UNDER (E)

XII Alfonso is one of those progressive bands not everyone is familiar with. The French brothers Philippe and Francois Claerhout have recorded and contributed to several albums from the mid-nineties onwards. Their trademark is prog with a folky touch and a positive vibe of originality. After a kind of movie fragment, there are echoing keyboards and a trumpet(sample), then bass, drums and electric guitars join in and we have a really instrumental prog piece with a touch of jazz in it. The classical guitar takes over, playing keyboards and fretless bass being the sole accompaniment and near the end it’s mainly the electric guitar. More jazz influences in track 3 with an electric piano and the melodies played by a lead guitar almost sounding like a distorted human voice. Then the classical guitar takes the lead again. During the first part of Underprogress mainly keyboards can be heard and some percussion. The music is in the vein of the instrumental songs by The Alan Parsons Project, but a bit more jazzy with some bubbling sounds and again some fragments of an old movie. In the second part, like in the second track, a classical guitar and mainly keyboards can be heard. In Undermemories you hear a conversation between a young boy and someone claiming to be an FBI-agent, while in the background we hear some nice almost ambient music by the brothers Claerhout. Underknowledge starts with an original recording of a part of q lecture from one of the worlds greater scientists. Due to my lack of knowledge I can’t tell you which one. The music is a bit jazzy again, featuring the same theme as in track 3, but this time keyboards, percussion, bass and the electric guitar alternate the parts of keyboards, percussion and classical guitar. Superb bass playing by Dominique Caubet. A fiddle, a classical guitar and a bouzouki play melodies and solos on themes somewhat between folk music and Chinese traditional music. Fragments of an American broadcast breaking the news of the bomb on Hiroshima and describe its consequences against a background of more powerful music in Underatom. The second part features a more jazzy sounding ensemble with tasteful soloing of Philippe on his organ, followed by an almost new age piece, slowly getting more powerful when guitars and bass are joining. A beautiful piece is Undersky, again instrumental and the fundaments of progressive music blended with some jazz as well as Latin influences. The second Underbark shows the same characteristics as the first, while in Underlifetime the trumpet samples from the beginning of this album on a theme showing some similarities with Miami Vice Theme by Jan Hammer. The next bit is built around the electric guitar of François, while his brother masters the keyboards and we can hear a bass and some percussion too. Xylophone samples and a classical guitar dominate this piece called Understones with interludes by the Claerhout brothers playing electric guitar and orchestral keyboard sounds. Martin Luther King can be heard in Underdream part 1 in his speech where he proclaims ‘all men are created equal’, the music being a refuge of tranquility in almost new age style again. The last piece of this impressive but ‘not quite easy to listen to’ album, is a symphonic piece with now and then King stating ‘I have a dream’. The album finishes with an American advertisement from the fifties. The artwork and the booklet are as good and intriguing as the whole album.

Under is not just an ordinary but a very interesting album. For all who like a bit of a challenge in prog or who love the more ‘intellectual’ progressive instrumental music, this album is definitely worth checking out.