Autunna et sa Rose- L'art et la Mort

ARTIST: Autunna et sa Rose

ALBUM: L'art et la Mort

LABEL: Ark Records

REVIEWER: Matthew J.

DATE: 5-20-07

In what is almost indubitably the weirdest covers album you've heard in years, French avant-garde classical outfit Autunna Et Sa Rose's latest album is a deconstruction of classic gothic and industrial songs, arranged for classical instruments and replacing the original lyrics with words by Antonin Artaud and Charles Baudelaire. It's delicate, intellectual, and for the most part quite unpleasant to hear. "Lune Et Arcades," for example, recreates Ataraxia's "Canzona" with deliberately atonal strings and pounding piano chords, while the lyrics, retained here from Ataraxia's original piece, are delivered in a technically perfect but deliberately dissonant operatic duet. A reinterpretation of Dead Can Dance's "Anywhere Out Of The World," here retitled "N'Importe Ou' Hors Du Monde," likewise utilizes a glass-shattering soprano in a deliberate departure from the dreamy ethereal vocals of the original. Beyond all the deliberately noisy chamber music, there are some moments of legitimately pleasant music, as on "Kyfi," an instrumental arrangement of Tuxedomoon's "Egypt" performed on piano and electric guitar, but these moments are few and far between. Indeed, as the album progresses into more industrial explorations, pretenses to structure and harmony fall away; "Ewig Dunkel," based on Einsturzende Neubauten's already noisy "Der Tod Ist Ein Dandy," assaults the senses with a combination of growled German lyrics taken from playwright Hugo Von Hofmannsthal's "Der Tod Und Der Tod," chaotic programmed rhythms, and abrasively squealing violins. Despite a preponderance of classical instruments, this is hardly an album for playing in the background at your next wine and cheese party, but given the avant-garde nature of many of the original pieces, this is worth a listen for fans of the more experimental side of gothic and industrial music.

Visit Autunna Et Sa Rose's theater of cruelty www.ederdisia.com.