Poetic in more ways than one. Lyrically here we take to the work of Paul Verlaine, decadent artisan and lover of Arthur Rimbaud. This is the muse followed into the Fin de Siecle period of 19th Century Paris by Belgian musician Vidi and it’s certainly a fascinating era. You don’t have to be a scholar of the age and verse to get enjoyment from the music though, indeed you are going to be kept on your toes enough just trying to decipher that particular aspect of things. Obviously, it is in the backdrop and lyrics so feel free to get all highbrow or just settle back and enjoy the melodious harmonies that Vidi seems to effortlessly craft around it all.

It is these that grabbed my attention straight away. Projected via keyboard and piano sounds with a modernity via electronica, Vidi has a great grasp of structure and interplay. There is a real warmth glowing from the harmonies that are intrinsic to the album. It may all sound as though this is going to be a cocktail that is overburdened with ideas but really it is not and although artful one can easily access the tunefulness of this project. Opener ‘Mandoline’ for instance is uplifting and sublime and has a feel one may get from bands such as The Gathering as it opens its arms and embraces you. Clean vocals do indeed texture it and there’s a bit of Pink Floyd here as well as perhaps Germ but it really isn’t metal in any way, or is it? As ‘Il Pleure Dans Mon Coeur’ “cries in the heart” blast-beats hone in, growls infect and the grand-guignol, over the top madness of the era hits before breaking into some instrumental dub reggae. Yep, this one is not for a listener who likes their music to stand still and be simple to follow but it all gels together perfectly and is far from a work abject lunacy too.

Nostalgic decadence sprawls from ‘Colloque Sentimental’ its rich, luxurious and incredibly expressive. A snatch of femininity is injected into Verlaine’s verse like a ghost from guest vocalist Flicka. Things move into a Western jangle of arid post rock tones and the main melody surges back in picking you up and carrying you off. There’s soaring moments aplenty to contemplate. There are also strange proggy keyboard sonics warbling away on ‘Walcourt’ which is apparently a city in Belgium. I’m drawn to the Gothic grandeur of the place via image search and the classicism that the song moves into projects a huge sense of history certainly making me want to explore. Chaos however makes its presence felt as the blackened tumult hones in. Walcourt is perhaps a place to lose one’s head and stagger around somewhat inebriated. Thankfully an ‘Interlude’ of trip-hop beats and piano make a transition into another passage of melodious and life-affirming joy suggesting the hangover will be swiftly shrugged off. Indeed, the next track’s title translates to ‘Languorous Ecstasy’ and that is where we keep finding ourselves in the midst of. A musical box sound takes back to childhood and another epic sounding tune twists and turns embedding itself in your head as it exotically picks you up and takes you off.

One second you just want to get up and dance here, the next you are enthralled by a passage of piano trying to fathom it out and make comparisons which are really hard to come by. This particular melody on ‘Soleils Couchants’ may well be part the reason the label mention Zeal And Ardor but there is no easy answer here other than going with the flow and see where you are taken. I seem to be veering from the German avant-garde blackness of Porta Nigra to the manic although not carnivalesque tropes of Pensees Nocturnes. However, by the time we arrive at the final, title track nothing else really matters and I am just looking forward to the next time I sit down to listen to ‘Dans L’Interminable’ again. Simply summed up this is a diverse and compelling delight!

(8/10 Pete Woods)

https://www.facebook.com/Kreationist-351179551895511

https://i-voidhangerrecords.bandcamp.com/album/dans-linterminable