Foltin Archimed (2000)

The Seventh House came out almost four years after IQ's previous studio album, Subterranea. In light of this CD, it appears that the critically acclaimed 1997 concept album was the band's creative peak, which does not mean The Seventh House is weak. The general feeling of the album makes it closer to 1993's Ever. Peter Nicholls' theatrical voice gains in beauty with age. The playing is unsurprisingly tight, the musical approach firmly anchored in melodic progressive rock. Highlights include "Guiding Light," "The Wrong Side of Weird," and the title track, the latter a complex and exhilarating number. On the other hand, "Erosion" and "Zero Hour" feel like they miss a dimension, even if the acoustic guitar on the latter brings in a different texture…

Besides hardcore Led Zeppelin fans, it's a little known fact that Jimmy Page produced and played on a 1970 album by theatrical rocker Screaming Lord Sutch, Lord Sutch and Heavy Friends. In addition to Page's appearance (he also co-penned a few tracks), the other 'friends' included John Bonham, Jeff Beck, Nicky Hopkins, and Noel Redding. Since the album is quite difficult to find nowadays, select tracks have popped up over the years on compilations, such as the 2000 set Rock and Roll Highway.

Deep Forest awash in the Pacific. There is certainly the flavour of that region, with Polynesian chanting and rhythms. However, unlike their other releases, Pacifique is a soundtrack to a movie rather than a stand-alone album.
For Pacifique, they've collected percussion samples and vocals from Samoan and other island cultures. The raw components are fairly good. The sampled voices on Pacifique form a nice melodic and rhythmic counterpoint to underlying percussion. La Legende (Part 2) provides similarly well blended vocals with a solid, if unextraordinary, rhythm and melodic line. And Huaine Reggae is a nice upbeat piece to close the album.

Rarely do we feel the presence of Bach so vividly on a recording as we do here with this set of Trio Sonata arrangements, performed by violins, viola da gamba, and harpsichord. What a perfect combination, thanks to Richard Boothby's settings and to the wonderfully synergistic interaction among these very experienced early music players–violinists Catherine Mackintosh (in her best recorded performance in a while) and Catherine Weiss, gambist Boothby, and harpsichordist Robert Woolley.