Epictronic Records is proud to announce that French progressive rock project Ph2 signed a deal for their album Season 5 (Remastered Version), which is due for release on December 16th, 2022, on all digital platforms worldwide.
Season 5 is Ph2’s 5th album. It includes five tracks sung by guest artists (Clara Moati, Jean-Pierre Hadida, Frédéric Chenuet, Hippolyte Giraud-Nicolas) and seven instrumental tracks.
The eclecticism that is Ph2’s trademark can be found in Season 5. The orientation taken from the 3rd album (Empreintes) towards song formats is confirmed here, notably with Ô toi ma sœur, which deals with our collective indifference to the fate of migrants. Some tracks, such as The birth, Anaëlle, or On the Run Again, are firmly in the tradition of progressive rock. One can recognize borrowings from Pink Floyd, Genesis, and Peter Gabriel here.
Season 5 also includes long instrumental tracks, whose melodies escape all repetitive structures and unfold in an evolving manner—an invitation to travel with Elsewhere, whose rich orchestration is built around playing the octave mandolin. The piano has pride of place in Mets ta morphose (in the piano) as well as in Pianos, tambours, fanfares, etc., two pieces built around the dialogue between two pianos, whose initial melodic line comes from improvisation, in the spirit of the automatic writing of the surrealists. One feels in these two pieces an inspiration coming from the classical music of the beginning of the 20th century (Ravel, Stravinsky, Prokofiev), as in Ça Pompe énormément where the symphonic orchestra dialogues with the percussions and the guitar.
The whole album is irrigated by electronic sounds that combine with conventional instruments to create an atmosphere and give the entire an original tone. In the end, Ph2, as usual, delivers an unclassifiable album, more faithful to the spirit than to the letter of progressive rock, where we find the will to surprise, even to confuse, but also to arouse images and to move the listener.
