Rhythmic, exotic, deep & primitive sounds for post modern ears: the first album by the acoustic ensemble founded by Daniel Denis and Alain Neffe.
Narthex is a trio featuring (at the beginning) Daniel Denis (
Univers Zéro,
Art Zoyd), Alain Neffe (Pseudo Code, Human Flesh, Bene Gesserit) and Nicolas de Villemarqué (Nuwage Music). They had a very different musical background (mostly electric / electronic rock) and decided to work in the field of a totally acoustic music recorded live (two microphones + portable DAT) in churches of their area. After several recording sessions, Nicolas de Villemarqué decides to leave the group. ln order to complete the trio, Daniel Denis and Alain Neffe ask the participation of some of their friends. Anna Homler (The Sugar Connection, Cro-Magnon), Michel Berckmans (
Univers Zéro, Julverne, Aksak Maboul, Von Zamla... ) and Daniel Malempré (
M.A.L., Human Flesh) have accepted the challenge and succeed to fit into their musical universe.
Often dark, sometimes repetitive or experimental, sometimes
rhythmical and exotic, always based on emotion inducted by the Sound. One could define it as dark age music (as opposite to new age music), a sort of minimal come back to the roots and purity of acoustic sound without the cultural background linked to the "academic" use of some instruments (for example African senzas are transformed and tuned to sound like Indonesian instruments, sitar or harmonium are used as rhythmical instruments, vahilla is played with a bow).
