Exposé Online banner

Exposé Online

Not just outside the box, but denying the existence of boxes.
Covering music from the fringes since 1993.

Reviews

Teknikolor — LNA's Dream
(Musea FGBG 4337.AR, 1999, CD)

by Jim Chokey, Published 2000-10-01

LNA's Dream Cover art

Although the liner notes list four musicians as being in the band, Teknikolor is primarily Patrick Chartol. In addition to composing all of the material on LNA’s Dream, Chartol (who plays keyboards, bass, and wave drum) is the only musician featured on all tracks. A few songs feature the largely wordless vocals of Elena Salazar or Véronique Velsch and the flute work of Manu Le Houezec, but for the most part, this is Chartol’s show. The album consists of nineteen short pieces (two minutes is average, the longest is four minutes) that form a dark, mysterious, and dreamlike musical panorama. Many tracks, like “Slender,” “Planetarium,” and “Triangle,” draw heavily on the 19th and early 20th century classical tradition. (Comparisons to Debussy, Ravel, and Orff leap to mind at different moments.) The heavy use of orchestral samples on such pieces is very successful, adding tonal variety and a symphonic gravitas not usually possible without a larger ensemble. Other tracks, such as “Nikopol” and “Celtic,” show more spritely jazz and ethnic influences. I’m not entirely sure what to compare this to. Structurally, I’m vaguely reminded of Carl Weingarten’s The Acoustic Shadow. In terms of the actual sound and style of the music itself, however, LNA’s Dream perhaps resembles what you might get if you crossed later Art Zoyd with one of the This Mortal Coil albums — or maybe like a less minimalist and less liturgical Elijah’s Mantle. Highly recommended to folks who think a mellow two-minute piece of music can still be great progressive rock.

Filed under: New releases, Issue 20, 1999 releases

Related artist(s): Teknikolor (Patrice Chartol)

 

What's new

These are the most recent changes made to artists, releases, and articles.