Vortex - Les Cycles De Thanatos vinyl lp (due to size and weight, this price for the USA only. Outside of the USA, the price will be adjusted as needed)
SKU
28-MYGR8002.1
“Faithfully remastered from the original mastertape. High quality gatefold cover. 4 page insert with rare photos and liner notes.”
This is a rather important and also rather unexpected reissue! Vortex are an under-known and underappreciated band who combined jazz rock with zeuhl and avant-progressive tendencies and recorded two rather rare albums in their lifetime (Vortex and Les Cycles De Thanatos). This, their final album featured Fender piano, two reed players, bass, drums, oboe, English horn, mallet percussion and more!
“VORTEX, a creative pioneer of French avant-garde jazz rock, who endlessly disassembled and reconstructed the genres, created their own unique style by blending various musical elements; such as the aggressive heaviness of Zeuhl, the complex yet elegant ensembles of chamber rock, the polytempic and polyrhythmic structures of free jazz and the profound experimentation of 20th-century contemporary music.
In terms of dense composition and excellent performance, as well as recording quality, Les Cycles de Thanatos is a masterpiece that far exceeds it's predecessor, which had a somewhat hastily-made feel. If the previous album was filled with high-tension numbers based on impact sounds and repetitive motifs, this album demonstrates how the band can create complex structures with elaborate and delicate layers, while seamlessly weaving multiple motifs through a variety of instruments.
In particular, the 25-minute title song, which occupies the entire B-side, is a work in chamber rock style that incorporates elements of contemporary music into rock, and expresses Messiaen's motif in a darker and more intense way. The intro with various percussions including timpani and low-key heavy sounds is dark and abyss-like - reminiscent of Heresie, a masterpiece of the Belgian chamber rock group Univers Zero, who were active at the same time as Vortex.
In the second half of the song, amid the feast of various percussion instruments that stimulate both ears dazzlingly, it's plain to see that the musical accomplishment of Vortex at that time had reached it's peak.”
"Les Cycles de Thanatos is a dark-sounding album integrating rock, jazz, and neo-classical elements. Probably the most dominant feature on the album is the dark brooding neo-classical rock, sounding not unlike Univers Zero or Art Zoyd. In addition, there are Zeuhl-ish jazz rock passages that remind me of Zao, Moving Gelatine Plates, instrumental Zappa, and Potemkine. An excellent album of typical French avant-garde/underground music."-Sjef Oellers/Gnosis
- LabelMerry Go Round
- UPC8809114697203