The Ultimate Review of Dans la forêt...

Some acts' discographies are probably better heard going back from their most recent to their earliest and this certainly applies to Aäkon Këëtrëh, one of the more obscure projects associated with the French Black Legions and a mostly experimental dark ambient one at that. The fact that AK made just three recordings within 2 or 3-year period makes the task easier as with this genre of music there are no great leaps going backwards in the way of technical sophistication. "Dans la Foret" ("In the Forest") is the middle recording of the three AK made over 1997 - 1999.

All tracks are very short and untitled and the entire recording is best heard as one overarching work of separate chapters. In themselves the tracks lead nowhere and are repetitive but as a group they form a narrative, even if unintended, and from that narrative they draw their meaning and make sense as a group. Atmosphere and emotion arise and derive their strength from the collective. Most tracks are simple in their construction: they are based around a repeating guitar riff or melody which is often counterpointed by a second melody in a lower or higher register - the interplay between two opposed melodies or riffs gives them their emotional tension. In some later tracks, AK plays an extended solo lead guitar melody against repetitive rhythm guitar and this helps to develop further the feeling initially expressed in the opening riffs.

While the production is no great shakes, it does help give the music a foreboding shadow quality and it is just clean enough that the raw primitivist melodies and counter-melodies can be heard clearly and starkly. There is a definite air of isolation and aloneness in most tracks and in some later pieces there is a sense of defiance, as if AK is determined to plough his own furrow in spite of what life may throw at him.

The length for this recording is about right: any shorter and the melodies and riffs would seem a bit undercooked, any longer and the restrictions AK set on himself in making this demo would start to strain with the music in danger of becoming monotonous. Some people might gripe that AK adds no special effects or extra instrumentation but the idea was simply to express mood and atmosphere using just a guitar. There are some good tunes here and perhaps later they may be reused in longer and more developed songs should AK choose to revisit and rework them.
Final Score: 72 / 100