X-Legged Sally & The Smith Quartet - Bereft Of A Blissful Union (1997) [Reissue 2017]

This album is the music developed for a ballet or choreographed modern dance, written for the most part by leader Vermeersch but recorded with the help of British String Smith Quartet. Again, if you know this crazy Sally, you will know you are in for a gigantic roller-coaster ride, and in this case I believe the live shows must’ve been worth the price of the entrance to the hall, since it appears that part of the dancing happened under water and without breathing apparatus.

The album is book-ended by two classical pieces (the closing one being particularly interesting), but clearly the show’s centrepiece is the 24 min Brungle, that comes complete with complete madness, a superb horn arrangements, exciting strings and wild drumming: stupendous. The other major track is the 10 min+ Birdcage starting out as a wild but controlled modern classical music. Another climax is the only sung track Out Of The Pit. Der doppelganger is a rearrangement of a Schubert piece.

This album is the last one to have come out under the X-L S name, but this is a fantastic exit for an extraordinary group. Very worthy and yet another superb chamber prog album.

~ Hugues Chantraine