Artist : Grandval

Album : Descendu sur Terre

Release Date : 24-04-2020

Added : 03-06-2020

'Grandval' is the project of the multi-instrumentalist, author and composer 'Henri Vaugrand' who released a first album 'A Ciel Ouvert…' 'Grandval' is the project of the multi-instrumentalist, author and composer 'Henri Vaugrand' who released a first album 'A Ciel Ouvert…' in 2016 and which after the sky, gets closer to the earth with 'Descendu sur Terre' and which offers us an imaginative and relatively sought-after progressive rock with texts in French in the great tradition of progressive rock groups and the one that comes to mind first is of course 'Ange' with this words wizard who is ‘Chistian Décamps’. To musically flesh out this new opus, he called on several guitarists including 'Jean-pierre Louveton' who has also just released a new album (see the chronicle here). >
It is with the instrumental 'Exondation' that the album begins in a 'Floydian' atmospheric introduction which accelerates the rhythm in the second part with keyboards and guitars which engage a ping-pong battle between them, then, the long development for almost 10 minutes, 'A new destiny', is representative of progressive French rock with all the ingredients you want to find there, between rich instrumental parts and tailor-made texts. After the comma ‘Puissances de l’infini’, the eponymous title of the album takes us on, first in voluptuous melodic lines with a delicate singing of Henri then accelerates the rhythm and alternates catchy parts and others more calm, and ‘Fractal et systémique’ changes from register for an exotic atmosphere then regains power in a rhythm and a guitar sound close to 'Carlos Santana'. The ballad break is brought with ‘Le chemin à l’envers’ which brings us back to 'Ange' intonations with, for me, one of the most beautiful melodies and one of the most beautiful texts from the album, then ‘Il existe une étoile’ continues the progressive journey in a 10-minute title with multi-drawers honoring 'John Wetton' ('King Crimson', 'Uriah Heep', 'Roxy Music', 'Asia') who died in 2017 ‘La meute est en place’ takes a completely different direction, mixing electronic and atmospheric sounds with tempo changes, then ‘Brûler dans les flammes de l’enfer’ returns to a more classic progressive inherited from the 70s while continuing to criticize 'Donald Trump' and this in a subtle way, without naming him directly. And to finish on a more positive note, it is with ‘La vie, pourtant, la vie’ that the adventure of 'Descendu sur Terre' ends in the form of a new long progressive development at the 'Decamps' sauce with a quiet first part and a much more lively second, the album ending with the cover 'La maison de Men-Tää' of the French progressive group 'Atoll' in which 'John Wetton' made a brief stint in 1981.

In summary, 'Henri Vaugrand' continues its path in its trilogy on the elements of nature and this second part is full of quality compositions that must, as always in this case, be appropriated by successive listenings which makes 'Descendu sur Terre' an album to recommend to all those who love progressive French style...

Line Up / Musicians

Henri Vaugrand (Vocal, Guitar, Bass, Keybords), Olivier Bonneau (Guitar, Keybords, Bass) + Guests : Christophe Chalancon (Guitar), Jean-baptiste Itier (Drums), Jean-pierre Louveton (Guitar, Mellotron), Kevin Serra (Guitar), Raffaele Spanetta (Guitar), Steph Honde (Guitar)