In The Nursery
Koda

Among the various hidden gems of the 80s, "Koda" by the British "In The Nursery" is undoubtedly one of the most original. Their project was to combine orchestral compositions and classical music scores with the cold and threatening sound of synths. Essentially, their goal was to create a true "synthetic orchestra." The endeavor is bold and, to be honest, a bit too ambitious, but the Humberstone twins' ability to navigate through diverse arrangements shows that the result is a very original album, light years away from the "synthetic" panorama of those years.

The atmosphere is apocalyptic, their furious rhythms' force and the power of their electronic surges are truly impressive. (Note: if you have a decent hi-fi system, it's time to see what it's worth...). One is almost overwhelmed by the more tumultuous episodes of the record. Take, for example, track no.7: the title, "Scherzo", is indeed a mockery, given the strength of the timpani that devastate it, with the solemn drums marking the rhythm and the synth's "staccato" surges completing this electronic convulsion. The dark and threatening "Ascent" best expresses the "sum" of their art: funereal drones accompanied by solemn violins alternate throughout the seven minutes of the track with a celestial theme of keyboards and carillon, forming an ideal backdrop for an ethereal female voice that recites verses in French. But "Koda" also features short fragments balanced between ambient and new-age, ideal for breaking the dramatic tension of the main themes. A wonderful demonstration of this is the pastoral flute of the splendid "Kotow", which paints vast stretches of plains at sunset and exudes a scent of solitude. Balancing between emotional storms and brief relaxations is the beautiful theme of keyboards and plucked strings in "Burnished Days", interrupted by brutal military drums and once again enriched by the angelic voice of Dolores Marguerite C., who joined the group in 1987.

The Humberstone twins coined a perhaps unique language that, refined in more "ascetic" and less "Wagnerian" terms, would give rise to the successful "gothic" genre of the 90s. What remains for us is a bright and unrepeatable work, "alive" more than ever in the universal stream of good music.