Spleen Arcana is the proggy baby of Frenchman Julien Gaullier, who has spent the last 5 years nurturing this debut album. It's very much a solo album as he sings and plays electric & acoustic guitars, bass guitar, keyboards, mellotron, bodhran and mandolin on it, only enlisting the help of David Perron on drums and Marie Guillaumet (extra vocals).

The album has been described as "45 minutes of melancholic and atmospheric prog" and right from the opener Trample On Me, it's straight into its stride - mournful piano giving way to a mellotron loaded guitar riddled piece. I've no idea how good Julien is on the drums, but I suspect getting David Perron in was a good idea.

The second track, The Missing Piece, is a quieter acoustic piece reminiscent of Roger Waters or even Muse in their earlier, quieter days. It's also the short track amongst the longs, like the English guy on a basketball team. It is followed by A Picture Of Two Lovers In The Mist, back to the mournful atmospherics, replete with vocal effects almost verging into Opeth territory at one point before being reigned in.

The next track, Tears Are Made To Flow is almost poppy in its dreamy trancey way and at points reminds me of Mansun. The album is finished off in style with A Kind Of Heaven, which sees Marie Guillaumet join in with some sweet backing vocals.

The first time I played the album, it felt like it was only 30 minutes long, the actual 45 minutes had flown by.

It's not a ground breaking release, in years to come we won't be saying it changed the face of Prog, but it is a damn fine first release which shows a lot of promise!

Track List

• Trample On Me (9:07)
• The Missing Piece (3:42)
• A Picture Of Two Lovers In The Mist (10:12)
• Tears Are Made To Flow (9:49)
• A Kind Of Heaven (10:04)

The album is available as a 320kbps mp3 quality download at www.spleenarcana.com.

More info on the band at www.spleenarcana.com or on www.myspace.com/spleenarcana.

You can also follow Julien on twitter at twitter.com/spleenarcana

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