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French progressive rock group Atoll fashioned their music around Yes' and Genesis' repertoire, employing lush tapestries of classically oriented string work to light melodies and intricate song structures. 1974's Musiciens-Magiciens is among the band's strongest releases, laying out breezy, energetic passages that use a moderate amount of keyboards and strong dosages of guitar to create busy semi-suites that hold together quite well. All the vocals are in French, but the instruments are what truly steal the show, especially in the 11-plus minutes of "Le Baladin du Temps," a concept piece which is broken up into three separate parts. The final track, entitled "Je Suis D'ailleurs," has the band creating some rather spirited musical drifts and variations through the use of animated rhythms and resilient textures, much like Ange does, another French progressive band. While Atoll's composition rarely strayed throughout their short lifespan, Musiciens-Magiciens remains one their best albums, mainly because the group was just starting out and their music and images sound fresh and inventive. The release of Musiciens-Magiciens that appears on Musea contains four live bonus tracks, with two of them repeats of the album's original cuts. Purists should be aware that the recording of the live tracks is very poor and of the lowest quality, but the original seven cuts sound quite good. ~ Mike DeGagne
