Plexus Solaire - „Sans détours"
In Frankreich lebt man anders. Im Land der Revolution, des guten Weins, von Gainsbourgs Chansons und der nicht ganz unkomplizierten Sprache existiert ein besonderes Lebensgefühl - das „Savoir Vivre". Plexus Solaire ist eine erfrischend vielschichtige französische Band in Wien und bricht auf, um genau dieses Gefühl nach Österreich zu bringen. Das neue Album „Sans détours" lädt zu einer Reise fern des Alltags ein - zur Party à la francaise!
Aufbruchstimmung
Mit dem von Kritik und Öffentlichkeit durchwegs positiv aufgenommenen 2004er-Album „Par Terre – Parrêve" (vom Standard gar zur „Lieblingsplatte der Redaktion" auserkoren) präsentierten sich Plexus Solaire erstmals einer breiteren Öffentlichkeit. Für den Nachfolger setzte sich die Band ihre Ziele jedoch deutlich höher. Während „Par Terre – Par rêve" noch die gelungene Momentaufnahme einer jungen, weitgehend ihre Rolle im Musikgefüge suchenden Band darstellte, so ist „Sans détours" das Ergebnis eines langen Produktionsund Reifeprozesses. Über neun Monate hindurch bastelte die Band mit Produzent Guru (u.a. The O5, Billy Rubin Trio, StMarX), dem erprobten Dietz Tinhof (u.a. Brian Eno, Falco, Sofa Surfers) an den Reglern und diversen internationalen Gästen an ihrer bereits dritten Veröffentlichung. Keine Umwege mehr Die so entstandenen zwölf Songs von „Sans détours" zeichnen das Bild einer authentischen und energischen Band, die die Topographie des Lebens zu ihrem Thema gemacht hat. „Crois-tu que j'aie peur de la vie?", „Glaubst du, ich hätte Angst vor dem Leben?" fragt Sänger Vincent Wohinz im Song „Peur", während der zweite Frontman Alexandre Fedorenko in „Perdu" genüsslich die Folgen einer exzessiven Partynacht nachzeichnet. Die Ambivalenz des Lebens zieht sich wie ein roter Faden durch das komplette Album – ohne Irrwege, oder auf französisch: „Sans détours"!
Party à la francaise
Die Abende, an denen die vierköpfige Band als Conférencier agiert, werden schnell zur Party à la Francaise. Plexus Solaire spielen kein starres Programm, sie feiern und vermitteln ihrem Publikum ein Stück französisches Lebensgefühl. Längst wird die Band nicht mehr nur als Geheimtipp gehandelt – nachzuprüfen bei den Konzerten!
About Plexus Solaire
Pop used to be a dirty word. I dreamed once that the cannibalistic orgy of over-familiar melody and worn down cliche would end with the foot of pop wedged between it's perfectly straight teeth. That processed chickens choose to buy kfc seems to me absurdly, grotesquely beautiful – this said, however, even the good Colonel of the starched white suit and floppy grey chips managed to come up with the Zinger burger, and even factory hens have soul somewhere. It comes as a great surprise to me that pop can still be a triumphant experience.
Plexus Solaire – the name meaning a point of energetic collusion just in front of the diaphragm – where will becomes word, also known as the manipura chakra, a ten petaled flower of dynamism which passes life and energy throughout the human system, are not kidding. They know what pop is. Here we use breath to heal the human soul. Our yoga is of the ears and heart and feet and our temple is wherever they point their guitars.
I've had the last cd, „Par Terre, Par Reve," on repeat since the early summer, so much so that even my limited high-school French has managed to chip away at their lyrics, till what was once a wall has fallen, and in it's place I find a window onto honesty, need and weakness. Human imperfection, I'm sure, is the source of all beauty in art, ands truth is not to hide it. These boys are 3 dimensional. Now, though, things are getting better. Our plucky heroes are currently working up a DVD for your viewing pleasure, there are more gigs lined up, as always, and, by way of a slightly belated Christmas present, in spring the better music outlets will each receive a box or two of something really special;
It's true, I'm excited, and so, with no further ado, the news: Plexus Solaire's new album "Sans détours" will hit the shelves the 30th march, 2007. Hold yourself together, please, just long enough to place an advance order, let the excitement within you build, nuture it, and when the cd is with you, once you are fully prepared, then crack that bottle of wine you've laid aside for a soft-focus moment. go buy some big rolling papers, if you will. do three fingers of scotch, i don't care, but make sure your mind is silent, your back is straight and your ears are unwrapped and clean. This record is beautiful.
I've been lucky enough to hear several of the tracks at various stages of production, from demo to final product throughout the last few months. I've seen the looks on the faces of Alex and Vincent, glowing looks of pride and achievement which have developed as their words, their chords, their melodies, have fallen onto Manu and Jurgen like so much golden sunlight and been reflected back upon themselves, between the band and out to us in so complete a form.
Produced by G-U-R-U (www.g-u-r-u.com) for Paterecords, this record is the first to really show the boys comfortable in the studio. It shows the fruits of the gelling many of us have been lucky enough witness at show after show this year. The band are tight, funky even. The production is crisp, leaving room for each instrument to dance about the others, but most of all, the music is bloody, bloody good.
Plexus Solaire - „Sans détours"
There is a much wider variety of emotion on this record than the last, the two songwriters feeling, I think, more at home, each, in their own territory and seeming more able to express themselves individually within the band. Malheureux, for example, is an almost folksy piece which conjours, to my mind, a drinking hall the band amassed around along table, busty maidens at their laps and beer swilling from raised glasses. The harmonica, courtesy Alexandre, sets a Dylanesque tone, while the gentle falling guitar figure feels almost like Nick Cave & Leonard Cohen relaxing together in a hot tub. Here, as well, we see Vincent's voice, cracked ever so slightly, taking on a casual air which draws the listener, gently into his confidence. Manu, the most recent addition to the line up, has some truly slick moments all through the album, finding space for his bass to sing where others might just leave a root note. And he's charming as hell to boot. Jurgen, who's really begun to loosen up this year live, is ever hitting those drums harder, and ever pulling the whole group tighter together under a solid, sharp rhythmic yoke.
There is a truly wonderful guest appearance by Fedorenko, Alexandre's brother, playing Cello on the haunted Hirondelles, a song which clearly sets Plexus Solaire within the Chanson tradition they so esteem, even as the chorus casually breaks into a level of rock I've wanted the band to hit since first i heard them. Appelle Moi, however, reverses the formula. Kicking of with Jurgen's powerhouse drumming, the guitars charge into a riff which sounds restless, frustrated. The lead vocal here is Alexandre, sounding conversational and tense, at times almost too distressed to hold onto the melody, before the chorus, one of the finest hooks the boys have written to date, pulls the whole band together into a glorious melee of harmony and rhythm which, when performed live, often has the audience singing along by the end of the second verse. This song, dancing between tension and release, has a feeling of crescendo – the pressure increasing until,towards the end of the song, it feels like only inertia is keeping the band in sync. I'm always surprised to see the band still standing once the song has come to an end.
Mesonges Permis, the album's primary ballad, creeps towards you on crisp guitars before sliding into a verse pattern so slightly reminiscent of Radiohead, circa The Bends. These comparisons, though, are weak. The music is such competent pop, that there is no single overriding influence to any track, or indeed to the band as a whole. Elsewhere in this song, for example, we here echoes of Oasis and The Beatles, without being able to say exactly how. Plexus Solaire, you see, have a knack for making songs sound familiar
the first time you hear them, without relying on cheap tricks or cliché. This is pop for it's own sake – it's honest, it draws the audience into the feeling of each piece, wherever it stands on the spectrum of human emotion (no mean feat, considering that the majority of their audiences here in Vienna are, perhaps, not entirely fluent in Francais) without, for a moment losing sight of the joyfulness and celebration of life that pop can be. While telling you life sucks, the boys know how to make it fun. In some ways, I could believe the boys as historians of pop, bearing the mantle of quality through the deserts of mediocrity - plucky Gaulish warriors holding down the village of pop-soul against the bland, hollow imperial forces amassed by a cynical record industry. But it's very easy to get romantic about the French, right? Right.
Rob Hill (myspace.com/letranger)
contact
management
thomas wohinz
tw@plexussolaire.com
