TRIBE of CIRCLE - DERNIERE VOLONTE

11th October 2003
Le Confluent
Lyon
France



Presented by the Lyon-based association Sonorités Obscures, the first concert of Tribe of Circle organised in France appeared as one of the inevitable rendez vous of the hexagonal autumn. A sensation of exception reinforced by the announcement, a few days before the concert, of the performance of Dernière Volonté, after the cancellation of the one initially planned of Omnicore (due to internal dissentions in the group). Geoffroy, who was to accompany Tribe of Circle, had accepted to assume the first part of the bill to present the compositions of Dernière Volonté to the French audience.
So, on the same bill were assembled two projects that rarely appear on stage and who are both on the Austrian label HauRuck!.

Geoffroy, assisted by Pierre, opened the evening by taking place behind a music stand adorned with Dernière Volonté's emblem. He alternated between vocals and percussions for almost an hour.

The sung titles from the various productions of Dernière Volonté were passed in review, from the 7" 'Où tu iras' (with the titles : Ma promesse and Où tu iras) to the last album 'Les blessures de l'ombre' (La source, La foudre et le tonnerre, Le poison) without omitting the first album 'Le feu sacré' (Les tambours, Nous maintenons notre histoire, Ami) and the compilation 'Zu neuen Ufern in alter Frische' (Un refrain solitaire).

Dernière Volonté benefited from a beautiful light show, tinted with blue, oranges, drowned in salvoes of thick smoke.

This performance was marred by a sound problem (the sound from the computer was cut for a few seconds followed by a brief sound cut in one of the speakers). Also, Geoffroy and Pierre seemed quite absent during the first fifteen minutes : perhaps they were too 'tense'...
As for the singing and the rhythms, at time they were marked by a lack of timing. Fortunately, the tracks played at the end of the set were much better played.

The audience composed of a hundred and odd persons remained in retreat of the stage with a first row of fans singing along to the words and following the drumming gestures... whilst many conversations continued at the back of the venue.

An encore allowed Dernière Volonté to satisfy their admirers by playing the old title 'Soldat' taken from their very first 7" 'En avant'.

The time for a pause, and Tribe of Circle stepped on stage to offer a rather interesting performance, accompanied by videos composed of images of classic war ruins, historical, cosmic and biological elements. Unfortunately, two video cuts, broke the progression of the visuals.
All in all, the performance was quite successful in comparison to what had been written after the Brussels concert. Tribe of Circle seems to have progressed by opening his band to the members of Dernière Volonté, who succeeded each other on stage all along this live presentation.
Tribe of Circle had not forgotten to explore any of his productions : 'Rien ne disparaît vraiment' (Coranic submission, Colours of Europa, Dirty Flowers of Thule act.1), 'The advent of redemption' (La femme evaporée, Psalms of repentance, Faiblir par la chair, Intro/The advent of redemption), the compilation 'Zu neuen Ufern in alter Frische' (Wir Kapitulieren Niemals) as well as the first 7" 'Altered states' (Morgen Meinsheit).

The best moment of the evening was without doubt the one when Nebel joined Tribe of Circle on stage for a magnificent version of 'Psalms of Repentance'. The presence of four persons side by side gave off a strong sentiment and brought much strength to the track. A beautiful alchemy and a moment of grace that crumbled a few minutes later when Jean-Paul, from Tribe of Circle, ended up alone on stage, on vocals, for a title accompanied by his CD player for sole musician... Which diminished somewhat the interest of the performance on stage.

It was regrettable that, during this evening, digital played a too important role in the interpretation of the tracks... the percussionists were only too often on stage just to accompany the programming and the recordings.
Likewise, during the Dernière Volonté concert, Geoffroy's conventional martial pauses only seemed to be there to occupy the momentary absences of musical activity.
Finally, the presence of the written lyrics next to Jean-Paul and Geoffroy, added without doubt an even more rigid aspect to their stage play and inevitably restrained the impact of their performance.

The versions played on stage left a bit more space to the percussions. Alas, as only the percussions were played on stage, a certain lassitude could set in and in the end gave the impression of a too long and diluted version of 'Bring in the night' by Death In June.
As for the quality of the sound, on the whole it was quite flavourless, without dynamics and unfortunately never up to the standard of the studio recordings.

But for all that, the initiative taken by the members of Sonorités Obscures should be saluted and encouraged as parties and concerts of industrial music (in a wide sense of the term) are rare in France.



Mehr Licht : text & photos
Ian C. : translation
Autumn 2003