Édition Spéciale - Allée des tilleuls 1976

Edition Spéciale's first LP is a mixed bag of strong talent and wrong decisions. The group has yet to take a resolute fusion route and feature Ann Ballester's voice prominently -- here she is mostly heard in the background. Typical for 1976, the music borrows from French progressive rock and the jazz-rock derived from both the Mahavishnu Orchestra (guitarist Mimi Lorenzini obviously emulates John McLaughlin) and Canterbury groups (in the time signature changes and keyboard work). There are excellent instrumental passages, but the lyrics have no originality and some melodies are really aggravating, particularly in the songs "Rock N' Roll" and "Marie Qui Te Maries!," which both evoke the weaker tracks on Sloche's first LP (J'ai un Oeil). But "Tomorrow Mourning" et "Un Coup Je Te Vois" contains good moments and promises of better ones to come -- it will happen on the group's next two LPs, Aliquante and Horizon Digital. The title track, the only all-instrumental piece, is an accomplished jazz-rock composition that salvages the album. It also includes an excellent Rickenbacker bass solo from Josquin Turenne Des Prés. The album first came out on United Artists in 1976 and attracted good attention in the French press. Musea reissued it in March 2003, adding three bonus tracks. These are three alternate versions of album tracks taken from a demo recorded earlier that year. "Marie Qui Te Maries!" has a completely different set of lyrics. AMG.

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