Voyage au centre de la terre - Zaboitzeff & Crew
In December of 2005 the city of Paris celebrated the 100th anniversary of the death of Jules Verne. The festivity’s biggest event was a spectacular musical and optical staging of Verne’s ‘Journey to the Center of the Earth’. On December 17th and 19th, the huge Stade de France (French national stadium) in the Paris suburb of St. Denis was transformed into an enormous crater, and the public gathered in the middle of it. A battery of projectors and 40 000 square meters of screen were employed to show Stéphane Vérité and Philippe Corbin’s optical interpretation of Verne’s novel.
There was a storyteller, who supposedly recited parts of the script, various pyrotechnics and, of course, suitable music. The latter was composed by Thierry Zaboitzeff and performed live by him and his six fellow crew members, floating above the stage on four nine-meter-high towers. Supposedly, more than 130,000 people experienced this event, although I assume this is counting both evenings together. Not many musicians can claim to have performed in front of so many people at once, even though Zaboitzeff must admit to himself that most of them didn’t come to see him.
Nevertheless, a sticker decorates Zaboitzeff’s newest album (spring 2008), pointing out that it ‘contains the album version of the show, which attracted over 130,000 spectators!. At least you find out an important fact : ‘Voyage to the Center of the Earth’ is not a live album recorded in December 2005. Zaboitzeff composed, played, produced and recorded this album before the Paris concert in his studio in Salzburg. He was assisted only by Sandrine Rohmoser and Gerda Rippel’s elegant voices. The rest the Frenchman did all by himself. Zaboitzeff was assisted by further musicians on the two evenings in the Stade de France.
From a musical point of view the listener is offered what one expects from Zaboitzeff and the theme. Compelling sounds, mostly dark and dramatic, flowing powerfully and grandiosely-produced from the speakers. Neoclasssic, highly electrified chamber rock sounds rule here in good Art Zoyd tradition, carried by string sequences, e-guitar, bass, cello, diverse electronic sounds and an endless number of voices, tones and sampler sounds, including some very convincing drum and percussion imitations. For nearly 20 years, Zaboitzeff has used several of them regularly, especially diverse bells. At times the music gets very hectic, almost machine-like, dancing contemporary-electronic-laden out of the speakers. Elegiac soundscapes, sacred sound cathedrals and very symphonic-classical parts are interposed with powerful, at times dissonent erruptions which leave their imprint on the whole. Zaboitzeff (with his typical rumbling voice) and the two women sing quite a lot, mostly without words or in a language either i can’t understand or which is made-up.
"Voyage to the Center of the Earth" offers a very sonorous, at times fulminant, secretive-mysterious trip (to the center of the earth or to other abysses – i can’t discrern many ties to Verne’s novel) which will certainly appeal to the lovers of the Frenchman’s. Of all his solo albums up until now, this one is the most balanced and convincing, even though one can note that Zaboitzeff always works with similar means of sounds and effects.
At any rate, here he has perfected his technique !
SHARE | PARTAGEZ