THREE COLOURS DARK: The Science Of Goodbye (PROGRESSIVE ROCK): review / opinion to read on Music Waves

The explosion of Karnataka's first version in the middle of the decade 2000 gave birth to two bands evolving more or less in the same musical waters with on one side The Reasoning for Rachel Jones, and Panic Room for the rest of the band (except the boss Ian Jones), including Jonathan Edwards.

After the end of the former and the dormancy of the latter, Rachel Jones and Jonathan Edwards finally found themselves in a new formation called Three Colours Dark, publishing in this year 2020 a first album whose subject evokes narcissism and its abuses in the private sphere, a subject that is both autobiographical for Rachel Cohen but also the subject of her academic research. The writing of this album revealed itself to her as a kind of catharsis, going far beyond the simple pleasure of finding her "old" musical companion.

Musically, the 10 tracks proposed by the trio accompanied by Tim Hammil and a few judiciously chosen guests inevitably comes close to their previous experiences, and more particularly to the first Karnataka version. In a mostly mid-tempo register, the warm voice of Rachel Cohen comes to rest on the luxuriant orchestrations proposed by Jonathan Edwards, whether with a multiplication of symphonic keyboards ('Wonderland') or in slightly more stripped-down universes for piano/voice titles ('Know You Now') or Fender Rhodes/voice ('Ghosts in the Wind') reminiscent of the Luna Rossa project conducted with Anne-Marie Helder.

Once again, the melodic aspects are at the centre of attention, which is further enhanced by the violin ('Enter Soubrette') or the trumpet for the bluesy 'Know You Now' and its jazz club atmosphere. The band also knows how to stick to the painful subject of the album, and when it reaches its dramatic climax, the music is in tune to produce a tense 'Monster' whose intensity increases as the bars go by, before the deliverance comes with the eponymous title at the end of the cake.

Some may criticize the sometimes systematic nature of the various titles, or the lack of nuance in Rachel Cohen's vocal interpretation, but these few glitches are little compared to the overall quality of the ensemble, 51 minutes that pass like a tranquil river only asking to return to its source to better enjoy its bed. Let's just hope that the duo won't wait another 16 long years to offer us a sequel. - Official website

THREE COLOURS DARK

THE SCIENCE OF GOODBYE

BURNING SHED

PROGRESSIVE ROCK