Julverne - 1986 - Emballade

Julverne

1986

Emballade

01. Le Sheik

02. Solace

03. Moon Song

04. Le Bonheur Des Dames

05. Tu Me Plais

06. Long Lost Mamma

07. Caravan

08. Mamma Loves Papa...

09. Mejico Tango

10. Original Rag

11. When Light Are Low

- Ilona Chale / vocals

- Pierre Coulon / flute, alto saxophone

- Luc Baudewyn / clarinet

- Michel Berckmans / bassoon, oboe

- Jean Paul Laurent / piano

- Jeannot Gillis / violin

- Jeanine Lantremange / alto

- Claudine Steenackers / violincello

- André Kleues / contrabass

- Jacqueline Rosanfeld / in ballad

- Michel Moers / reciting, chorus

The third work of Julverne is a kind of compromise. Significant tilt aside: from chamber classics to song classics. Frankly, resurrecting retro trends amid the rise of electronics is a bold undertaking. But who does not risk, he does not drink champagne. So, "Emballade ..." can be considered as an original tribute to the stage of the 1900-1930s. Putting aside their own compositional ideas for later, Jean-Paul Laurent (piano), Pierre Coulomb (flute, alto saxophone) and Jeannot Gilles (violin) set about arranging the standards they had selected. In parallel, the process of searching for accompanists was going on. If everything was more or less clear with the string-wind sector, then obvious difficulties were outlined in terms of vocals (I remind you that Julverne is a purely instrumental formation). However, they were also managed to be resolved thanks to the singer Ilona Shale, reciter/choirmaster Michel Moer and backing vocalist Eric Chalet. The other alignment is as follows: Michel Berkman - oboe, bassoon; Claudine Stinake - cello; Luke Bodiuva - clarinet; Jeanine Lontremonge - viola; André Klenet - double bass.

The café-shame program "Emballade ..." opens with Ted Snyder's "Le Sheik". Julverne's unique stylists immerse us in the black and white atmosphere of the early 20th century from the very first bars. With chronicle accuracy, they revive the sound of gramophone records, without betraying themselves in any way. Graceful orchestral filling, Mademoiselle Chalet's high and clear voice, vintage postcards with views of Montmartre... The musical time machine functions without errors and failures, giving the listener a feeling of maximum authenticity of what is happening. Without going too far with the artificial aging of the texture, the Belgian magicians in some completely miraculous way achieve one hundred percent truthfulness in the transfer of nuances. And now the gray-haired good-looking etude "Solace" by Scott Joplin is poured with ripe vital juices, and Arthur Johnston's Broadway melody "Moon Song" finds a second birth in a masterful reading of the newly-minted big band. The salon mazurka "Le Bonheur Des Dames" is perceived as a kind of collective exercise in beauty, while in "Tu Me Plais" by Raoul Moretti, the participants of the action indulge in nostalgia under the shadow of imaginary Parisian boulevards. The sketch of "Long Lost Mamma" by Gerry Woods is imbued with the spirit of natural American Dixieland, and the canonical work "Caravan" by Juan Tizol and Duke Ellington is presented by big-headed artists in a very special way, through an archaic, but absolutely clear prism. Extremely far from avant-garde digressions, cute eccentricities like "Mama Loves Papa ..." make you smile involuntarily; after all, from the refined aesthetes of Julverne it is difficult to expect flirting with pop music, even if it is a century ago. However, you cannot refuse the sincerity of their performance; just look at the sensual fresco "Mejico Tango" to be convinced of this. Joplin's ragtime "Original Rag" is a reference example of a top-notch sonic restoration. And the lyrical finale of "When Lights Are Low" is exquisite as a feast for the eyes.

I summarize: not progressive, and not even rock, but a subtle highly artistic penetration into the era of Chaplin, Gershwin and Francis Scott Fitzgerald.

You had to have a lot of balls to release an album like this in 1983 :-) Delicious little pastiches of the Belle Epoque treated in a jazz swing mode, the 11 tracks on this disc are the soundtrack of a film that exists only in your imagination but which guarantees to make you travel in another time. We are never very far from the complex and avant-garde chamber music of the first two albums but always on a light, spring-like tone. Like a divertimento... Very highly recommended.