Artist: Univers Zero
Label: Cuneiform
Release: 1979
Rating: 4.7/5
Univers Zero’s second album continues down the path laid out by the first. Co-founders Roger Trigaux and Daniel Denis created an original take on chamber rock that draws heavily on the European classical tradition. At times it feels like you’re listening to a classical ensemble, since the moments where hints of rock come through are pretty rare. Best to just start at the beginning.
La Faulx is probably the darkest Univers Zero track, period. Anyone hearing Univers Zero for the first time might think the opener is pure improvisation, since there seems to be no clear structure, but with Univers Zero everything is written out on sheet music. It’s probably one of their toughest compositions. I had to listen to the thing quite a few times before I started to make out individual patterns. Really, though, what matters more here is the suffocating atmosphere. When I listen to this track, I can’t help picturing myself walking through gloomy tunnels deep underground. Strangely, I’m not scared. It’s as if this music were a kind of companion through dark corridors. At first it seems panicky and almost mad, like it’s trying to drive you out of your mind, but once you make peace with it, it’s almost warm and indispensable. Needless to say, I like listening to the music from this album best at night, in total darkness. The track is defined most by the ominous harmonium at the start and later by the demonic recitation in some hellish language. Fairly slowly (almost too slowly), the slower, ominous parts alternate with faster but no less ominous sections. At times it sounds like amateurs are playing the violin or the woodwinds, since they coax their instruments into the squealing typical of beginners, but in other sections their virtuosity shines through. Such mismatches are fairly typical of bands where discord, or dissonance, takes center stage. In terms of dynamics this track can’t compare with some of their later creations, but if you’re willing to surrender to Denis’s vision, you’ll be richly rewarded.
Jack The Ripper is another extremely dark affair, but a lot more dynamic. It starts out just as slowly but develops faster. Once it gets going, it never lets up. Harmonium and piano are front and center here, conjuring the atmosphere of nineteenth-century London and taking us along on a night out with one of history’s greatest butchers. The title is spot on, because the music in this track is manic again. When the piano starts playing its wild melody, I’m instantly transported to London, passively watching Jack at work. The track shows two different sides of Jack’s personality. The first part is calmer – harmonium, strings and woodwinds up front, but you can feel a kind of madness in the background – while in the second part the beast breaks free. The piano has never sounded so evil! Jack is evidently on several trips tonight, since his rampage is repeatedly interrupted by shorter intervals where he creeps along and hides in the side streets, but when he spots a new victim or some kind of threat, he’s right back to being the good old Jack.
The third track starts out similar to the first two – with creepy harmonium, woodwinds and strings. But soon enough the song tips in a livelier direction. Given how morbid the previous two compositions were, you could even call this one almost cheerful (or at least more upbeat). It’s also the first time on this album that we hear Roger Trigaux’s guitar. The song is fairly typical of the avant-garde, since it’s based mostly on half steps and grand minor chords. The structure itself is again pretty complicated; many would probably claim it’s nonexistent, but if you listen often enough you’ll spot a pattern. Vous Le Saurez is the most structured track on the album, in the classic rock sense. You can also notice a tendency toward longer stretches of aggression and electric instruments. The song foreshadows the style Roger Trigaux would use in Present after leaving Univers Zero.
Maybe I haven’t mentioned Daniel Denis much in this review, even though he’s the main composer on the album, but it feels almost unnecessary to bring him up. His presence is sometimes barely noticeable, because he lets the other musicians perform what he composed himself. But now and then he explodes into polyrhythmic madness that would be hard for any rock drummer to follow. Denis is, after all, a classically trained drummer with a lot of jazz know-how. Otherwise Christian Vander would hardly have invited him to play in Magma.
Denis gathered a bunch of outstanding musicians around him. Multi-instrumentalist Roger Trigaux is the only one besides Denis who was writing songs in Univers Zero at that time. Maybe that was one of the reasons Trigaux left – he wanted more of his own compositions on the album. The official reason for his departure was that he wanted to make more electric rock music rather than chamber rock, as Univers Zero from that period are sometimes described. Either way, Tirgaux left after this album, but he and Denis stayed friends. Denis played on quite a few albums by Present (Trigaux’s new band), and only recently did some disagreements flare up between the two big personalities of the RIO scene. Despite all the grudges these days, what matters more is that together they made the album Heresie and with it set one of the milestones of chamber rock in opposition. To me it’s an outstanding piece of work, but probably not for everyone. I’d recommend it mainly to those with some experience of both classical music and avant-garde rock, because the thing is pretty tough going and for some maybe even oppressive.
Lineup
Michel Berckmans – bassoon, oboe
Patrick Hanappier – viola, violin
Roger Trigaux – guitar, piano, organ, harmonium
Guy Segers – bass guitar, vocals
Daniel Denis – drums, percussion
Production
Univers Zero
Tracklist
1. La Faulx (25:18)
2. Jack the Ripper (13:29)
3. Vous le Saurez en Temps Voulu (12:56)
Album length: 51:43
