Enneade are a French band formed all the way back in 1995. They released some demos before eventually in 2005 releasing their debut full album, Remembrance. The gorgeously titled Withered Flowers & Cinnamon is their third album.

As a rule, I am not particularly fond of bands and albums which take as their starting point a classic band they love and try their best to recreate said classic band in their pomp, but simply end up sounding like a cheap tribute act. It is fair to state that Enneade wear their King Crimson and Genesis influences especially on their collective sleeve, but I have to say that I like this album, which has some extremely strong song writing and musicianship, and has within it a warmth which I rather appreciate.

A Foul Taste of Freedom gives us early period Crimson as its starting point, but the track develops into something rather more unique and interesting, with vocalist Christian Greven providing us with an almost post-punk vocal set against music which is at turns pastoral and others keyboard-heavy prog. As the track progresses, we are introduced to some heavier passages with crunching riffs underpinning the ghostly Fripp-inspired guitar, but of note against all of this are the vocal harmonies. The closing segment of the track, which has the title track repeated vocally, is a broad rocker with the drums of Lacousse especially prominent. The track provides us with an interesting start to proceedings with some contrasting moods.

Illumination follows this. The opening guitar chords are warm and reminiscent of the days when twelve-string guitars were at the forefront of Genesis gigs. Two minutes in, we get a rather nice electric guitar burst before the piece intersperses more industrial noises amongst the gentle guitars. An extended instrumental passage follows with the opening guitar mood still predominant amongst heavier riffs, and the whole piece becomes something special. The closing passages revert again to the opening mood, and I have to say that it is interesting to hear a French outfit playing a style of music which is quintessentially English in its nature. You sit up a bit at the very last seconds when the glockenspiel plays out the track, a real contrast to what came before, and provides us with the opening notes of Tinkling Forks, my favourite track on the album. The mood of this is directly lifted from the type of percussive lunacy perfected by Jamie Muir when he was playing about with Bruford in Crimson, and the guitar riff is lifted from precisely the same period, but I do like Greven’s vocals here a great deal. As the piece develops into a dreamy guitar and glockenspiel/xylophone session, with extended chords and notes lifted directly from the Fripp playbook, it is extremely well performed, and the track at its denouement segues into Grand Buffet, which is a piece of music which could very easily have appeared on Discipline. It is a naked tribute to Belew-era Crimson, but, even so, is very well done, aside from the vocal meanderings at the end which I am not sure fit anywhere. Both tracks feature Kunio Suma of Bi Kyo Ran, and his contributions are very good.

The longest track, and the only 10-minute plus track, is Autumn, the last on the album. The start has a dreamy keyboard extended piece, with some very interesting and subdued drums underpinning this. As the guitars are introduced, the Belew-era influence is again strong. I do, though, really like the fragility of the lead vocal singing about the dazzling colours and stark beauty of autumn as a season, and, again, there is something special and unique amongst all the obvious influences in the music. There are some nice mellotron and vocal chants set against the lead vocal. The lead guitar passage five minutes in is, again, so obvious in its influence it does not bear repeating, but the vocals are really appealing against the sounds which I first heard so many years ago when Frippertronics first graced my ears. The sax solo at nine minutes by Olivier Sola is blues-infested and provides a very good contrast to the ongoing mellotron, whilst the rhythm section provides a strong backdrop. As the track closes, it has a certain Crime of the Century feel to it.

I think this is a good album. As I have stated in the song reviews, the influences are so stark as to make me somewhat wary when first listening, but there is enough originality here to keep the interest going. The musicianship is never anything less than exceptional and there are most certainly many worst ways to spend 37 minutes of your time. Recommended and released via Vallis Lupi.