NO(S) BORDER (vinyl)

Description

Des Lions Pour Des Lions was formed about six years ago in Angers. And we could almost stop there for the biographical part. The band members are Elisabeth Herault on vocals and saxophone, Alain Lardeux (Boochon) on trombone, Freddy Boisliveau on guitar, and Cédric Maurel (Momo) on percussion. 'No(s) Border' is their second album, released on the Angers label MaAula Records. Their music is the sum of their individualities, but not only that. The band undoubtedly began to exist on a day when the earth trembled, when compasses went wild, when something escaped its grasp and overwhelmed it. An extraordinary, off-the-beaten-path band. First, the lineup is unusual: two brass instruments, a Rajasthani drum, an electric guitar, and vocals. So, an alchemy of ethnic jazz and rock with songs? A bit of all that, yes, and much more when everything connects and fuses. That is, from the first to the last second of this album. Des Lions Pour Des Lions goes far, never stops moving forward. Their music has no name but it is nomadic. Around the dohl, that distant epic drum, the brass instruments trumpet and cast zigzagging bridges between the banks of jazz, free or ethio. The guitar has sand and an epileptic scorpion between its strings; it has crossed a thousand deserts and as many oases before arriving here. The voice emerges like light, a strobe pulse or a glimmer of promising dawn. On a few tracks of the album, the accordion of Réunionnais René Lacaille comes to make the last certainties waltz away. What best defines their music is perhaps movement, in rhythm. In nervous jerks, in fluid bursts, blazing its own trail, Des Lions Pour Des Lions goes to the essential, to the primitive: the dance that liberates and heals, the trance. Always, its pieces intensify, emancipate themselves, create their own mad energy, swell to explosion. To 'aim for the azure,' as Elisabeth sings. This music has always been there, in the street, in the bush, in free-jazz, post-punk, techno, or the rituals of ancient communities. The band seeks it out then lets itself be carried away in modern shamanic whirls. 'It's the twilight of the gods but we'll do better than them, together,' sings Elisabeth. We have the gods we want. Everywhere rock and jazz are fading, but this band blows on the embers and the great bonfire reignites, stronger and hotter than ever. Music of combat, revolt, dreams and turns, rebellion (for lions). If one wishes, one can hear echoes of Captain Beefheart, Talking Heads, De Kift, The Ex, Sonic Youth, Sons Of Kemet, L'Orchestre Tout Puissant Marcel Duchamp or the Rita Mitsouko for the cool frenzy. But references matter little. This wild, intelligent, and ambitious music is not for specialists, for record collectors. It addresses the wild beast in each of us, who dreams of opening or devouring its cage to rediscover the taste of dancing and roaring in freedom. A magic potion for the soul, this music will surely help us.