Biography
Pulsar was a French
progressive rock group that rose to prominence in the late-70s,
and like many of their French contemporaries were exceedingly
dark, though with a more atmospheric bent and a profound sadness
at the core of nearly all their work. Pulsar's music was
generally characterized by extended suites with a weighing atmosphere
and a Pink Floyd-ish sense of grandeur and mood. They
also heavily utilized moog and mellotron to great effect, painting
grandiose and often horrific backdrops to the mournful and sedate
vocals. Because of their atmospheric tendencies, the group
is often unfairly criticized as a Pink Floyd rip-off, though
I don't find the comparison very applicable at all. Pulsar
sits squarely within the symphonic progressive rock movement,
and their fascination with dark atmospheres mixed with symphonic
tendencies makes for a sound which I feel is actually quite
unique.
The group began
their career in 1975 with the release of their excellent debut,
Pollen. During the subsequent tour, Pulsar struggled
to build a fan base within their home country, facing zero promotion
from their label, Kingdom Records. However, with persistent
touring, the group was able to sell 5000 copies of their debut,
which landed them on the French charts and attracted the interest
of concert and festival promoters. At one point, the band
even considered collaborating with Van der Graaf Generator's
Peter Hammill as lyricist and singer for their second album,
as he apparently adored Pollen, but the labels unfortunately
nixed the idea.
The band had been
testing new material throughout the tour for Pollen,
and by late 1975 had booked a studio and began work on the follow-up,
but not before the departure of bassist Phillipe Roman.
The album, released in 1976, was The Strands of the Future,
a French progressive rock classic that was loyal to the style
displayed on Pollen, but perhaps even stronger overall.
The album vaulted Pulsar into the big leagues of French rock,
selling 40,000 copies within its first six months, behind only
Ange at the time. Having wrapped up their deal with Kingdom,
Pulsar jumped to the bigs and signed a three album contract
with CBS in December of '76.
Under pressure
from the record company to record and release a new album as
soon as possible, in order to capitalize on their newfound popularity,
the band sealed themselves off from the world in a farm in Savoy
and began work on their next album. Apparently under the
heavy influences of composer Gustav Mahler and director Luche
Vicsonti, the group set out to create a concept work rife with
a similar thread of anguished romance and fantastic imagery.
The result was 1977's Halloween, arguably the group's
masterpiece and without a doubt another French classic.
Unfortunately, by 1977 punk rock had reared its head, and CBS
balked at fully publicizing Pulsar's music, dropping the group
shortly thereafter and striking the album from its catalog.
Pulsar managed to squeeze out one more release after a four
year layover, the apparently lackluster Bienvenue
au Conseil D'Adminstration.
The band reformed in 1989 to
release another album, Gorlitz, which has met with mixed
reception. Nonetheless, the first three albums are all
beautiful, and are all clearly essential for collectors of French
symphonic rock.
- Greg Northrup [September 2001]
Sources: Liner
notes on Musea CD reissues of Strands of the Future and
Halloween, by Alain Robert
Pollen
(1975)
Pollen
is the debut release
from the French progressive rock group Pulsar, the first in
a series of spellbinding releases from the band that would place
them at the very head of the class as far as French symphonic
rock would be concerned. Along with a number of great
French groups like Shylock, Carpe Diem and Arachnoid, Pulsar
helped invigorate a burgeoning French scene just as the progressive
rock movement in England seemed to be winding down. Like
many of their contemporaries, the tone is almost always dark
and foreboding, though as opposed to the sometimes violent ferocity
of those bands, Pulsar sets themselves apart by way of sparse
arrangements, distant vocals, and a down tempo feel.
I happened to
be extremely surprised by the quality of Pollen, which
I've found to be somewhat underrated in light of the band's
extraordinary later work. Although The Strands of the
Future and Halloween are both utter classics, there
is a common stylistic thread running throughout all of the bands
work, and fans of Pulsar will find Pollen to be a monster
album in and of itself. The music is spacey, atmospheric
and rife with surging emotion, showcases a stunningly mature
band of songwriters with an already firm grasp of a unique compositional
style that would see little alteration on the next two albums.
The album exhibits a cohesion and sense of focus throughout,
a clear accomplishment for a debut recording. "Apaisment"
alternates vocals and crystalline flute passages above a bleak
rhythmic backdrop, while "Puzzle/Omen" ups the tempo to accommodate
the fiery synthesizer leads. "Le Cheval de Syllogie" features
passages which stand among Pulsar's heaviest, with some crushing
fuzzed-out guitar riffs. The highlight of the album is
probably the 13 minute title track, which wraps the bands strengths
together alongside some catching vocal melodies, heart wrenching
piano melodies and some just enough delicate Gilmour-esque guitar
phrasings to give Pulsar's overdone Pink Floyd comparisons some
merit. In all, Pollen is an extraordinary work
and just as essential as the band's two subsequent albums.
A gorgeous debut from one of France's very best bands.
- Greg Northrup
[September 2001]
Click
Here for Tracklist and Lineup Info
The
Strands of the Future (1976)
The more
I listen, the more I adore this album of extremely dark symphonic
progressive from France. Pulsar are masters of mood and
atmosphere and have often been compared to early Pink Floyd.
The music is drawn out and extremely cinematic, with sparse
percussion, mournful vocals and liberal utilization of moog
and mellotron for a positively haunting effect.
The opening
title track, a 22 minute epic, is the finest song Pulsar has
ever done. This song epitomizes the incredible capabilities
of the group. There are a couple verses of French vocals
early on, and then the music totally blasts off carried by a
string of phenomenal instrumental sections. Very spacey
and ethereal at times with occaisional "heavy" sections backed
by gorgeous mellotron themes. The moog synthesizer is
put to extraordinary use in carrying melodic themes over minimalistic
rhythmic pulses. An awesome track.
The rest
of the album continues in the same style for the most part,
"Flight" is a relatively energetic instrumental, and "Windows"
and "Fool's Failure" both feature more extensive English vocals.
I listened to this album many times to really get into, as the
style can become slightly tedious at first, but it has since
become one of my absolute favorite French albums.
- Greg Northrup
[2001]
Click
Here for Tracklist and Lineup Info
Halloween
(1979)
This
seems to be the most highly regarded Pulsar album, and though
I personally prefer it's predecessor, The Strands of
the Future, Halloween is still a phenomenal release.
The album was so hyped up in fact that I was initially a
little disapointed by it. It took me buying and absorbing
Strands of the Future to return to this album and
really appreciate it. Most of Pulsar's brilliance
can be extremely subtle, and both albums require special
attention to every theme, or else they might just float
by unnoticed. Both albums are ethereal masteworks
full of haunting keyboard melodies and beautiful guitar
textures. Halloween is a concept album divided over
two tracks.
The album's
intro of a child segues into typically spacey keyboard work
and finally into a powerful up-tempo percussive pattern
that goes on for some ten minutes with tremendous moog,
mellotron and guitar work over it. The first vocals
don't come until some 12 minutes into the first piece.
Victor Bosch's drumming is highly effective throughout the
album, and more noticable than it was on Strands... While
not virtuostic by any means, throughout the first piece
he introduces great pulsating, repetitive patterns that
the rest of the band plays off of beautifully. The
second track features some extremely effective vocal work
and is actually the closest to Pink Floyd that I've heard
the band ever get. The vocals are much more prominent
and it also features some soaring Gilmour-esque guitar leads
and as the concept comes to some sort of conclusion is not
nearly as dark and foreboding as most of Pulsar's other
songs, and instead build up to an emotional climax late
in the song. A great track.
Both this
and The Strands of the Future are classics of dark
symphonic progressive rock and among the best releases to
come out of France in the 70's. Definitely personal
favorites of mine.
- Greg Northrup [2001]
