Eskaton
(Copyright © 1999 Piero Scaruffi | Terms of use )
| 4 Visions (1979), 6.5/10 | Links: |
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Eskaton Kommandkestra were a late 1970s
band formed in the wake of Magma. The eight-piece Eskaton (which included no
less than two female vocalists and three keyboard players) went on to record
the EP
Musique Post Atomic (1979), containing Le Chant de la Terre and If,
and
a cassette (also in 1979).
Their debut album 4 Visions (april 1979 - Ad Perpetuam Memoriam, 1995) deserves to be ranked among the best of continental Europe's progressive albums. I found very little similarities with Magma (more with Gong, actually). Eskaton's compositions (i.e., Marc Rozenberg's ones) were more avantgarde in concept and lighter in mood. The first thing to strike you in the leading track, Eskaton, is the operatic vocals; then the stirring, demonic beat, reminiscent of early Popol Vuh's witches' sabbath; then the "comic" touches, half cabaret and half Dada. Possibly the climax of the album and their all-time masterpiece, Ecoute simply extends the experiments on these elements, turning voices into instruments and keyboards into voices, letting rhythms overturn melodies and melodies break rhythms. Four long tracks that remind us of how imposing the french tradition is. Later the group recorded three albums: Ardeur in 1980, Fiction in 1983 and I Care in 1985, the latter one unreleased. They reformed for the EP Miroirs (2013) and the album So Good (2017). |
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