Uzed is the fourth album by Belgian

Belgium

Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

 RIO

Rock in Opposition

Rock in Opposition or RIO was a movement representing a collective of progressive bands in the late 1970s united in their opposition to the music industry that refused to recognise their music...

 band Univers Zero

Univers Zéro

Univers Zero are an instrumental Belgian band known for playing dark music heavily influenced by 20th century chamber music. The group's name has had three variant spellings, the others being Univers Zéro and Univers-Zero....

. Due to a packed touring schedule, the band released this work three years after their previous album proper, Ceux du Dehors

Ceux du dehors

Ceux du dehors is the third album by the Belgian RIO band Univers Zero. The title translates as "Those from the Outside."The original LP consisted of six tracks...

(although the Crawling Wind

Crawling Wind

Crawling Wind is an album by Univers Zero. It was a 3-song EP when originally released in 1983, but a 2001 reissue of the album included an extra studio track, "Influences", as well as two live tracks....

EP was released in the interim).
This record marked an important stylistic shift for the band. The synthesizers which had been more moderately employed on Ceux du Dehors (and not at all in previous works) became much more prevalent on this release. In fact, the album opens with a synthesizer

Synthesizer

A synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing sounds by generating electrical signals of different frequencies. These electrical signals are played through a loudspeaker or set of headphones...

 riff. Along with using more electric sounds, Univers Zero began to take inspiration from Middle Eastern musical themes, perhaps most notably on the album's opener,"Présage."
The new sound was partially attributable to the addition of some new band members. André Mergen's cello

Cello

The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...

 work provided some interesting new textures for the ensemble. Michael Delory became the first guitarist

Guitarist

A guitarist is a musician who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselves on the guitar while singing.- Versatility :The guitarist controls an extremely...

 employed by the band since the departure of co-founder Roger Trigaux after Heresie

Heresie

Heresie is the second album by Belgian RIO band Univers Zero released in 1979. It features heavy use of dissonance and dark, brooding and extremely complex melodies.-Track listing:...

. Delory, unlike Trigaux, would play electric guitar

Electric guitar

An electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...

 with UZ. On Uzed, he plays a notable and unexpected guitar solo at the end of "Célesta (For Chantal)." Jean-Luc Plouvier was the primary keyboardist

Keyboardist

A keyboardist is a musician who plays keyboard instruments. Until the early 1960s musicians who played keyboards were generally classified as either pianists or organists. Since the mid-1960s, a plethora of new musical instruments with keyboards have come into common usage, requiring a more...

 for this album, and would form an interesting combo within the band with fellow keyboardist Andy Kirk when the latter wrote most of the material for and played on the next UZ album.

Track listing

All songs by Daniel Denis

1. "Présage" – 9:52
2. "L'Étrange Mixture du Docteur Schwartz" – 3:56
3. "Célesta (For Chantal)" – 6:55
4. "Parade" – 6:39
5. "Emanations" – 15:42

Personnel

• Daniel Denis: drums, percussion, synths
• Dirk Descheemaeker: clarinet, bass clarinet, soprano sax
• Christian Genet: bass guitar, balafon, bowed guitar, tapes, whistle
• Andre Mergen: cello, alto sax, voice
• Jean-Luc Plouvier: electric and acoustic guitars, synths, piano strings, percussion

Also with:

• Michael Delory: electric guitar
• Mark Verbist: violin