The third album of Régard Extrême, the project of Fabien Nicault. This Frenchman has again filled a cd full of moving neo-classical sounds. In the digipack you see religious pictures of old faded church wall paintings. This fits the music very well, which has a solemn, sacred, mystical atmosphere.
“Utopia” contains typical Régard Extrême music: slow and sweeping layers of strings, with restrained percussion and horn sounds. The music sounds clearly synthetic, but this does not disturb me. The mood is rather angelic and romantic, though with a clear melancholic undertone and a feeling of slow decay. A few tracks are more bombastic and slightly martial, with stronger percussion, like the excellent title track, ‘Par-dela les ruines’ or ‘Melodie des spectres’. At the end of the album a deviating track has been added: ‘Gae Bolg’s own Utopia mix’, which is more rhythmic and contains the typical uplifting Bolg trumpets. Another bonus piece is called ‘Le sang des martyrs Cynfeirdd chorus mix’, also mixed by Gae Bolg, which features dramatic, almost militant spoken vocals.
You won’t find a lot of (r)evolution on “Utopia”. But if you appreciate the R.E. sound this is a very solid album.
