01	La Clef Des Songes						04:08
	02	Naufrage						04:29
	03	L'ame Du Guerrier						06:07
	04	Les Pauvres						03:25
	05	Complat						05:03
	06	Le Raconteur						10:45
	07	La Clef Des Songes (Live Version)						06:00
	08	Complet (Live Version)						08:45
	09	Le Raconteur (Live Version)						07:25

Pentacle [France]
Updated 4/19/01
Discography
La Clef des Songes (75)


Reviews
La clef des Songes is a little-known but very enjoyable French prog album. Pentacle were influenced by early King Crimson in their often minor-key dominated compositions, subdued tempos and the guitarist's occasional, though generally restrained bursts of electric scorching amid softer acoustic picking, but this is balanced by the keyboardist's heavy presence, as he smears string-synth, organ and piping Mini-Moog melodies all over the sound picture, and the overall proliferation of warm, sometimes fragile melodies that evokes the Moody Blues spirit of early prog, though with the distinct flavour given by the French lyrics and vocals. The vocalist gives a strong and emotional performance, which is still more "conventional" than the theatrical antics of Ange's Christian Decamps (who produced the album). Though there are obvious tempo and rhythm shifts, the overall style never gets too complex or too far away from the vocals, the power of this music manifesting in the sophistication of the melodies and the dynamism of the arrangements, as Pentacle smoothly fluctuate between soft acoustic melancholy and snarling electric anguish. Apparently the group were ordered to shorten the original arrangements of their songs and this is apparent in the way that the band sometimes seem to be holding back their playing and some songs seem to end too abruptly, never fully exploring their full potential. It is only on the 11-minute closing track "Le raconteur" that they get to stretch out, with guitar and keyboards trading solos like there's no end. Musea's CD re-release (FGBG 4131.AR) includes three live versions of album songs as a bonus, and these show the band fleshing the songs out with gusto. The CD was remastered with Super Bit Mapping, and all the album tracks sound excellent, though the live tracks are quite muddy and distorted throughout. -- Kai Karmanheimo
This one is said to be mixing best Ange with King Crimson. Well, if Ange sound like this than my interest for them is no more. I expected KC circa Red or Starless. I don't hear anything like that except for ending part of the second track, which overall sounds like the collages of Dog Eat Dog few years ago (here I mean the way of making track, using more glue than material to be appended together). One can hear plenty of KC's "I Talk to the Wind" -like tracks. Everything thus results in a KC kind of mellowness plus some more mellow theatrality with distinct french pathos plus a folksy laid-backness as an undercurrent. Overall, this is pretty decent lullaby and recommended to those with problems to get asleep or those wanting something easy on stereo before the departure into Kingdom of Lord Morpheus. O.K., myself being a fan of "difficult" in music (RIO, etc.) and with my leaning towards hypertension I usually do not enjoy this, but if you like prog which doesn't really build on complexity, this one's for you. -- Nenad Kobal