Arachnoïd

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Arachnoïd en 1976

(de gauche à droite) Bernard Minig, François Faugières, Nicolas Popowski, Pierre Kuti, Marc Meryl, Patrick Woindrich

Commentaires sur amazon.fr

Effet chair de poule garanti. 21 juin 2011

C'est dans les caves de la maison gournaysienne des parents de Michel Pilot et avec Patrick Woindrich pour pionnier, que, dès 1967, s'installe ce qui aboutira à l'histoire d'Arachnoïd. De caves en salons, de Gournay/Marne à Chelles, de répétitions en passages en MJC, les line-up de cette formation de la banlieue parisienne se font et se défont pour aboutir à celui qui est désormais associé à l'album éponyme de 1978, que les fans de rock progressif, façon Ecole Française, tiennent en très haute estime.

Marc Meryl (chant, tambourin), Francois Faugières (orgue, mellotron, voix), Pierre Kuti (piano, synthé), Bernard Mini (batterie), Philippe Honore (flûte, saxophone), Yves Javault (voix), Christine Mariey (voix), Martine Rateau (voix), Patrick Woindrich (basse, guitare, voix), Nicolas Popowski (guitare, voix) sont les acteurs de la seule référence discographique de cette formation, publiée tardivement et très discrètement dans un contexte peu propice (le mouvement punk).

Encore une fois, grâce aux rééditions, nous pouvons mieux appréhender certaines aeuvres laissées pour compte et ainsi, avec le recul, les réhabiliter, comme c'est le cas de cet impressionnant Arachnoïd, qui nous a glissés entre les doigts à l'époque. Permettez-moi de vous dire que ce disque porte haut les couleurs bleu blanc rouge sur le concert international progressif. Comme quoi les caves de Gournay/Marne n'auront pas été vaines...

Complexe, lourd, sombre, hypnotique, créatif mais tourmenté, à l'ambiance souvent intrigante mais parfois aussi terriblement lugubre, il n'est pas sans rappeler des groupes comme le King Crimson (de sa période angoissante et schizophrène, avec un son obscur), qui doit être une de ses influences anglo-saxonnes, ou plus près de nous, Ange, Pulsar ou Shylock. C'est parfaitement fait, mais c'est très différent de ce qu'il nous ait donné d'entendre dans le genre, notamment dans sa première phase allant de l'épopée sinistre de 14 minutes Le Chamadère (en référence à cet animal mythique issu du croisement d'un chameau et d'un dromadaire et que Pierre Kuti portait en pendentif, autour du cou) à la Guêpe.

Interprété dans une langue de Molière que Marc Meryl valorise bien par son chant très adapté aux circonstances (l'anglais est un peu faiblard), il révèle des compositions originales qui tiennent plus la route aujourd'hui qu'à l'époque de sa publication. Il ne m'aurait pas surpris que cet album ait pu connaître une très belle réussite s'il avait été publié quelques années auparavant.

Disque fascinant, Arachnoïd est l'un des tout grands LP de rock symphonique progressif de la fin des années 70. Côté chair de poule, l'effet est garanti !


Comments on amazon.com

French prog with an avant-garde edge June 26, 2006
By Jeffrey J.Park VINE VOICE

I stumbled upon this French band purely by accident and bought the album (released in 1978) on a whim - which turned out to be one of the smarter moves I have made. The 7 tracks range in length from 0'57 to 13'49" and mix elements of British prog with a healthy dose of the European avant-garde. That is to say that the music alternates gloomy and haunting sections dominated by synthesizers (mostly Korg) and (tons of) mellotron with some very heavy, "avant-gardish" guitar/bass/drum playing. With the exception of a little screaming here and there, the vocals are excellent overall and are highly melodic. All vocals are in French. In general I would have to say that this is very good late-period French prog with some great playing (the keyboardist is excellent) and very imaginative arrangements. I happen to like my prog with a bit of an edge to it so this stuff really worked for me. The four bonus tracks are pretty good too and include a mix of live tracks and a single studio outtake. Strongly recommended.

Very worth having February 11, 2004
By Noel Pratt

This is a cool avant-prog record, esp. when they just "shut up and play." But actually, their French singing is much better sounding than many other French rockers of any kind. It's only on about 30% of the 66 min album. Seriously talented musicians and arrangements.

Comments on rateyourmusic :
 
Goregirl Jun 23 2024  
Despite the fact that I am generally not a fan of progressive rock, this album cover called to me in a big way. It's in French, it's very trippy, strange, piano & keyboard infested, and spacey. This has film soundtrack written all over it for some reason despite it's bizarre nature. They are sometimes instrumental, sometimes some vocals but generally the music is the star. It's clear these are some very talented individuals and the fact that they experiment a bit makes them all the more likeable. Just like the album cover this album is full capable of giving me the creeps ("La Guêpe"). I'm still not really into this style of music but this album is worth a gander, it's better than expected.

echandl2 Apr 03 2024  
This has become one of my favorites and I find myself playing it often lately. It's a trend I've noticed with really unique albums—I play them often because nothing else cuts it when you're in the mood. Pawn Hearts, Arbeit macht frei, etc.

So what is this? Zeuhl? I've always inevitably conflated the term with groups playing music that sounds like Magma's, but it's easy to forget Magma weren't thinking like that—they were just doing something new. So I see the similarities in that respect, their uniqueness. A lot of Zeuhl, RIO, and avant-prog pushed technicality and even listenability, and I think that's what separates Arachnoïd.

Arachnoïd is only interested in setting an alien tone. The phenomenal opening suite goes fewer places than you might expect from prog's compositional nature, but combines the spaciness of Sun Ra playing lounge music and Beatles-esque melodies, and the product is more ambivalent than we can handle, having acclimated to centuries of established musical tropes to dictate emotion. The abstract expressionist movement of the 1950's was a response to the artist's tendency toward heavy-handed manipulation. Rothko said if his paintings make you feel like you're looking at a sunset, that's your problem. It's refreshing to not be sold anything. 
 
UMUR Dec 10 2021  
"Arachnoïd" is the eponymously titled debut full-length studio album by French progressive rock act Arachnoïd. The album was originally released through Divox in 1979. It has seen a couple of reissues through the years, the first one (still only on vinyl) was through Musea Records in 1988. It wasn´t until 1996 that Musea Records reissued the album on CD featuring 4 bonus tracks. Today it´s also available as a digital release.

Arachnoïd formed in 1970, but it wasn´t until the mid-70s that they started being more active and got the chance to record some of their material, which ended up on this debut album. It would be their sole studio album in their original run though, as they disbanded in the early 80s.

Stylistically this is a dark and eerie take on symphonic progressive rock. The eerie atmosphere of the release is certainly not made any less intense by the creepy looking cover artwork. So there´s definitely a synergy there between the material and the image of the band/the album. The music can be quite heavy at times, but not really in a hard rock progressive fashion, the whole thing is just so sombre and oppressive that it maybe leaves an impression on the listener of being heavy, although it probably is just really gloomy. I guess a reference to the contemporary horror movie soundtrack scores of Goblin aren´t completely wrong, although Arachnoïd are generally more complex in their songwriting. Early King Crimson are also often mentioned as an influence, and it is audible on some parts of the album with the heavy use of mellotron and almost jam sounding rhythm work. "Toutes Ces Images / Segamisec Setout" in particular points in that direction.

The musicianship is on a high level on all posts, with great guitar work (both acoustic and electric), a solid and at times fusion influenced rhythm section, and layers upon layers of synths, keyboards, organ, and piano (they have two guys in the lineup handling that). The music also features occasional use of saxophone, flute, and even a child voice speaking a couple of times. Lead vocalist Marc Meryl is probably a bit of an aquired taste. The lyrics are in French, and he has a relatively dramatic/theatrical way of singing/performing his vocals, that not all listeners will probably be able to appreciate. If you´re familiar with contemporary French progressive rock act Ange, this is a much less expressive version of that type of singing. There are softer vocals moments on the album too though, and the music is generally mostly instrumental, so the vocals play a smaller role in the overall picture.

Although the sound production is lacking bottom end, it´s still a well sounding production, which suits the material well. "Arachnoïd" may be a debut album, but it´s a release which was obviously created by seasoned and skilled musicians. The climate for this type of progressive rock wasn´t the best around 1979, so that may have contributed to the fact that this ended up being the band´s sole album release, but there is a lot to enjoy here if you´re a fan of the darker side of symphonic progressive rock. A 3.5 - 4 star (75%) rating is deserved.

Reginod Jul 20 2021  
Dark yet dreamlike, delicate symphonic tendrils floating against a spacey backdrop; no overwhelming influences, but the likes of King Crimson and Pulsar should come to mind, with hints of Canterbury and Magma, and a light dash or two of experimental French proto-RIO.

This is another album-out-of-time; 1979 seems a bit late for an album of this type. But Arachnoid's single, self-titled, highly stylized album served notice that the progressive music mentality was thriving nonetheless, in more esoteric circles.

The compositions are very good, not necessarily brilliant or completely captivating, but good enough to recommend Arachnoid to the typical Progressive Rock Antique Road Show collector.
 
Yurkspb Jan 25 2019  
A good example of prog, mixing different influences and sub-genres.
The Musea reissue has 4 additional compositions that are worthy and raise my rating up to 4 stars.

Comments on discogs :

johnzorn06 26 déc. 2018 en référence à Arachnoid (LP, Album, Stereo) A 3304
The french lyrics are crazy, drugs for everybody...a great record !
 
 
progfan97402 2 oct. 2013 en référence à Arachnoid (LP, Album, Stereo) A 3304
A great one-shot French prog rock band. Hard to believe you can still find great prog released as late as 1979, but there you go. There were a few musicians after 1977 who didn't want to go along with what new trend or fad came along the pike. This album appeared on the Divox International label, and is very hard to come by, as an original, so you're best bet is to get the reissue on Musea. It's not hard to understand why this would end up on Musea, as it's in the style of several French groups Musea had reissued, like Shylock, Pulsar and Carpe Diem. Other groups that bring to mind include King Crimson and Artcane (the latter being the perfect band for Musea to reissue, but they can't wrestle it out of the grasp of Philips, or Universal Music Group, or whoever owns the Philips music catalog these days), and even the 1990s Quebecois band Pangée springs to mind, even if they didn't exist in 1979. This is prog that does not play it safe. Lots of guitar, many of it in that fuzz nature that's similar to Pulsar, with spacy synths and even nice use of Mellotron. Vocals are in French, in that theatrical style, but are not dominant. The music is challenging, and I'm glad to see a group still try this so late in the game (when most groups had fallen by the wayside somewhere between 1975 and 1977). The average Marillion or Spock's Beard fan is certain to come running and screaming for the hills, but for the more adventurous prog fan out there, you can't go wrong! It's totally essential, and one of the best prog albums post-1977 I've heard.

Since I do own the super-rare original LP, I noticed a slight difference in the opening cut, "Le Chamadere" from the Musea reissue. On the original LP, there's a section where the spacy synth kicks in, right before you hear a girl speak something in French, I notice some vocal "ah" type chorus included with that phased organ, and on the reissue, those "ah" voices sounded like they were removed and you can only hear the keyboards. Seemed like Musea had did some minor remixing.

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L'Adieu Au Pierrot (non official video)

Collector ARACHNOID
First edition : Vinyl 33 Tours Divox A 3304 (Extremely rare progressive rock masterpiece)

https://www.discogs.com/sell/release/1500446

Différentes éditions Vinyl CD

https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?sort=listed%2Cdesc&limit=100&artist_id=824930&page=1
http://www.cdandlp.com/item/1/0-2101-0-1-0/1301778154/arachnoid-_.html

 en écoute sur internet :

sur les réseaux sociaux :

François Faugières & Patrick Woindrich

Le label MUSEA