Que-vive!

Compagnie Rassegna are a band based in the south of France, led by guitarist Bruno Allary. They are also involved in various theatrical projects. Their USP is that they break down borders between styles, drawing on Mediterranean folk, classical music and contemporary and electronic music. The problem is they end up being inconsistent – and rather pretentious.

The electric guitar, FX and scratching ordeal of ‘Mantovana’ sounds like a totally different group to the French madrigalists plus flute of ‘A la Fin Cette Bergère’, which makes one agree with the sentiment of the tedious opening ‘Prologue Oh Non!’. Sadly the painful vocals of Carina Salvado in ‘Dido's Lament’ and the massacre of the aria through its arrangement just make everything worse. It's hard to comprehend the concept behind this.