Univers Zero
Lueur
BELGIUM SUB ROSA RECORDS SR555 C.D. (2023)
Coming in a very strong second in the Zeuhlist hierarchy (Art Zoyd claiming a bronze), Belgian chamber-prog veterans Univers Zero have come in from the cold after nine years of inactivity on the recording front (their previous release Phosphorescent Dreams being primarily a Japanese import from 2014). Their re-emergence finds the outfit with a somewhat reduced line-up when compared to past activities. In fact, it’s only UZ founder member, drummer/keyboardist Daniel Denis who plays on all of Lueur‘s eleven cuts; some surprisingly concise, with seven tracks coming under four minutes (prog Heresie!). As for the occasionals; Daniel’s son Nicolas can be found on bass/percussion and vocals while Kurt Budé (clarinets) and Nicolas Dechêne (guitars) complete the picture.
I’ll admit the mothballing of the bygone/exotic instrumentation (almost a UZ trademark) is still sorely missed. But, shorn of the balofons, spinets and bassoons, the intense, brooding atmospherics and crumbling cliff face tension still manages to threaten and insinuate at the most unexpected times. Even now still a little too real for certain monthly prog glossies I guess. Surely rubber stamping that claim for example is “Sfumato”. Split into two distinct and separate pieces, it opens with a distressed, wavering organ motif, followed by an insidious Wyatt-like nursery rhyme that’s then gatecrashed by a heavy martial passage, piano stabs and cymbal splash. Part two pushes the intensity levels considerably with some strident keyboard fanfares, matched with militaristic drum barrages that see Monsieur Denis clearly playing out of his skin. “Axe 117”, though, is probably the heaviest element on this particular periodic table – an insistent one-note emergency tannoy signal finds itself the backbone to full flow iron foundry ambience, that are mixed with faux choral synthetics that come with an ‘x’ rating.
There’s obviously something going on here with the light-related titles; first Phosphorescent Dreams and now Lueur, which translates from the French as ‘glimmer’. That really undersells the project (two years in preparation), as it’s glaringly obvious (sorry…) that UZ burn as brightly as they did during their time at say, Atem, or the ReR Megacorp.