Bouquiniste - Bouquiniste

The man in the blue robes stares back at me from the cover of this album, his piercing white eyes gazing into my soul, telling me that this music is either going to be way ahead of its time, or a baffling case of WTF.

After the first listen, I was convinced that it was the latter.

The collision between the world of symphonics and electronics is quite possibly my personal idea of auditory nirvana. The concept is almost certainly as old as electronic music itself, but if you want to get technical then I suppose the first artist to truly celebrate the idea in the public mind was Jean Michel Jarre, the son of a film soundtrack composer himself. The tricky bit is getting it right, and I'm not convinced that Bouquiniste has done that here.

The album is 7 tracks long, and alternates between synthesized passages and orchestral interludes. The symphonic passages have been written by Alexander Okunev, an Israeli composer who is best known for his work scoring short films and television series. The compositions are great, at times rising to some truly magnificent heights. My greatest concern is the integration between these elements and the synths.

A listen to the first track "The Day They Came" is a great way to get an idea of what this album is all about : strange electronic capers with a Disney orchestral accompaniment. It's so avant garde that it's gone clean over my head.

The track "Stormtrooper Waltz" fills me with trepidation. I'm not sure whether I should be imagining rows of space men in white suits, or a Wagnerian reference to the shock troops of the Third Reich. After seven minutes with the headphones on, I'm no closer to answering that question. The track begins with some warbling, otherworldly electronics that is definitely on the science fiction side of the debate. Then a violin enters the scene and confuses matters. Now I've played and taught violin for many years, so I feel qualified to complement the player on a very fine performance. It just doesn't seem to fit in with anything going on around it.

What can I say? I don't mind listening to it. In fact, there are passages that are really compelling. Yet I feel that they would be more usefully presented on an entirely orchestral or soundtrack album. I completely understand the motivation for including electronic elements, but in this case I am just not convinced that it is to the album's benefit. I wish the artists all of the best in their future endeavours, and I hope that they don't view this as a terribly bad review, it's not. I just... don't get it.
Sep 21 2012