Some reviews :

By Decrek Higgins :

The overall feeling of this recording is such that you find yourself being swept away, reminiscing and dreaming. Glimpsing emotions that are drawn out by this music. There is a sad sense of knowing in Carla's voice. The music reflects its own sense of deep awareness. Highly recommended.


By Phil Howitt ( Facelift / The Canterbury Scene(zine) :

This is the third review within these pages for projects involving the remarkable French vocalist Carla Diratz, and this one sees a collaboration stripped down once more to bare voice and limited instrumental backup. But unlike ‘The Electric Suite’, with Corentin Coupe, which uniquely matched vocals and bass, this pairs her with Pascal Vaucel, a French guitarist who adds enough additional layers with drum tracks and bottom heavy treatments to make this album sound like the work of a band. If I’d looked hard enough, I would have seen him at Kozfests 2016 and ‘17 performing with Bob Hedger in Phaselock. More fool me – he’s clearly a prodigious inventive talent.
As with all Diratz projects I’ve heard to date, the music alternates between pieces which are carefully constructed to showcase her rich voice in conducive, almost conventional genres (which only serves to accentuate the starkness of her delivery); and tracks which are more freely constructed. Whilst I favour the former, the performances are strong throughout and the freeform numbers for me work better than on any of her other albums, testament to some alternately brutal or eloquent passages from the guitar of Vaucel. In fact, as with Dave Newhouse, Diratz appears to have found herself another kindred spirit, another composer with the virtuosity and versatility to do justice to that unique voice.
Three original tracks really stand out: ‘Questing Dawn’ with its warm jazz guitar flecks;  the nihilistic, ‘Dharma Song’, dominated by abrasive guitar effects where the Diratz voice reaches its most primeval peak, set against a most industrial backdrop; whilst ‘Blue Drops’ meanwhile, is much more amenable, recalling the gentler, bluesier ambience of Hugh Hopper’s Hughscore, propelled along by simpler guitar lines and relatively gentle percussion. Elsewhere, on ‘Ancora Pier Paolo’ – there are hints of Durutti-column style noodling with multiple call and response vocals and on ‘Movoid Blues’, subtle guitar licks eventually give way to a Hopper-like fuzz bass grind out.
If one needs a reason for reviewing  this fine album on a Canterbury scene blog, then it is for  ‘Sea Song (Robert Wyatt)’, a version which was apparently sent to its author for approval and received it in spades. Tackling a piece which is almost the holy grail of Canterbury tracks is courageous in itself, and whilst the likes of the Unthanks (beautifully) Tim Hawthorn (faithfully) and the University of Errors (authentically) have attempted this, the Diratz/Vaucel version is less diplomatic: gravel voice and heartfelt delivery chill the bones a little, and the scatted coda, which for me in its original form is perhaps the most beautiful two minutes in musical history, is here performed with a hint of menace. It is the most unique re-interpretation to date, and as such works well.


By John Westhaver ( Birdman Sound / Ottawa ) :

Exceptional album alert 2019! Cheers to old friend David Lewis for the heads up on this just 2 weeks ago ! Operating out of Paris, France; Carla Diratz and Pascal Vaucel have blended by no accident, a timeless piece of work here! The perfect cocktail of avant-garde jazz that collides with Canterbury influenced progressive psych. The understated, deep spiritual heaviness and breathing space is jaw droppingly brilliant! "pRéCis . AiMaNt" recalls to me, the great leanings of Annette Peacock, Laurence Vanay, Catherine Ribeiro, Soft Machine and other practitioners of next level attainment. Thank you for making such a fantastic album.


By Gregory Applegate Edwards ( Gapplegate Guitar and Bass Blog ) :

Vocalist Carla Diratz and electric guitarist Pascal Vaucel hold forth beautifully well on the new album pRéCis.AiMaNt (Pochette vinyl 33T). It is a series of originals with bass and drums (those latter sounds programmed by Pascal and also drum sounds compiled from field recordings) that conjures without imitating the sort of art you expected from the Tony Williams Lifetime in its first very heady days with John McLaulghlin, Larry Young and, eventually, Jack Bruce. Or also think about the quirky music-in-a-message-in-a-bottle of early Soft Machine with Robert Wyatt? That. The lyrics are poetic-personal, the vocals artfully individual, the guitar openly prog-fuze-neo-psychedelic in excellent ways, the rhythm team simply loose and jazz-rock-ful as befits a primarily accompaniment role.

Every track has its own individual sensibility, every minute has definite immediacy. Carla's vocals are absolutely tabla rasa, original, very herself, sultry-smart, musically bending and twisting over the sound skies we behold gladly. Pascal is a whirlwind in a thoughtful genie's magic lamp.

It is music that one cannot ignore, advanced and avant, very human, very hard edged yet sensitive in sensibility. In the horizon of music today pRéCis.AiMaNt is the Morning Star, a light bearing signal that comes out of the past yet signals a future daybreak maybe? Yes.

Excellent in all ways is this. Guitarists and psychedelicatessan owners take note, vocal aficionados and new electric music fans hearken! The pasture is the future-ful foddering grounds and we can hear it now! I am glad to talk about this one and I fully suggest you listen a bunch of times! Oh, yes.