A while ago, when I was searching for nice musical movies on You Tube, I stumbled upon a French trio by the name of La Theorie Des Cordes and my first impression was: “ Nice music for a bunch of street musicians”. After watching a few times I had to admit that the band I found was a rather talented one, consisting of a guitarist, a drummer and a female piano player. Now, a few weeks later, their first album; Premieres Vibrations was handed over to me to write something about. What a nice coincidence. As I said, La Theorie Des Cordes is a trio consisting of Mathieu Torres on guitar, Stephanie Artaud at the piano and the drummer Tadzio Gottberg. On the album they get some help on only two songs where Maxime Jaslier plays bass on one and saxophone on the other. The album has only seven songs, but all of them clock in at over six minutes and give us nicely stretched compositions, with plenty of room for kinds of spontaneous jam like sessions. The first song; Supernova immediately gives you an idea of the album's sound with fluidly played guitar lines as the most noticeable element, bonded together with some jazzy piano and drumming in the back. The jazz influences continue in Rêves Prémonitoires, where the wonderfully played piano lays down a nice melody and at first the guitar sounds real jazzy as well and the saxophone plays along in a harmony style. Between the jazzy elements, you can hear that Matthieu originally is more of a rock guitarist, which gives it just a little crunch towards a fusion flavor. D'hêtre À Être definitely floats into the fusion direction with a rock guitar over a relaxed piano that really sounds great to my ears and the delicate drums are very smooth ,but grow when the guitar gains power. The strong part here is the continuing piano that keeps the melody and pace of the song. Singes could be used as a background track for a movie; softly building up the tension, a bit of King Crimson meets Frank Zappa with a slightly more modern sounding guitar. Le Bas Art De L'épouvante gives me the impression of a happy French song that gently goes dramatic. The guitar takes the lead, but later in the song, the piano takes over the main position and in the end both of the instruments find each other in harmony. Listening to Berceuse Moderne I realized I did not really miss a bass guitar on the album, but now the soft sounds of a bass down the rhythm, while the piano again sets the melody and a rocking guitar with hints of Jeff Beck and Pat Metheny plays over them. Notice the nice piano versus bass part toward the end of the song. Renaissances is the longest composition on the album and gives you almost ten minutes of high quality music. A jazzy opening leads into a furious guitar which eventually goes riffing in a metal way. Underneath the metal, Stephanie keeps on playing that nice electric piano-a perfect song to end the album. Sometimes the internet helps acts gain publicity, with people putting their recordings on You Tube. People often get curious of how a complete album would sound and eventually end up buying the CD. For me, it was the first acquaintance with this French trio and I hope and expect to hear a lot more of this promising band. Premiere Vibrations is an album for people who like guitar and fusion, just a little bit different than the ordinary. ****Pedro Bekkers (edited by Robert James Pashman) Where to buy? |
