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A.Lixivia is a Canadian (I assume from Québec) neofolk project by a man called Alexandre Huard. This is the debut album, released on Little Somebody Records with a very nice layout. In fact, the layout is so well done that it becomes deceptive, because sadly enough, the album itself disappointed me.
Nous n'étions pas contains quite a few songs, averaging under four minutes each. The first tracks open the album quite nicely, and are indeed very promising. We hear atmospheric and melancholic acoustic guitar playing, nice organic percussion, and a few manipulated vocals in the background. Especially part I of the title track is a nice piece of music, in the vein of projects like :Of the Wand & the Moon:. "Mysterium Conjunctionis" is still quite good, if you ignore the offbeat percussion, but from "Le Plus Sompteux des Palais", things go downhill. The tongue-in-cheek organ sound I can live with, but the vocals here really put me off. They're just not... good. "Réintegrons le Cycle" is perhaps the worst track in this respect; a short interlude which would be nice, were it not for the out-of-tune and uninspired vocals. "Sans fin" comes like a blessing then, another melancholic instrumental with some quite familiar chord progressions, however. The rest of the album contains no real surprises, only a few more nice tunes, but also some lesser parts. All in all I can say that I think this is a rather mediocre album. The melodies are often nice, soothing, moody, but nothing really original. On top of that, Alexandre really needs to work on his vocals before recording anything like a new official release.
Well then, about the layout. As I've come to expect from Little Somebody, it's a handmade package with a great style. This time it's an atmospheric forest picture (and a nice waterscape on the back) stuck to a dark brown carton slip. Inside, the booklet is nicely finished off with a translucent version of the picture on the front cover. Sadly though, at the end of the day, I'd rather have a good album with a so-so layout than a very mediocre album with great layout. This album is just not good enough to warrant a release as a debut album - it's more like a demo, and I think some work and practice before releasing anything would have been in order.
O.S.
Nous n'étions pas contains quite a few songs, averaging under four minutes each. The first tracks open the album quite nicely, and are indeed very promising. We hear atmospheric and melancholic acoustic guitar playing, nice organic percussion, and a few manipulated vocals in the background. Especially part I of the title track is a nice piece of music, in the vein of projects like :Of the Wand & the Moon:. "Mysterium Conjunctionis" is still quite good, if you ignore the offbeat percussion, but from "Le Plus Sompteux des Palais", things go downhill. The tongue-in-cheek organ sound I can live with, but the vocals here really put me off. They're just not... good. "Réintegrons le Cycle" is perhaps the worst track in this respect; a short interlude which would be nice, were it not for the out-of-tune and uninspired vocals. "Sans fin" comes like a blessing then, another melancholic instrumental with some quite familiar chord progressions, however. The rest of the album contains no real surprises, only a few more nice tunes, but also some lesser parts. All in all I can say that I think this is a rather mediocre album. The melodies are often nice, soothing, moody, but nothing really original. On top of that, Alexandre really needs to work on his vocals before recording anything like a new official release.
Well then, about the layout. As I've come to expect from Little Somebody, it's a handmade package with a great style. This time it's an atmospheric forest picture (and a nice waterscape on the back) stuck to a dark brown carton slip. Inside, the booklet is nicely finished off with a translucent version of the picture on the front cover. Sadly though, at the end of the day, I'd rather have a good album with a so-so layout than a very mediocre album with great layout. This album is just not good enough to warrant a release as a debut album - it's more like a demo, and I think some work and practice before releasing anything would have been in order.
O.S.