How important are lyrics in song? It's a question we reviewers are faced with each time we feed the stereo a new album. Do great songs have correspondingly great lyrics? Should they? None of these are easy questions to answer, but for insight into exactly where you stand on the issue, there's nothing like an album sung in another language. Take
Les Profils des Dômes. Whether you're fluent in French, learned as much in school as you've subsequently forgotten or don't know a single word, Gypsophile's work is likely to impress.
Les Profils des Dômes is a slow, introspective record, molded into form by the careful acoustic fingering of Guillaume Belhomme, aka Gypsophile. Whether he's engaged in freeform noteplay ("L'Ethiopienne inuit"), a jazzy groove ("Repose") or an eerie European melody ("Pour effacer quoi ? et attendre"), Belhomme's playing demonstrates a conscious carefulness. If Les Profils des Dômes had to be classified, it might well fall under the "experimental" heading, but in execution and composition, not a single note is out of place. Meanwhile, Belhomme's skill as composer and guitarist is matched by equally talented contributors; the work of saxophonist Colin Barbier and flautist Petr Grisli never fails to intensify the mood. At turns dark and melancholy, light and cheerful -- the latter nowhere so much as in the title track -- Les Profils des Dômes might play in some shy bookstore, or as the soundtrack to a subtle French dramedy.
And then there are the vocals, which are enchanting in a way that only French can be. Belhomme's warm voice -- and that of the lovely Marine Livernette -- might even be said to carry the album. Perfectly subtle and unerringly gentle, their singing softens the tone of each guarded composition, making the music inviting and accessible. C'est belle: this you know...even if you can't understand a word of French.
