Collection D'Arnell-Andrea - Villers-aux'Vents

Prikosnovenie, in their press release describe the work of French band Collection D'Arnell-Andrea as 'emotional cold wave'. This fifth CD from the group is a concept album about the First World War. (The only other CD in recent years about the First World War that springs to my mind is Maruta Komand's Holocaust Rites, which is quite a harrowing masterpiece). By complete contrast Villers-aux'Vents, with its particularly skilled female vocals, sounds like Ataraxia, Amber Asylum, OES, or Seventh Harmonic with beats, or Into A Circle with cellos. It is a great pop CD and highly enjoyable, which is not how I would imagine the Somme in 1916 to be: I can't honestly see-lyrics apart- what on earth the CD has to do with the First World War. On this disc there are two bonus video tracks but the CD drive on my computer is buggered so I couldn't play them which is a great pity. For more information go to www.cdaa.free.fr (review by Mike Shankland)