Sean Trane By the late 70’s, Ponty’s « group » was not even close to its debut line-up, since outside Jean-Luc himself, no one else was still present. But this hardly means that the newer members are not as good (or better) than their predecessor, far from it. But one thing is sure: Ponty’s formula is definitely going a little stale by now, with each and every album being systematically a little too close for comfort; Cosmic Messenger is almost incestuously close to Imaginary Voyage and XXXXX and you will not be able to tell for sure which album you’re on. The problem lies at the very base of the music: this instrumental fusion was also by 78 relatively common, hardly groundbreaking and to be truthful a bit boring.

While the opening title track still sounds exciting, the rest of the first side is rather yawning, unexciting and heard-before while still remaining pleasant and technical. The second side is rather more interesting, but still not worth writing home (or even a dithyrambic review for that matter) about: both Fake Paradise (about angel dust, maybe?) and the excellent Egocentric Molecules are worth a note. While Ethereal Mood is a dreamy atmospheric tune, but failing to evolve much, arouse your interest and ultimately overstaying its welcome.

Yet another late 70’s JR/F album. Not the most inspired nor is it the worst either. Just a bit pointless. Désolé Jean-Luc, quand tu en as un, tu les as tous!!!