Claude Perraudin - Mutation 24

I’m getting to the point where I expect a string synthesizer every time I put progressive rock, France and the late 70s together and sure enough this one has tons of it. I did a demo with a band called Ixtlan about 15 years ago and in one of the segments I used a Crumar string synth. My interest in how it sounded (besides the fact I never used it again) probably ended about the time I heard the final version and when playing it for someone later they remarked that it’s best to use the string synth only lightly and I had to agree and still do. It’s one of those sounds that seems to suck up every timbral possibility the music has by its application.

So getting around to the point, that’s basically the main problem here. While this isn’t progressive rock in terms of the band sense (in fact this bears more in common with Mike Oldfield or Michel Moulinie), it’s almost entirely dominated by string synth and guitar work and without good vinyl and proper mastering the album’s middle becomes clogged up with twee, eradicating the sort of dynamics that are essential to making an album like this breathe. And without a great deal of other instrumental tones, the entirety sounds samey and amateurish and while the latter can often be part of the charm of this-era progressive (like, say, Synopsis), the emotional communication has been totally flatlined here. It makes it hard to say anything about the work melodically, except for the obvious Oldfield influences which were never processed in time for this debut work.