Univers Zero
's debut recording,
1313
, may be somber, but it's a walk in the park compared to their second release, which features more or less the same lineup as the first (oboe, bassoon, viola, violin, bass, guitar, keyboards, drums), except for an additional and prominent contribution of cathedral organ from guitarist/keyboardist
Roger Trigaux
. Studio overdubbing sometimes gives the five-man group the sound of a much larger
chamber
ensemble. Extremely dissonant and emotionally bleak,
Heresie
is sometimes quite close to the
industrial
and
gothic
genres -- which didn't really even exist for another five years or more. A
Magma
influence is readily discernible on the long opening track
"La Faulx,"
which includes the guttural chanting favored by
's
Christian Vander
. (In the early '70s,
drummer
Daniel Denis
was employed as a second drummer in
Vander
's group.)
"Jack the Ripper,"
the second long piece, maintains the oppressive atmosphere, and after a long, brooding introduction, introduces the nervous, jabbing ostinato patterns which were to become a
trademark. This music on this CD might have little to do with
rock
, and might also be a massive downer, but the quality of the writing and playing is extremely high.
Michel Berckmans
' solo work on oboe and bassoon work is magnificent, and
Patrick Hanappier
's string playing (violin and viola) also demonstrates the precision of a trained
classical
musician, along with demonic
avant-garde
scraping and howling on
"Jack the Ripper."
Best of all,
never cheapens the effect of the music with any of the stock cartoon licks which are associated with the
genre today. Group members sound deadly serious about what they're doing, which might call their sanity into question, but which makes for an incredibly powerful listening experience. In fact,
is a stunning one-of-a-kind item that has never been duplicated by anyone -- including
. [The
Cuneiform
label's 2010 remastered edition includes the nearly 12-minute previously unreleased bonus track
"Chaos Hermetique."
] ~ Bill Tilland