Jad Ayache's Zeuhl power trio XAAL played two electrifying concerts in June in Paris as the support group for the Magma offshoot band ZUKUNFT. They performed material from both their first cassette album and the CD release 'En Chemin'.
I can not recall all the titles, but I'm sure they played 'Piege', 'En Chemin', 'Talisman', 'L'enfant', 'Ballade' and 'Le Jardin' as well as a few tunes I have not heard before. They obviously enjoy their unusual blend of King Crimsonesque dynamics and Vanderienne melodies, which they fuse together with a modern progressive feel. Patrick Boileau, the drummer, and Jad Ayache, who plays some really exquisite guitar licks and pulls the trio together, have always been among Christian Vander's most ardent supporters. Initially, bassist Nicolas Neimer sounds like he is a plain rock and roller, but occasionally springs forth with a flourish to surprise everyone and draw attention away from Jad for a while. He uses an active bass with a midi interface and a 5-string octave bass.
They played an enchanting set of about eighty minutes duration with a vast range of neo-progressive similarities and an armoury of tonal shifts from Jad's midi-guitar which fluidly darted from flute-like passages to woodwind chorus effects and back to searing lead guitar. Boileau's drum patterns varied incessantly too as he has progressed into a more complex and energetic drummer since I first discovered the XAAL cassette. His style this afternoon reminded me more of Bill Bruford than Vander and much of their (instrumental) work is currently more in line with the King Crimson influence. Yet 'Le Jardin' also reminds me of ANGE.
The tunes, which I can't recall the names for (perhaps their Zeuhl influenced 'Byblos' was one of them) had strong 'Üdü Wüdü' qualities and a constant feel of Jannick Top in composition and the pounding bass work. Eventually I was left with the impression that if only they would add a keyboard to their live shows, then Jad could stretch out his style and not have to keep switching back and forth. Some of those snatches deserved to be blown up to full length solo's but the limitations of just bass and drum support mean that he has to take on the role of multi-instrumentalist with just two hands trying to play an orchestral score. As a guitarist he is phenomenal, can you imagine Mike Oldfield playing 'Tubular Bells' live without a huge backing group? XAAL's music is more complex than that, but unless you saw it, you just would not believe that three people could produce such a panoramic sound without overdubs.