Phosphorescent Dreams

Album review

Despite the strengths of Univers Zero's two previous albums, 2006's Live and 2010's Clivages, bandleader/drummer Daniel Denis decided that some retooling was in order as the 40th anniversary of the group's founding loomed. Asserting that "the old form was stagnant," Denis significantly changed UZ's lineup and opened yet another chapter in the Belgian avant-prog outfit's history book. The result can be heard on the band's 13th album, Phosphorescent Dreams, released by the Japanese Arcangelo label (rather than Cuneiform) in early 2014. The core group is now a streamlined, electrified quintet of Denis, reedman Kurt Budé, bassist Dimitri Evers, and two newcomers, guitarist Nicolas Dechêne and keyboardist Antoine Guenet. Notably, bassoonist/oboist Michel Berckmans has departed. An important historical presence in the group, Berckmans is missed, but his absence has precedent; UZ carried on forcefully without him during the 1980s, shifting the focus from Berckmans' bassoon to Dirk Descheemaeker's clarinet on Crawling Wind (1983), Uzed (1984), and Heatwave (1986), and now Budé's clarinet is elevated in similar fashion on Phosphorescent Dreams. Denis was wise to retain Budé from the Live/Clivages lineups, not only because of Budé's stellar clarinet and sax playing, but also his role as a composer, now nearly equal to the drummer himself (Denis wrote four of the seven tracks here; Budé the remaining three).
Phosphorescent Dreams charts paths both new and familiar. UZ's expected rhythmic drive, recurring themes and variations, tinges of the medieval, and foreboding mood are all present on the Denis-penned opener "Shaking Hats," which could soundtrack the lead-in to a battle -- or a wedding -- on Game of Thrones. However, as the album progresses, ominous and heavy interludes segue into something mysterious and magical rather than nightmarish. There is deep drama in the rumbling bass, guitar sustain, emphatic keys, and low reed vibrations of Denis' "Très Affables" (with Nicolas Denis on drums), but these elements are juxtaposed against ringing guitars and a Guenet solo that truly sparkles (before becoming relatively unhinged). Budé's "Rêve Mécanique" likewise lays the instruments on thick, but call-and-response keyboard motifs with a dreamlike quality over a subtly cruising rhythm strongly suggest the sound of Miriodor, the longstanding Montreal avant-prog band whose layered sounds and innovative voicings invite immersive listening. Like Miriodor guitarist Bernard Falaise, Dechêne's powerful prog-fusion crunch and burn are fully integrated into the band's compositional fabric on a track like Denis' "Les Voleurs d'Ombre" (which also features some truly wild clarinet skronk from Budé), while he harks back to Michel Delory or Roger Trigaux elsewhere. The classicist brass and wind ensemble requiem of Budé's "L'Espoir Perdu" is an elegiac diversion, and the slowly building tension of Denis' "Phosphorescent Dream" recalls Heatwave's "The Funeral Plain"; these concluding tracks find Denis refraining from an immediate entry and then calibrating his percussion as the compositions require. Denis might assert his leadership by significantly reshaping Univers Zero's membership, but musically he remains willing to cede the spotlight in service to the ensemble's evolving vision.

© Dave Lynch /TiVo