Aux Glycines Défuntes
Là, ici ou ailleurs
Au Sacre Des Nuits
Kergal
Le parc enneigé
Les Chants De Peine
Loire et Léthé
Les Temples Elevés
L'ombre-Tilleul
Aux Cordes Eternelles
Un Automne Restant
Un Parc, Une Tonnelle
La source du jour
La Tristesse des Mânes

It doesn't take one learned in French to digest the measured and mournful classicism that Collection d'Arnell Andréa bring with their seventh album, which invigorates 7 former tracks with a reflection of newer material.

What first grabs and then clings to attention are the tremulous vocals of Chloé St. Liphard, whose lamenting echoes are entwined in some ghostly orchestral accompaniment. Far from ethereal or dreamy, however, it is more the haunting aspect of the music whose presence has a verve that few musicians aspire. The piano delicately showers the shuddering cello and spiraling violin, weaving sonorous melodic phrases about Liphard's cries into a tapestry of incredible detail and beauty, albeit with a dark visage. With little or no moments of happiness the music pulls continuously at the heart, dragging it to the decaying reality of an aging loneliness spend wandering empty country-sides, villas, and streets where once happiness played. Discord slinks into the tracks rooted in minor-melody twisting the music's kernel toward disturbing moments of elegy where melancholy threatens to slide into a hopeless madness.

The musicians are all highly trained, steeped in a background that more than prepares them for such an experimental foray into their dark Romanticism. Released in digipak whose decoration hints at the filigree and shadows their music contains.

NYR