Vak - Budo (2018)

Created in 2008 by a drummer mostly influenced by the music of Magma, VAK has extended since then its influences to broader and more extreme genres, from metal to experimental rock. Their music can be seen as a mix between multiple echoes from the rock avant-gardes of the 1970s and a taste for newer experimental progressive musics. The band from Paris combines zeuhl and a pinch of jazz -rock with 70's progressive rock. Guitar, keyboards, bass , drums, vocals and flute act predominantly in a zeuhl robe. Even if it's often built on complex rhythmic structures , the music always stays melodic without getting imprecise.

The concept is that every track lives from a mixture of a certain lightness or even happiness getting regularly replaced by more intensive dramatic passages. Undoubtedly Magma and Eskaton are the biggest influences. But the typical rumbling bass sound is omitted here . The female singing lacks the emotional intensity of the aforementioned bands, instead it lifts the compositions with beautiful melodies into dreamy regions. This works best in duet with the flute. Each track integrates a lot of rhythmic and melodic ideas and variations. Many bands certainly would stretch them out. But VAK's strength is to stay precise and immediately recognizable from track to track, without leaving their typical atmosphere.