55 minutes, 7 seconds

L'Orchestre Noir
Eleven (CD 1 of 2)

Tony Wakeford has recorded under a lot of different monikers, but aside from his main project, Sol Invictus, I've always liked L'Orchestre Noir best. This was their second album, released in 1998. Sadly, there's been no new album since, although I remember reading a rumor that he was about to begin recording under this name again soon.

At any rate, a bit like the "solo" discs he's released as Tony Wakeford, the Orchestre Noir material is a bit more elegant and stately than the down-to-earth folk stylings of Sol Invictus. But only just--it's not often clear to me why Wakeford chooses to record under different names when the music isn't so different from project to project.

Eleven is an ambitious work that attempts to be a requiem for the victims of the First World War and an expression for peace in Europe in the future. But like a lot of neofolk music, it runs the risk of trafficking in exactly the kind of militaristic pomp it seeks to criticize. That may be what I find so interesting about this kind of music--you never quite know where it stands. Bombastic tympani, horns, and strings match against choirs and flutes to create a pleasing juxtaposition of sound and mood, and the listener is forced to reconcile simultaneous feelings of soaring exhilaration and profound sadness.

Then again, maybe that's what World War I was like.

Also today:

55:06 Brian Eno, Discreet Music
55:05 A Challenge of Honour, Trilogy (CD 2 of 2)
55:04 Sol Invictus, The Blade
55:03 Clock DVA, Man-Amplified
55:02 The Pain Machinery, Hostile
55:00 Corvus Corax, Tempi Antiquii
55:00 Raison d'Être, Metamorphyses
54:59 Attrition, Étude
54:58 Harold Budd, The Room
54:57 :Wumpscut:, Wreath of Barbs