Volapük - 2003 - Where Is Tamashii?

(40:49; Cuneiform Records)

What we have here is the 2024 reissue of the final album by the genre-defiant, avant rock French ensemble Volapük, and given it is claimed by many as their finest work I was certainly intrigued to hear it. Prior to this I had only come across their 1999 live album, ‘Pükapök’, which was reissued by Cuneiform in 2023 where I stated “they walked through musical boundaries as if they did not exist”, so this was going to be good. Formed in 1993 by drummer and composer Guigou Chenevier, (ex-Etron Fou Le Loublan, one of RIO’s great bands) with classical musicians Michel Mandel (clarinets, bass clarinet, tárogató) and Guillaume Saurel (cello, 6-string bass) they released two albums as trio before being joined on two more by Takumi Fukushima (violin, vocals). They continued operating until 2010, but this 2003 was the last album, which seems very hard to understand as there is something incredibly compelling about a band who do not recognise any limits or constraints on what they are producing and instead consistently take music to its logical, and sometimes illogical, conclusion. While the band may be on the same melodic plane, they could well all be operating on tangents so diverse that one wonders how they will ever get back together. They mix in Japanese folk styles as well as RIO and avant-garde jazz, and when Takumi adds vocals here and there it pushes music even more in different directions.

Apparently this album was not well distributed when originally released (although Cuneiform had released the other three studio albums this came out on French label Orkhêstra), but now it has been made available again we can only hope it gets a much wider recognition as while this is music being stretched to its limits it always makes sense, and there is a tightness and control between all four players which makes us think they are connected telepathically. The way they come together, split, let others take the lead and provide backup and then move in tangents is quite remarkable, and anyone who enjoys this style of music should definitely seek this out. 

Kev Rowland, June 2025

Links:
http://www.cuneiformrecords.com/