01	La Faulx						25:18
	02	Jack The Ripper						13:29
	03	Vous Le Saurez En Temps Voulu						12:56

Cuneiform (rune 29)
Belgium 1979

Michel Berckmans, bassoon, oboe;
Daniel Denis, drums, percussion;
Patrick Hanappier, viola, violin;
Roger Trigaux, guitar, piano, organ, harmonium;
Guy Segers, bass, voice

Bob Eichler:
I really wanted to like this album (due largely to the glowing recommendation given it by Ground and Sky's webmaster ;-), and to some extent I do like it, but after a half dozen or so listens it's so far failing to blow me away. The complaint that the oppressive feel is developed at the expense of the actual music is definitely something I can identify with.
Whatever else one can say about this album, it's certainly one that requires a long attention span. Almost the whole first fifth of the disc is taken up by a menacing drone that repeatedly swells and recedes. This section reminds me of two things - the vocal parts sound like Magma played at half speed, while the music reminds me of the soundtrack to 2001 (particularly "Atmospheres"). It's a full nine minutes before this opening track even develops a melody. Once it does though, it sounds somewhat similar to Ceux du Dehors, although darker and slower.
I actually prefer the two shorter tracks (well, short compared to the marathon opening song), just because they seem to get to the point quickly, and have some lively music interspersed with the gloom and doom. Overall this disc is worth having, largely because it is one of the most overwhelmingly dark and brooding things you'll ever hear, but it's not one that you'll want to pull out and play every day.
Dominique Leone:
Univers Zero was a Belgian band highly influenced by Stravinsky, Bartok, and lots of other turn-of-the century European composers. The band likes to use instruments like bassoon, clarinet, harpsichord, accordian, and flute to augment its rhythm section. Unfortunately, due to the acoustic nature of the ensemble, large dynamic contrast is not really possible. Univers Zero tends to sound a little monolithic to my ears; long on 'composition' but short on much actual music. The Heresie album, I had read, was a very 'sinister' record. I can buy that; it's dark, but its not really very mean, and it certainly is not as intense as the Emerson Quartet or Rite of Spring. Lovers of odd time signatures and tritones may get a kick out of this.

Brandon Wu:
I will freely admit to having a near-fanboy attitude when it comes to this album. Some complain that the darkness and oppressive feel of the music here is overbearing, pretentious, and is developed in favor of actual music. I could not disagree more; although perhaps the band takes themselves rather too seriously, there's some damn good music on this disc. Think classical ensemble playing, heavy on woodwinds (sounding sinister, not pastoral), with relentless, rolling, crashing drums in the background. Drummer Daniel Denis really knows how to complement the material here - he is never too forward as a true rock drummer would be, and yet he doesn't completely disdain from playing interesting rolls, fills, and so on. The opening piece in particular is a fantastic showcase of Denis' unique drumming style, as well as being the best piece on the album, compositionally speaking. The buildups and crescendos are quite masterful and reward close listening. The other two tracks are somewhat less interesting but maintain the generally depressive mood to good effect. I find that I get the most mileage when I play this loud - more of the nuances come out and show themselves, and it's also great for Halloween or just to scare away unsuspecting innocents. My highest recommendation - I put this up there with Ceux du Dehors, which many see as Univers Zero's crowning achievement.

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A Chronology
Of the central members of Univers Zero, Daniel Denis was the first of the band to begin to move in circles that enthusiasts will recognise. Denis was percussively involved with a band named "Achime" which, if I am not mistaken, can be taken as the French for "Arkham", the name of a town central to the Lovecraft mythos. One sometimes sees Denis' band referred to by the latter name. This Soft Machine inspired band was called on to support the sublime Magma on their 1972 Belgium tour after which Christian Vander invited Denis and the keyboard player for Achime, Jean-Luc Manderlier, to join Magma. Both agreed but Denis was to leave after only a few concerts and no studio recording. Manderlier continued with Magma and appears on one of their finest recordings, the 1973 Mekanik Destruktiw Kommandoh. It is not surprising that the Denis augmented Magma lasted such a short time. Vander and Denis being such original percussionists, very different in style, the clash must have been considerable. Still, recordings of the brief affair are highly sought after and it seems probable that none exist.

Denis met Roger Trigaux and Patrick Hanappier, dabbled in some outre jazz until around 1974 and then merged with a certain Guy Segers and two other jazz musicians. The core of Univers Zero in place, more modern jazz ensued until Michel Berckmans was invited to contribute his classical training and woodwind. Apparently, he found it all too improvised and a year passed before he could be snared and brought into the fold. It seems likely therefore, that during this time, the existing band took pains to bring some structure to their music. When playing live during this period, the audience reaction was not particularly helpful it seems. Guy Segers is noted as recalling that their change of direction provoked not "...much of a reaction because there was not much of an audience". An article by Chris Cutler in Sound International from 1978 notes that Univers Zero had the worst time of any of the original members of the movement regarding acceptance in their home country. Belgium at the time was musically conservative, resulting in either reactionary or ambivalent attitudes to anything out of the ordinary. This seems to have contributed to the toughening of Univers Zero's already severe attitude.

The efforts over structural aspects are apparent on the self-titled debut: there had been a clearly apparent attempt to regiment order rather than order being an obvious part of the music. By the time of the release in 1977, the ranks had swollen to seven musicians and no longer included Segers. The band then covered a large number and diverse range of instruments:

Daniel Denis: percussion
Roger Trigaux: guitar
Patrick Hanappier: violin, viola, pocket cello
Michel Berckmans: bassoon
Christian Genet: bass
Marcel Dufrane: violin
Emmanuel Nicaise: harmonium, spinet


The original small pressing of the debut album made by Eric Faes their producer, sold out and the admiring French magazine Atem took the opportunity to re-release the album in 1978. By the time of their important appearance at the first Rock In Opposition concert of March 1978, the Canadian Dufrane had been expelled from Belgium. Nicaise seems to have departed because he was originally drafted in to explore the possibility of vocals but it was later unclear how they could be utilised in such a setting. Christian Genet departed due to ominous "problems" and was replaced during the RIO concert by Art Zoyd's Thierry Zaboitzeff. Interviews from the period seem to suggest that Zaboitzeff was seen as a permanent replacement. This was not to be and Genet was to return much later on. In fact, Segers began to adopt the bass position again and apparently there were even concerts at this time where Segers played on half of the pieces and Zaboitzeff on the other half. Even though, in the end, Segers took over the bass duties completely in time for the next album (maybe he learnt the rest of the pieces ...), it is clear that a lasting friendship between Art Zoyd and Univers Zero arose at this time. Berckmans and Denis both appear on Art Zoyd's Music pour l'odyssee of 1979. It was even suggested that the two bands might record together and share a concert platform. The latter indeed happened on a few occasions and the band members of that time still have, apparently rather bad, tapes of these events. However, nothing was ever officially recorded of these collaborations.

It is interesting to note at this point that Univers Zero were considerably more ambivalent to political aspirations than the rest of the RIO movement. They seem to have regarded it as a musically worthwhile thing rather than as an exercise in political teleology. Guy Segers at the time said that others in the movement were using music as a means of achieving something else. Given the famous difficulty of making instrumental music programmatic in anything but superficial ways linked to sonority, Univers Zero were not really in a position to suggest political values to their audience by means of their music even if they had desired to. Lyrics help enormously here and they had none. This is supported by their quite terse and uncompromising statement in the London RIO concert programme:

"We believe that in order to make music valid on both the human and social levels, we must not sacrifice anything on things other than music".
As noted, Guy Segers readopted bass in time for the second album Heresie and the rest of the members absorbed the instrumental gaps left by the reduced numbers:

Daniel Denis: drums, percussion
Roger Trigaux: guitar, piano, organ, harmonium
Patrick Hanappier: violin, viola
Michel Berckmans: oboe, bassoon
Guy Segers: bass


Roger Trigaux left Univers Zero just after Heresie, forming Present partly motivated by a desire for a tighter control on the compositions and thus less improvisation in his music. That might seem to imply that Univers Zero at the time was rather structurally liberal but Trigaux seems to have been more concerned about the role of improvisation in the action of composing rather than in the musical results themselves: evidence the large amounts of guitar improvisation in certain of the Present material. The first Present album was released in 1980. Notice here that Christian Genet plays bass on Present's debut: he seemed to be gravitating back towards Univers Zero at this point but it was not until 1984 until he actually returned.

After leaving Univers Zero, Trigaux was replaced by the keyboard player Andy Kirk. Ceux du Dehors was recorded between March 1980 and early 1981, the typical core line-up for a given track being:

Daniel Denis: drums, percussion
Patrick Hanappier: viola, violin
Michel Berckmans: bassoon, oboe
Guy Segers: bass
Andy Kirk: harmonium, organ, piano


An assortment of guest musicians also appear on various tracks, notably Thierry Zaboitzeff, the supposedly permanent replacement for Christian Genet you will remember, who plays cello on the track "La tete du corbeau".

At this point, Univers Zero paused for three years, releasing only a now deleted EP Crawling Wind. Andy Kirk left after the EP and it has been suggested that this was partly responsible for the large pause in output thereafter. This is corroborated by an interview with Denis from the period where he mentions with regret the shock of Kirk's departure. The shuffling of musicians was a also a factor. It is also generally perceived that this is the period during which Daniel Denis firmly grasped control of Univers Zero whereas before, Trigaux and Kirk had considerable input. This is substantiated in a recent Audion interview with Trigaux who comments on the more personnel based approach the band were taking at the time. He seemed to see Univers Zero as less of a collective affair, this change taking place as early as just after Heresie.

Daniel Denis: drums, percussion, voice, violin
Guy Segers: bass, voice, violin, invisible talk, flies talk
Andy Kirk: piano, organ, synth, voice, viola, music box, percussions, harmonium, radio
Dirk Descheemaeker: clarinet
Alan Ward: violin


This EP was released in Japan originally and, according the Denis, suffered from very poor European distribution. As a result, it was also overpriced and has never been rereleased.

Art Zoyd took the opportunity during this period to poke fun at the Lovecraft inspired "La musique d'Erich Zann" improvisation from Ceux du Dehors with a track entitled "La musique d'Erich Faes" on their Phase IV. An amusing and obvious allusion to their long-time producer and friend.

A French interview from this period with Daniel Denis reveals some interesting information about group tensions. Talking of Segers, he mentions "problems between him and myself" and seems to suggest that the problem lay in Segers predilection for the older style of the band. This makes sense given the rather dramatic change in style that occurred at this point. Denis seems to be referring to Hanappier when he is questioned about the absence of a violinist on Uzed, saying that personal problems and lack of time available to dedicate to the band contributed to his departure. It is clear that Denis was a major force behind the modernisation of the sound of Univers Zero.

When 1984 arrived and brought Uzed, Daniel Denis remained at the core and Christian Genet returned on bass. Everyone else had been replaced:

Daniel Denis: drums percussion, synthesiser
Christian Genet: bass, balafon, bowed guitar, tapes, whistle
Dirk Descheemaeker: soprano sax, clarinet, bass clarinet
Andre Mergen: cello, alto sax, voice
Jean-Luc Plouvier: Electric and acoustic pianos, synthesiser, piano strings, percussion


with some guests on the track "Celesta (for Chantal)". Univers Zero had adapted their sound considerably. Note the far more modern instrumentation. This line-up played quite a few concerts but following the album, Univers Zero disbanded. They were prompted into action once more by the praiseworthy Cuneiform label and in 1986 released Heatwave. It transpires that the returning Andy Kirk's compositions had been performed by the band as early as the time of his departure after Ceux du Dehors and so the only actually new tracks are Denis' compositions. There were other changes in personnel and Hanappier returned:

Daniel Denis: drums, percussion
Patrick Hanappier: violin, viola
Christian Genet: bass, nailskake
Andy Kirk: piano, synthesiser, voice
Dirk Descheemaeker: clarinet, bass clarinet, soprano sax
Jean-Luc Plouvier: piano, synthesiser, voice
Michel Delory: guitar


So, Univers Zero leave as they entered: a seven piece. Of late, there have been many rumours of a reunion, fuelled by a recent interview with Daniel Denis in Audion magazine. However recently, reliable sources have said that it now seems that a reunion is extremely doubtful indeed. Confusingly, even more recently Guy Segers has mentioned that even though a real reunion of old members is impossible, Denis, three new musicians and himself still plan to reform and hope to give some concerts as Univers Zero in 1996. Roger Trigaux continues with a reformed Present consisting of his son and himself. They released a new Present album entitled C.O.D Performance in 1993 and are actively touring. Daniel Denis appeared on percussion early on the tour but seems to have left very early and rather abruptly, the talented Dave Kerman taking over for the rest of the tour. This might well be seen to be an indication of the unlikelyhood of a reunion. Denis seems to want to move on to more experimental pastures, a stated reason for his initial idea, to resurrect Univers Zero: he continues to tour with Art Zoyd and possibly work on solo material to follow his Sirius and the Ghosts and Les Eaux Troubles from the early 90s.

Trigaux and the new Present plan to tour more this year, Christian Genet is now a session bass player, Deeschmaeker and Hannapier also undertake session work within the new music community. Andy Kirk is reputedly working on rather more pop format music whilst Guy Segers runs a label and management company called Carbon Seven.