(Clicka qua per la versione Italiana)
After leaving Univers Zero,
Belgian guitarist, keyboardist and composer Roger Trigaux formed Present
with pianist Alain Rochette
and with a rhythm section also borrowed from his old band
(drummer Daniel Denis and bassist Christian Genet).
Triskaidekaphobie (1981 - Cuneiform, 2014), with Trigaux on
robotic Robert Fripp-esque guitar,
contains the 19-minute Promenade Au Fond D'Un Canal, that
opens with a frantic Zappa overture but then indulges in
cryptic industrial minimalism until a
grotesque cabarett-ish piano motif leads to a
threatening symphonic march;
and the 15-minute Quatre-vingt Douze, with
more frenzy but also a neurotic stop-and-go dynamic that turns
minimalist repetition into self-mockery, as if
Dada were performing a Michael Nyman score.
Le Poison Qui Rend Fou (1985 - Cuneiform, 2014) is mainly devoted to the
25-minute Le Poison Qui Rend Fou, that contains
one of their most memorable motifs (four minutes into the piece)
and one of their most comic detours (the beginning of the second part),
Ersatz
Samana
Trigaux reformed the project with his son Reginald for
C.O.D. Performance (Lowlands, 1993).
Live (Cuneiform, 1996)
Roger Trigaux's nomadic existence has yielded a third version of Present,
the band he formed after severing ties with Univers Zero. For the past
few years he had been performing alone with his son Reginald, but now we find
him fronting again a full-fledged band, which, besides Reginald, also includes
American virtuoso drummer Dave Kerman (of U Totem and 5uu's). They offer only four
tracks to re-estabilish themselves at the forefront of progressive-rock, but
each one is long, complex and intricate. Rambling tunes are punctuated by
erratic time signatures, heavy-metal guitar work alternates with
Hendrix-like glissandos, rapid-fire group improvisation leads into defiant
solos. Contre leans towards King Crimson's angular jazz-rock,
Alone sinks into a slow psychedelic whisper, worthy of early Grateful Dead,
the subdued, dissonant, and even gothic Laundry Blues weathers unspeakable
tension. The tour de force is Promenade Au Fond D'Un Canal:
twenty-two minutes of music which is alternatively spectral and threatening,
cerebral and childish, cohesive and disjointed, tragic and comic.
Ultimately, the real highlight of the album is the instrumental proficiency of
the quartet.
What stands out in
Certitudes (Cuneiform, 1998) is the virtuoso technique of the performers.
That seems to be the main reason for the three lengthy suites to exist.
Keyboardist Alain Rochette competes with the leader in displaying
dexterity, but more enchanting might be the rhythms, often borrowed from
Latin American folk.
The weakest point, instead, is the singing.
The main problem of Delusions,
The Sense Of Life, and May Day is that their best moments
are drowned in endless minutes of sterile counterpoint.
A Great Inhumane Adventure (Cuneiform, 2005) documents 1998 live performances.
Barbaro ma Non Troppo (ReR, 2009) contains the intense and aggressive 16-minute Vertiges and keyboardist Pierre Chevalier's ebullient
A Last Drop.
It also includes a 16-minute version of
Univers Zero's Jack the Ripper (from Heresie).
The CD comes with a three-hour DVD of Present's live performances from 2005 and 2007.
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