2002, édition limitée) was good, but his last creative work, 3 titres inédits au profit de la FIDH (2003) is really cheap, but really bad too (what the hell did he put this noisy electric guitar?).

I think it was the previous year, but I continue to buy Queen's discography and solo projects. The latest purchases were Live at Wembley'86 (1992) and Live magic (1986). I was really very impressed by The Queen Symphony (2002) composed and conducted by Tolga Kashif, performed by The Royal Philarmonic Orchestra (London): this is not a classical interpretation of Queen's music, it's really a symphony built upon Queen's most known musical themes and patterns; I love the dark part in the first movement (Adagio misterioso – Allegro con brio – Maestoso – Misterioso – Allegro). Many people do not know that in the beginning, there was three singers in Queen: Freddy Mercury, Roger Taylor and Brian May. And I appreciate Roger Taylor's rock voice. I had all solo album from this guy, but not the second: Strange Frontier (1984, digital remaster 1996). I got it! Some people said Taylor is the new John Lennon, so it's sad he is not “in the move”: he is a complete instruments player (drums and percussions, guitar, bass guitar, keyboard) and his lyrics are very engaged.

Pierre-Jean, you can say I continue to listen to « rock à minettes », but yes, I bought two new albums from Bon Jovi. And no, Bon Jovi is not only for girls. They are far from their Hair-Metal period, but you can laugh at me on they Arena-Rock style, still present. It's good Pop-Metal with a bluesy side, sometimes sentimental, sure, but sometimes funny (Captain Crash and the Beauty Queen from Mars on the album Crush). So I bought Bounce (2002) with the very powerfull Undivided (post-september 11, 2001) and the semi-acoustic This left feels right (2003) with an incredible acoustic performance on the DVD in the limited edition: Richie Sambora is really a guitar player with an impressive feeling! I love also the new acoustic version of It's my life.

To make a link with the past, I bought In time 1988 - 2003 – The best of R.E.M. [special edition, with rarities and B-sides] (2003). I won't say anything, cos I listen to it only two times I think... But R.E.M. was (is?) a cool band.
For my birthday, my father found G – or Garbage (2003, re-release) from Garbage. I love this band, a brilliant Alternative-Dance/Pop-Rock formation, using an incredible sophistication in samples. I am really waiting their next album release.

What else? Brit-Pop. I am a big fan of britpop. Here in France we have almost nothing. And there, beyond the sea, they have britpop... How can it be possible? I got Hail to the Thief [Special edition] (2003) from Radiohead, always experimental... And Absolution [Limited Edition] (2003) from Muse, my favourite alternative pop-rock band in the world, or: when Rachmaninov music meets grunge rock; the DVD from the limited edition is, well, very strange, but it's a good place to watch how they have built this new album (it seems to have been very funny: for example the recording of the feet march at night, to create the Intro...).
I listen to Placebo for a moment in MP3, but never bought a CD (and I really do not like to listen to things I did not pay for, or only for boolegs or songs you can no more found). I got Sleeping With Ghosts [Special Edition] (2003) with “10 cover versions”: these covers are among the best performances from Placebo. I bought too the pack containing Placebo (1996) and Black Market Music (2000). I did not purchase Without you I'm nothing (1998) for the moment (my prefered album) wich contains the introductory song of the soundtrack from Sexe intentions (I love Les liaisons dangereuses du marquis de Sade).

This year I began to buy J-Pop in... Japan, starting with my favourite band, the french named L'Arc-en-Ciel. They released a best of in three parts (I talked about that story here): The Best of L'Arc-en-Ciel 1994-1998 (2003), The Best of L'Arc-en-Ciel 1998-2000 (2003), The Best of L'Arc-en-Ciel c/w (2003). Hyde is a unbelievable singer (and musician) and Testu an incredible bass player (bass players have nowadays very poor musical basis... so it's always a great pleasure to hear so melodic players). For the first two best-of, I was able to get the special edition with a DVD, so I had the opportunity to see the beautiful Hyde with a dress and compensated boots...

With the soundtracks from La Sirène Rouge, I discovered Rammstein (well, I knew them, having made eight years of german...). This industrial-metal band has lyrics (well, you are responsable of your interpretation of the meaning) and a powerful music. Moreover they are very strong to provide incredible live performances (see the gothic Live aus Berlin). I first purchased Mutter (2001), after Sehnsucht [Australian tour edition with Stripped from Depeche Mode and a bonus CD with one title from the first album and five live songs] (1997), and Herzeleid (1995). I love. that's all. Great music to code fast and be punchy all the day. So for the moment we have : France is dead, but U.K. and Germany have good performers... you will see later that Europe has other good creative bands.

But I really love ;-) Evanescence, with a first “debut” album Fallen (2003). Well. post-grunge, alternative-metal... okay. chamber-pop? yes, clear. goth-metal? sure. Songs formated for the radio. No need for radio-edit versions. But Evanescence, this is a voice and lyrics: Amy Lee.
I bought the first album and the two EP, Bring Me To Life and Going Under, waiting for the new ones (the two My Immortal EP) and the new album (but things have changed... more to come in another entry about the band).

I found in MP3: Evanescence EP (1998) (on the left), Whisper EP (1999) and Sound Asleep EP (1999), Origin (2000) (on the right) and all their first demos (Demos 1997-1998 and Demos 2001-2002). In fact this is not really a debut album as we can see...

Before finishing with what I am listening now, I will dive into the “Dream Theater galaxy”. I am becoming what we can called a die hard fan of DT... a Progressive-Metal band, but the more complexe Prog-Metal in the world... I began to buy the lives I didn't own: Live at the Marquee (1993), Once in a LIVEtime (1998) and the impressive three hours masterpiece Live Scenes From New-York (2001). After buying their latest album, Train of Thought (subtly Metallica inspired, whose shadow is flying over this dark album), I was CHOCKED (well, I was a bit prepared by their two precedent albums: Metropolis Part.2: Scenes From A Memory and Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence). Yes. Genius. WHO in the world can play THAT? John Petrucci is at his best, Mike «patator» Portnoy splashes his cymbals, John Myung pulses, James LaBrie modulates and Jordan Rudess... does his job (well, I prefer his perfomances on “sfam” and “6doit”), but what a job! This week I bought the EP from Scenes From A Memory, Through her eyes [Japan Import] (1999), known sometimes as Lives and remixes.

With Portnoy's side projects, I discovered Transatlantic, a progressive-rock band. I bought Live In Europe [Limited Edition – Double DVD & Double CD] (2003), a very cool show. You know, it sounds like a band of friends. I continuated with The Transatlantic Demos (2003) from Nearl Morse and Archive Series: SMPT:e As Mixed By Roine Stolt 1999 (2003) from Transatlantic. I got Neal Morse's Testimony [special edition, limited edition box set with a third CD] (2003) whose Portnoy did the drums. Another good choice was One Night in New York City by Yellow Matter Custard, a tribute band to the Beattles with Mike “Ringo” Portnoy and Neal Morse. I like Transatlantic, it's good ProgRock, and Neal Morse's demos are very cool to understand the creative process in this kind of bands (you know: it sounds like a “I take my digital recorder everywhere with me, who knows where the muses will talk to me?” And Mike Portnoy is a god. You will never hear drums the same way after seeing or listening to him. I was a big fan of Roger Taylor, a great rock drummer, but Portnoy is a god. The god of patators. He must have four feet and twelve hands... For the last album of Neal Morse: I listened to him only one time, and I think there wasn't enough good material for a triple album.

Portnoy also played drums on John Arch's A Twist of Fate (2003) but I listened to this mini album only one time... We have too Office of Strategic Influence [limited edition] (2003) by the supergroup OSI (with Mike Portnoy, always him, and the ex-Dream Theater Kevin Moore on keyboards and.... vocals). Pure Pink Floyd, a great flying moment.

If you love Dream Theater for their “how can they play that?” side, you will love the almost-DT band but supergroup Liquid Tension Experiment, with John Petrucci, Mike Portnoy, Jordan Rudess and Tony Levin at Bass (very different style from Myung). There are two incredible-must-have-jazzy-rock albums: Liquid Tension Experiment (1998) and Liquid Tension Experiment 2 (1999).

On Jordan Rudess's side: the Rudess Morgenstein Project (1997) and Rudess Morgenstein Project – The Official Bootleg (?) by the Rudess/Morgentein Project. The keys of Dream Theater meets a great drummer. That's a bit for the big fans, but that is pleasant and virtuose music (the bootleg contains very cool live performances). I got also Listen (1993) and Feeding the Wheel (2001) but I did not have time to listen to these two discs.

For James LaBrie (on vocals), we have frameshift – unweaving the rainbow (2003) with lyrics based on ideas from the socio-biologist Richard Dawkins. And also his two solo projects, Mullmuzzler (1999) and Mullmuzzler 2 (2001) which show us again that he has got not only one the most complete metal voice, but a voice for all styles of music. Another must have is Leonardo – the absolute man – Original Cast Recording (2001), a ProgMetal opera about the life of Leonardo da Vinci from Trent Gardner (with his trombone lol... yes, metal music with a trombone)! Really A MUST HAVE, even for those who do not like metal (a kind of metal Tycoon, the english version of Starmania from Michel Berger). I love the duet This time, this way between Leonardo (James Labrie) and Mona Lisa (Lisa Bouchelle).

And I am now listening to Luca Turilli's King Of The Nordic Twilight (1999) and Prophet Of The Last Eclipse [Limited Edition] (2002), solo projects of the guitar player, composer and writer from Rhapsody (with Olaf Hayer to vocals). This guy is italian and live in France. When progressive-metal mixed with a bit of industrial metal (mainly speed/power metal) meets european classical musics crossed with fantasy metal! That is actually very impressive, maestro Turilli is a great artist, very complete. The melodic lines are entertwined e, you can hear big heavy metal guitars talking to pan flute, recorders, harpsichord, accordion, strings, brasses, etc. I am now a big fan of this kind of music mixing completely different instruments and styles. The limited edition of the second album comes with bonus tracks and a version of Demonheart sung by Andre Matos from Angra (and you know what: very cool!). Well, and this paragraph ends my rant about music in Europe: Italy produces good things!

That's ALL (I think). I listed only albums I own. I listen to other things (yep yep). I was also very short describing these albums, but I will make more complete and detailed reviews of them this year.

What can you expect from me this year? I will certainly continue to explore the Dream Theater galaxy (bootlegs, rarities, clinics and side projects). I plan to get all the album of L'Arc~En~Ciel, Rhapsody and Symphony X. I need to purchase the Japan albums from Muse (and I am waiting for the release of their second MAXI boxset).

And thanks to Russell Beattie, I discovered The Flaming Lisps, a very strange alternative/experimental-rock band; I will try to get a compilation and the two latest albums and some recent EP; take time to watch their website, it is very complete (discography for example), and you can listen to many tracks from the latest albums.

However I need to ingest all these influences, and it will take time. I have really many ideas, but you know; between what you think and what you can do, there is a gap... and music composition takes time...

The end of my musical digest, next time it will be about movies!

This guy is: Johnny Loftus on Windows Media Player powered by "AMG" – take a look at the excellent "AMG All Music Guide").

Fallen, the “debut” album from Evanescence is good from the beginning to the end, and I cannot say that from Linkin Park's albums (maybe only 4 really good songs per album).
Evanescence is not linked with Type O Negative, I do not see where this guy see that. And in fact, Evanescence is (in many aspects) far more gothic than Type O Negative (if you want real gothic industrial metal, take a look at Rammstein...). Must I note that the lead singer of Evanescence, Amy Lee, she knows how to sing and write melodies...
Moreover, the link with Tori Amos is not so easy to make... the voice and style are really different. Note: Amy's mascara is really lovely ;-)
And finally I really do not see where he is hearing these “piano-driven ballads” on half of this album, cos only My Immortal and Hello are piano-driven (and Hello is really beautiful, more in the spirit of 1997-1998 first demos of the band).
But... I am sorry to confess that Paul McCoy could be a really wonderful lead singer with a better band, with more melodies, cos the first album from 12 Stones is not really good (from my point of view).

So only one advice: judge by yourself! But personally, I love Evanescence (Amy Lee is really a marvellous singer) and I hope they will improve their gothic symphonic aspect, with this nu-metal dark side.

“Rammstein, the German forebearers of keyboard-inflected Wagnerian speed metal, are at it again, with Mutter.” (Kieran McCarthy on Windows Media Player powered by "AMG" – take a look at the excellent "AMG All Music Guide").

Update: And an excellent website, "Planet Rammstein".

Sur le site d'YtseJam Records, on peut maintenant précommander les trois premiers bootlegs que proposent Dream Theater, ceci de façon officielle :

• The Majesty Demos 1985-1986 (Demo Series) - $15.00 (1 CD);
• Los Angeles, California 5/18/98 (Live Series) - $20.00 (2 CDs);
• The Making of Scenes From A Memory (Studio Series) - $20.00 (2 CDs).

Ils sortent des archives de Mike Portnoy, et ce dernier annonce environ 3 nouvelles sorties tous les six mois, ce qui est de bonne augure. Les prix sont tout à fait abordable (apparemment : $20 pour les doubles CDs, et $15 pour les simples, ce qui fait vraiment pas cher pour des disques bourrés de bonnes choses, notamment avec la baisse continuelle de la monnaie américaine). Je palpite déjà à l'idée d'écouter le making-of de SFAM, une des oeuvres monumentales du XX^e siècle en terme de métal progressif...

À propos de MP, son site propose des prises de vues de sa dernière création en terme de batterie : le bien nommé « monstre de Siam » (“Siamese Monster”) n'est rien moins qu'une double batterie! Apparement c'est cet engin étrange qui va apparaître sur le prochain album du groupe... Sur le même site, on peut aussi jouer de son ancienne batterie, la “Purple Monster”. Je me demande en terme de batterie qui peut rivaliser avec cette brute créatrice...

Autre site intéressant : le fan club français officiel de Dream Theater, Yourmajesty.net, propose de nombreuses informations plus qu'intéressantes, notamment chaque mois un nouveau bootleg à télécharger.

En parlant de fan club, si quelqu'un sait où l'on peut se procurer des copies des CDs du DTIFC (Dream Theater International Fan Club), qu'il me fasse signe (neuf, copie, fichiers audio... je ne paye que pour du neuf...).

Enfin, pour terminer sur les raretés téléchargeables de DT, le site "lines in the sand" est absolument incroyable!!! J'espère juste que tous les liens fonctionnent... Update: Malheureusement le serveur qui contenait les fichiers n'est plus en ligne. :(

Voilà. La conclusion qui tombe un peu comme un cheveux sur la soupe, c'est que je me remets à la musique de façon beaucoup plus assidue... instruments que je pratiquais, mais aussi nouveaux instruments. Je vous raconterai cela bientôt ;-).

Posted by Jean-Philippe on June 29, 2003 13 Comments, 0 TrackBacks

June 14, 2003

May 30, 2003

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March 29, 2003

February 23, 2003