PenseesI love an album that literally takes you on a trip, one that you press play on and have no choice but to be taken on a wild journey through the deranged mind of its composer. French band Pensees Nocturnes did this with aplomb on last fantastical disc Grotesque. Sole muse Vaerohn took us on a mad and imaginative voyage through his dark consciousness taking in a variety of blackened nightmarish forms that were as eclectic and deranged as you have ever heard. What really did it for me was the way that he kept it all original by dropping in familiar musical nuances in the form of somewhat recognisable classical leitmotifs and traditional pieces of music and melding it all around his ever flowing manic tapestry.

Well this time round he has taken us to the circus!

I feel that I am slightly missing out and if my French teacher all those years ago had told me to concentrate more on the language for the reason of enjoying musical themes by doing so in the future I should certainly paid more attention. The extensive booklet and lyrics, the song titles and vocals and everything associated with this is in its native tongue so I can only give it a cursory understanding. Still the music and my own imagination do allow a large knowledge of it all and this is universal so there is much to enjoy here even if I am perhaps not quite seeing the whole picture and reading the whole story.

This is a world introduced in mystical fashion with sinuous twisting slow build up. Instantly there is a feel of the avant-garde and track title translating as ‘He Ate The Sun’ gives no illusion that something wicked could be about to come. This it does with trumpet heralding the arrival of main vocals. Vaerohn delivers them in raw and somewhat cavernous bellowing that are very much grotesque and full of dread. The spectacle is a feast of the bizarre even if the music has not yet started in any structured fashion; the feel of grand guignol has been installed. It is an album that will constantly keep you on your toes and goes beyond any musical genre convention. We get for instance a bit of accordion playing (very Gallic) and it is like summoning the circus into town, you can almost see the clowns trouping in but not with smiles, their faces are awash with tears making their make up all the more distorted and horrifying. Instrumentally as we proceed everything is thrown in, hell the kitchen sink could well make an appearance but we have the aforementioned along with a large array of woodwind, strings and brass including the likes of French horn, clarinet and cello. Dropping in a bit of jazz or reggae even is not off the cards either so be prepared for the unexpected here.

I particularly like the way that there is no gap between tracks here. Although it is divided into 9 acts, the music does not pause and is best played in this way as a whole as far as I am concerned. The third act is where it really comes into its own for me as ‘Les Hommes à la Moustache’ (I think we have a moustache competition taking place) takes the circus into a brass bound waltz that is not so much French as Mexican but then again that could be just due to the fact that I have seen Santa Sangre far too many times for my own good. It is there that my imagination firmly drops me in to but this is a classic sound of times gone by when the circus used to be an event. It is a time long gone (although in a way that is good due to the exploitative animal abuse that it used to involve) but this is going off tangent. Luckily some sultry and up front sassy female vocals are there to fixate on and is that a lion roaring? Nope Vaerohn is back and boy can he roar! The black metal side of things layers up and hits a ferocious barrage but it is utterly unique and unlike anything really within the realms of black metal that you have ever heard.

Then we get one of those partly recognisable leitmotifs I was talking about, a bit similar to Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata but then again different. It goes strongly orchestral and then flows into a modern structure seamlessly. Later we get a similar musical juxtaposition ala Greensleeves the clever familiarity of which both beguiles and enchants.

I could easily be here all day describing every twist and turn of this manic cavalcade, there are many sights to see here as we go through a veritable hall of mirrors where everything is distorted and nothing is quite as it seems. You are probably going to find this all a bit much on first listen and indeed wonder what on earth you have just heard. Indeed it has taken me a lot of plays to get anywhere on this but now it all makes some kind of insane perfect sense and it is very much an album that is going to entertain for many more spins and is one I feel I am going to come back to lots, just like its predecessor.

As a clarinet wails and discordant female vocals match them in shrill timbre, instruments all are making an almost unholy din at odds with each other and the ringmaster Vaerohn himself is hitting some almost crooning bellows over it all. It feels as though your head is about to explode.

Somehow the shocks and surprises are endured, we bump and stumble through the various sideshows, check out the freaks, ride the waltzers and marvel at it all making it finally to the end where ‘Bonne Bière et Bonne Chère’ is the final reward.

This is a stunningly rich and imaginative piece of music and probably one of the most original compositions you are likely to hear in a long time. Taking in a huge array of ideas and drenching them in hallucinogenic insanity this is a trip like you have never taken short of dropping one of those evil gold microdots a couple of decades ago.  Put it in Une Pipe and smoke it!

(9/10 Pete Woods) 

http://www.pnrecords-music.com