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Review:
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When you look up Spleen Arcana on line they use the
term ‘melancholic prog rock’ and then when you get to their
site it talks about 45 minutes of alternative progressive
rock that includes Mellotron and mandolin. Well I tell you,
I was hooked right then and there. And true to form when
the debut album The Field Where She Died gets underway,
yes it has a melancholic feel and you don’t have to wait
too long to hear the Mellotron. Spleen Arcana is the brainchild
of multi-instrumentalist and composer Julien Gaullier (vocals,
guitars, bass guitar, keyboards, bodhran) along with the
assistance of David Perron (drums) and Marie Guillaumet
(vocals).
The Field Where She Died consists of five compositions,
four of which are in the 9-10-minute range and one shorter
track. That short track entitled “The Missing Piece” [3:42]
is a slow paced ballad type of song, with strummed acoustic
guitar, Pink Floyd styled drums, cellos, and the obligatory
Mellotron strings and choirs in the background. The vocals
themselves are in English and it almost resembles some of
the music off Radiohead’s OK Computer. The next track, “A
Picture of Two Lovers in the Mist” [10:12] is the longest,
and starts out with a moody atmospheric 2-minute introduction
consisting of synth strings and cascading plucked strings
that sound like worried birds, before sliding into the song
proper. The song is again plaintive and melancholic with
emotion laden vocals sung half-way between a whisper and
regular voice. The softer vocal approach nicely draws the
listener into the stories contained within these compositions.
In the background the electric guitar plays a discordant
lead line until about 5-minutes into the piece where the
riffing starts and builds to a wonderful Mellotron crescendo.
The voice at this point becomes more aggressive to match
the intensity of the music, which has been slowly speeding
up. Things pick up in tempo slightly with the next song,
“Tears are Made to Flow” [9:49], with its opening vocals
sung through a megaphone style filter. And again the Mellotron
plays a big part in creating a lush proggy backdrop.
The on-line descriptions of Spleen Arcana are right
on the mark in terms of trying to convey a general feel.
Melancholy and symphonic are the two best descriptives,
but not in any way similar to the Scandinavian prog scene.
Spleen Arcana has its own sound incorporating a bit of early
Marillion here and a bit of early King Crimson there. For
a debut disc, The Field Where She Died is plenty accomplished
and the musicianship shines throughout. I’d certainly recommend
this to symphonic fans!
www.jerrylucky.com
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