Author: Tim Woodall
View album and artist detailsArtist/band: |
L’Attirail |
Label: |
Les Chantier Sonores |
Magazine Review Date: |
June/2015 |
For 20 years, producer, composer and instrumentalist Xavier Demerliac has been creating concept albums as L’Attirail. His records are influenced by folk music from all over the continent, and Eastern Europe in particular. But film music is also a factor – Demerliac and his band record soundtracks for French movies – as is travel, specifically road trips. La Route Intérieure (The Inner Road) is L’Attirail's tenth record. If the album's title implies a journey of the mind, the music certainly fits the bill. A broadly consistent mid-tempo beat conjures up a steady, horizon-chasing rail or road trip. This state of constant, steady movement is not boring, however. In just the first few tracks, bustling guitar and bass riffs vie with sampled spoken-word and vocal interludes, Balkan melodies or brassy ska-like riffs. The mildly psychedelic atmosphere is contagious.
Demerliac himself plays most of the key instrumental parts, from guitars, banjo and bass to brass and piano. Of his bandmates, the key contribution is from the outstanding clarinettist Alexandre Michel. Only occasionally does the instrumental writing begin to lose the listener's attention and, at 18 tracks, the album is a shade too long. Nevertheless, it is a journey well worth embarking upon.
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