fakejazz.com

When Present was formed in 1979, the band was led by guitarist Roger Trigaux, and two of his former band mates in Univers Zero, Daniel Denis and Christian Genet. Pianist Alain Rochette rounded out the line-up, which recorded two high-quality albums (later packaged one one cd by Cuneiform) before their dissolution. When Trigaux decided to reunite the band, it was first in a quite different form, as a duo with his son, guitarist Reginald Trigaux. However, soon enough Present was a full-scale band once again, though largely without the services of Trigaux’s original sidemen. Present, today, is largely a collection of newcomers, though Trigaux remains the band’s centerpiece. It was this line-up that Trigaux led on Present’s first US tour in 1998, a month-long journey that found the quartet playing venues across the country. The tour began outside of Washington DC, and ended in Baltimore, where A Great Inhuman Adventure was recorded. It took almost seven years for this material to be released, but it was surprisingly worth the wait, as the troubles that plague reformed and retooled line-ups don’t seem much of a hindrance to Trigaux, Trigaux, and company.

A Great Inhumane Adventure opens with “Delusions,” from the group’s 1998 album Certitudes, and also contains two classics from Present’s debut pair of lps, and two new tracks. Trigaux originally formed Present to explore heavier, more rock-based composition, and, in the intervening years, Present have continued to bulk up their sound, a fact that’s especially evident on the two older tracks included here. Pierre Chevalier’s work on the Roland piano helps Present retain the feel of their older material, which, no matter Trigaux’s dissatisfaction with Univers Zero, still inhabited some of the same “chamber prog” territory. The newer pieces, of which the unfortunately titled “Laundry Blues” is the best, aren’t mismatched side by side with the old, though hearing the souped-up versions of “Le Poison Qui Rend Fou” and “Promenade au Fond d’un Canal” are certainly this disc’s highlights. It’s fairly impressive how easily Trigaux seems have led the transition of the band, the new line-up seems spot on, and A Great Inhumane Adventure is enough to make anyone hope that Present’s 1998 US tour wasn’t their last.

present at Amazon & Insound