Vertigo 1981 / 3VƐ 2025
Out In The Dark
Swiss progressors stress their pop prowess to set off reissue programme with finesse.
It took most art-rock ensembles who started in the ’70s a lot of effort to adjust their style to the ’80s demands in terms of melodic immediacy and arrangements, yet this Lucerne collective didn’t seem to experience any difficulties embracing fresh values. The band’s Eurocentric stance may have facilitated their painless shift towards deceptive simplicity, but introducing guest guitarist to the instrumental front previously driven by ivories widened the quartet’s sonic palette, and their third album, a follow-up to "Elements" from 1979, while still adhering to the “Wind & Wuthering” adventurousness, came across as quite conventional. Not that the enhanced appeal “Out In The Dark” projected would result in chart success; however, here’s the reason why its five numbers stood the test of time.
Despite the presence of two epics, this record’s not too engrossed in its own light-shunning concept, preferring instead to concentrate on attractive tunes and exquisite interplay. There’s a tangible pop edge to opener “Full Moon” which puts funk on Roland Ruckstuhl’s synthesizers before the groove is straightened enough for Peter Wolf to stream vocal harmonies into the ether, without shying away from bossa nova passages and baroque rocking that anchor such cosmic elegance. The moving grandeur will turn serenade-sensual on “Nocturnal Flight” where piano and flute lead the voice on a trip to the stars, with Urs Hochuli’s fluid bass underpinning the ballad’s flow, yet “Wintertime Nights” sticks to effervescent fusion and bounces effusively to counterbalance pensive mood.
But if the album’s atmospheric titular track gets high on expansive dynamics and unhurried development of cathedral-like scope, the space Pit Furrer’s drums underpin with riff-conscious economy until flamenco figures and romantic runs of keyboards heat up the piece and add merry dance to overall magnificence, the tripartite “Strange Meeting” offers an alternative perspective. Shifting layers and tempos, it’s deliberately histrionic, as to not fool the listener into believing the musicians deal in real world’s issues, but also impressively cinematic to immerse the audience into the ensemble’s fantasies. Its middle section “Caleidoscope” focuses on static, relatively heavy and effects-ridden swirl the singer’s sax and Dale Hauskins’s six strings spike with wondrous urgency, and this insistent force should show the way out of the dark even to those who remained hitherto unconvinced… the way leading to the band’s 2024 comeback with a new album.
*****
