Patrick RONDAT’s international recognition led to the uncovering of a cohort of young French guitar-heroes, each of them quite promising. Cyril ACHARD is one of those, and he’s among the most gifted students of his generation. "Confusion" (1997) is the name of his first solo album, whose music can be defined as halfway between hard-rock, jazz-rock fusion and instrumental Progressive rock. ARRAKEEN’s former guitarist (Which was the first true neo Progressive band in France), performs a music that is naturally oriented towards his beloved instrument. And thus we get a small masterpiece, kind of unlikely crossing between Joe SATRIANI, LIQUID TENSION EXPERIMENT and Allan HOLDSWORTH. Given that he prefers playing on the sounds and nuances than relying on pure virtuosity, he manages to create some musical pictures with his guitar and his keyboards. In order to perform with such a talented virtuoso, a flawless rhythm section was needed, and was found in Frédéric SCHNEI! DER (Bass) and Laurent PIACENTINO (Drums). The acoustic side of the instrument was not forgotten, for the bliss of Al Di MEOLA’s fans. The album’s last track, "Naufrage", pays tribute to one of his idols, Jason BECKER. It also anticipates his future participation to a tribute-album dedicated to the unfortunate US guitar-hero. Now under contract with Yamaha, Cyril ACHARD is also a teacher at the C.I.A.M. in Bordeaux. It would be a true pity to miss this !
--This text refers to an alternate
Audio CD
edition.
