EMERAUDE “Geoffrey”

EMERAUDE “Geoffrey” (Italian Mellotron) 2015 

It’s a pretty cool story as to how this album came about as a group of friends and relatives got together to make an album for their children, doing this after work as they wrote the songs and practiced while saving money for the studio time. This was released in France in 1981 with a dark and mysterious album cover and the music to match. This is very much a Prog–Folk album that is very sad sounding with melancholy throughout. The vocals are almost spoken and the music is fairly straight–forward sounding with little in the way of breakouts, and I love it.
“Boule De Plute” is the 4 minute opener as laid back piano greets our ears to start before it turns fuller before a minute. Such emotion here and I’m not sure why. A child starts to speak words in French 1 1/2 minutes in and when the words stop, drums then guitar lead the way as it continues to flow slowly and beautifully. Vocal melodies and bass late. “Pluie” is 1 1/2 minutes of instrumental work as acoustic guitar leads the way. “Viking” is next at 12 minutes and I should mention here that the band were fans of Prog bands like PINK FLOYD and KING CRIMSON hence we get a couple of long tracks here. Male vocals to start as the music comes in. He then pretty much speaks the words as he tells the story of the Vikings in English. “The night was as bright as day, it was raining, it was storming, thundering but the sailors were not afraid”. We get this steady beat with guitar and bass helping out. I like when the keyboards come in as it all comes across as understated. The tempo does change at times as it trips along with vocals coming and going in a relaxed manner. I like when it picks up after 5 1/2 minutes with the throbbing bass and upfront yet relaxed guitar. Such a cool tune. “Geoffrey” is the 16 1/2 minute epic. Back to the French vocals here as he sings in a reserved way with guitar to match. I like the spacey synths 9 1/2 minutes in and the guitar solo before 11 minutes that goes on for well over two minutes as the song continues to drift along. Just gorgeous. “Duo” is the short 1 1/2 minute acoustic guitar instrumental.
A very solid 4 stars for this special album. I’ll treasure this one. M/M LIMITED RELEASE