Year of Release: 2006
Label: Cuneiform records
Catalog Number: Rune 234
Format: CD
Total Time: 46:14:00
First of all, thanks to the kind folks at Cuneiform Records (Thanx Joyce) for sending me NeBeLNest's new album. At first glance (listen) I was bewildered, as these guys have a somewhat avant-garde (not my strong suit) side to them, but after several listenings, the music grew on me. They come across as a mix between Soft Machine, Brand X and King Crimson (mid period plus Red) and me being an old school progfreak as well as a fan of artrock and power ditto, I have to be honest to myself, but also the band!
Track #1, "Pillars Of Birth," is a brilliant track with fine a mellotron tapestry upon which NeBelNest builds a great theme of guitars, bass, drum and keyboards, especially Carmone (guitar) and Olivier Tejedor (keys) shine here. Track #1 glides into Track #2 in almost silence and turns out like something from a King Crimson (mid period) tune, only the ocarina (i think?!) does bring some middle eastern feeling! Track #3, “The Old Ones," again has the great mellotron background with some powerful drumming, bass and superb guitar play (Carmona), turning out to be a great instrumental theme.
In all, quite and interesting album, and track #6, "De Triumpho Naturae" has a fierce, fantastic lead guitar (Carmone … again!), lots of time signatures, and superb playing from all involved!
Now the rest is up to you, give it a whirl if you are into the above mentioned bands or if you are to very avant-garde prog music. Notice that I've avoided mentioning those tracks of the more adventurous / avant-garde character! Truly, I do not understand avant-garde music, therefore I simply cannot rate it, let alone review it! It wouldn't be fair
to the band!
So find out for yourselves, go listen to this album, please! For obviously they are great musicians; I just don't understand their musical language on the more experimental tracks!
Tonny Larsen, who contributed this review, is the founder, reviewer, creative member and occasional interviewer at www.progplanet.com, the Danish site for progressive rock music. The text here has been slightly edited from the original -ed.
Tracklisting:
Pillars Of Birth (6:34) / Majnuns ( 5:42) / The Old Ones (5:48) / The Things In The Walls ( 1:48) / Fabric Of Reality (3:13) / De Triumpho Naturae (8:27) / Do What Thou Wilt (10:06) / Station 9 (4:25)
Musicians:
Michael Anselmi - drums, percussion
Gregory Tejedor - bass
Olivier Tejedor - keyboards, devices, ocarina, violin
Guests:
Sebastien Carmona - guitars (1, 3, 6)
Cyril Malderez - guitars (2, 4, 5, 7)
Vincent Boukefa - clarinet
Discography:
NeBeLNeST (1999)
Nova Express (2002)
Zepto (2006)
Genre: RIO
Origin FR
