Oddleaf – Where Ideal and Denial collide (2024)

Attracted by the spectacular cover and the many positive stories and reviews, I couldn't help but sit down and listen to the debut album of the French band Oddleaf.

After a quick study I could see  that we are dealing with a fairly classical situation, but with an important role for the flute, in all kinds of guises. It is also immediately clear that the keys have a bigger role than the guitar and then I immediately think of ELP or more modern variants. And in the end it's not even that far away from that and because of the many flute passages, Focus also comes to the surface, but without banging guitars. What also stands out is the female vocals of Adeline Gurtner who are quite tame but clean, constantly on the safe side and occasionally supported by the lady mastermind  behind this company, keyboard player Carina Taurer who also created the compositions.

In the past they had a male singer but he left in 2023 and was replaced by Adeline. It resulted in a quite significant change in sound. Jacob Holm-Lupo took care of the mastering and partly because of that a name like (White Willow) comes to mind and there is certainly some truth in that too.

Well, what does this album have to offer for me as a lover of prog in which a large part is reserved for the guitar and the vocals? Actually, this is the key question (pun intended) because the share for the guitar is very limited and in some tracks even completely absent. Bassist and guitarist  Olivier Orlando is allowed to play a solo here and there and he does that just fine. But it is mainly the keys that are the main ingredient of Oddleaf’s music and it is clear that Carina has drawn a lot of inspiration from the greats of the past and her excellent playing technique allows her to work out exciting compositions in the style of, for example, Renaissance or Yes. It is certainly not always easy and the instrumental Coexistence Pt. 1 shows a lot of unruly rhythms and complicated keyboard parts that are sometimes very challenging for the listener. Yet there are also enough nice and easy floating parts that provide the necessary moments of rest.

The short intro The Eternal Tree is followed by the long track Life, which is the second longest song on the album with more than eleven minutes. In terms of lyrics, ecological and humanistic themes are discussed celebrating the majesty of nature and humanity's place in it. That's quite a mouthful, but let's say that we are dealing with musical climate activists without it becoming pushy or whiny.

Ethereal Melodies is a bit shorter at over seven minutes, but it is my favourite song of the album because the melody is not only ethereal but also just very beautiful. The pace remains quite slow and Adeline is at her best here. The harmony vocals are also beautiful and after more than four minutes we hear a keyboard pattern that we have heard before but fits so well in the atmosphere of this flowing song. And at the end we are treated to a nice whining guitar solo, they should do that more often.

With its more than fourteen minutes, Back in Time is the central song on Where Idea and Denial collide and this also starts with beautiful harmony vocals to quickly transition into a rhythm supported by smooth bass runs. Suddenly we get a kind of funky keyboard rhythm and Mathieu Rossi go’s wild on his flute (I know, this sounds a bit raunchy) but soon Taurer takes over and we return to the melody of the beginning. A spoken sound fragment is the introduction to a busy piece with many heavy keyboard parts and a voice that tells us we should believe in fairy tales. The ending is downright chaotic and unruly with strange flute and keyboard outbursts. Too much for me to be honest.

Prelude is the intro to the already mentioned Coexistence with which the actual album closes. As a bonus, we get a clip edit of the Ethereal Melodies, which I consider to be the most beautiful song.

Did the music live up to the promise of that beautiful cover? Partly as far as I'm concerned, there are some very nice things on this album but every now and then I lose the thread and I find it hard to follow. The vocals are easy to digest but I won't start a fan club for Adeline either. For a debut album, however, it's fine and who knows what will follow.

Music 67

Cover 87