Univers Zero – Lueur (Sub Rosa) – Do like it when they do that slightly sinister slightly dark clanking thing they do, Univers Zero’s new album, their first in almost ten years, a follow up to Phosphorescent Dreams, itself an album originally released only on CD in Japan in 2014, and reissued as an LP on the Sub Rosa label in 2019. We’re told Lueur is “the fruit of two years’ work and reflection, the foundations of which were laid by Daniel Denis (keyboards, drums, percussion…), then enriched by the contributions of Nicolas Dechêne (guitars), Kurt Budé (clarinet/bass clarinet) and Nicolas Denis (bass, percussion, vocals), all three of whom were present on Phosphorescent Dreams“.

The gloriously rich band (from Belgium) have now been around, in one form or another, since 1974, further back if you count the time they spent operating under the previous name of Necronomicon. Univers Zero have always had a rewardingly dark progressive rock meets classical composition feel, clever complex prog rock laced with a sense of the chamber orchestra and an avant-classical outlook, indeed have they ever really been a band? Have they always been more of a chamber orchestra than a mere band? They became Univers Zero in 1974, for a time they were a big part of that thing called Rock in Opposition (RIO), a movement of bands who “strove to  create dense challenging music, a direct contrast to the disco and punk music being produced in the late 1970s”.  

There has always been a darker element in there with the rich prog rock and the classical influences, particularly Bartók and Stravinsky. Lueur is once again a dark-edged beast although maybe not quite as dark as previous offerings from Univers Zero. Once again rooted in that balance somewhere between power and calm, at times almost but not quite raging, sometimes rather relaxed and (surprising) at ease in a serenely foreboding kind of way. it is a sound that’s always complex even during the more contemplative moments. This is an album very much in the avant-rock tradition of previous Univers Zero works, it does however feature some rather calm rather short almost jaunty pieces (dare we say more Sea Nymphs than Cardiacs?), some of it is almost delightful which in terms of Univers Zero is almost disturbing in itself (have they given up summonsing those demons? Probably not). And is that singing for a minute or two? Is that something new? You could maybe argue that Lueur, while still being somewhere near the expected traditions of U.Z, is a slightly subtle, slightly lighter evolution in terms of their always rich rewarding sound?  Whatever it is and whoever may be or maybe not with them now, Lueur is an excellent new album, another significant album from an important avant-prog band, most of it is once again uniquely Univers Zero and once again music that could be made by no one else, it is of course as musically challenging and as highly recommended as all Univers Zero albums are…     

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