Despite the strengths of Univers Zero's two previous albums, 2006's Live and 2010's Clivages, bandleader/drummer Daniel Denis decided that some retooling was in order as the 40th anniversary of the group's founding loomed. Asserting that "the old form was stagnant," Denis significantly changed UZ's lineup and opened yet another chapter in the Belgian avant-prog outfit's history book. The result can be heard on the band's 13th album, Phosphorescent Dreams, released by the Japanese Arcangelo label (rather than Cuneiform) in early 2014. The core group is now a streamlined, electrified quintet of Denis, reedman Kurt Budé, bassist Dimitri Evers, and two newcomers, guitarist Nicolas Dechêne and keyboardist Antoine Guenet. Notably, bassoonist/oboist Michel Berckmans has departed. An important historical presence in the group, Berckmans is missed, but his absence has precedent; UZ carried on forcefully without him during the 1980s, shifting the focus from Berckmans' bassoon to Dirk Descheemaeker's clarinet on Crawling Wind (1983), Uzed (1984), and Heatwave (1986), and now Budé's clarinet is elevated in similar fashion on Phosphorescent Dreams. Denis was wise to retain Budé from the Live/Clivages lineups, not only because of Budé's stellar clarinet and sax playing, but also his role as a composer, now nearly equal to the drummer himself (Denis wrote four of the seven tracks here; Budé the remaining three).

1		Shaking Hats
2		Vocation
3		Très affables
4		Rêve mécanique
5		Les voleurs d'ombre
6		L'espoir perdu
7		Phosphorescent Dreams

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