Released last January on the French label Cynfeirdd, 'Utopia' is the third album of the French neoclassical act Regard Extrême.
Years have passed since the last work of Fabien Nicault 'Résurgence' (the reissue with a new orchestration of the first album) and have made this new material high awaited.
This brand new CD comes in a nice digifile with four pages booklet and includes ten tracks (for a total length of approximately one hour) in the pure Regard Extrême style and two exclusive remixes by Eric Roger of Gaë Bolg and the Cynfeirdd Chorus.
All classical Regard Extrême elements are present on this record... percussions, slow keyboard melodies, symphonic sonorities, a whole synthetic sound (that has now become a kind of R.E. trademark)... However, some tracks like 'Utopia', 'Folie Pure' or even 'Par-delà les ruines' are much more bombastic, martial and more sustained than the earlier Regard Extrême works... The constant rhythmic and some almost omnipresent percussions show an evolution of Regard Extrême's sound.
Nevertheless, my preference goes to compositions like 'Lorsque fuient les rêves' or 'Blessures Eternelles', with their characteristic atmosphere full of melancholy and romanticism. Both are, in my opinion, amongst the best titles of this album...
'Utopia' will surely please those who are already familiar with the work of Fabien Nicault and will also definitely reconcile Regard Extrême's music with those who, like me, had been quite disappointed by the reissue of 'Résurgence'. As for newcomers interested in neoclassical music, this album is also recommended to them, of course.