Uskè Orchestra
Niko Et La Berlue

THE REVIEW

Niko Uskè is a dreamer who turns into sound what he imagines: he creates an ensemble of noises and sounds as if it were orchestrated by children with a sense of rhythm but no apparent logical thread in the composition; imagine young Frank Zappa conducting Cocorosie, Mùm, Subtle, and Man Man still in diapers, in playful and chaotic atmospheres.

One colorful afternoon in May, while wandering with his cat in the garden, Niko saw some featherless ducks but happy just because they were wearing a bow tie (La Flaque Papìllon), staggering towards a circus tent; he followed them inside the tent where, amazed, he admired Chinese people without wheels smoking opium while dancing the mole dance (Elle Et Un Théâtre De Bambous) and clowns making rusty soap bubbles, playing soundless cans (Sourire De Rhubarbe).

Niko, curious, approached and without realizing it found himself trapped in a bubble; at this point, some mischievous spirits, wound up by a music box (Sous Un Mot Aux Couleurs), recited irritating rhymes, carrying Niko out of the tent. Here two hallucinated monkeys playing ping pong (Un Tintamarre Bleu) saw him and one of them took a corkscrew and made the bubble explode (Niko Et La Berlue), while the other played a flute backwards; Niko fell, hitting his snout, and getting up he realized that he had some wobbly teeth (L'Enclume Du Pays Des Dents); some in-heat cats with bells attached to their tails teased him for this (Tout Se Détache), so Niko ran towards a bed of feathers on a promontory, where he took a pair of headphones from under the pillow and listened to what they broadcasted: technical transmission tests of trumpets, xylophones, melodicas, blow flutes, toy keyboards, and horn sounds!!!

Niko woke up with a start, sobbing profusely (Ta Douceur Déguissée En Silence): it was a dream, chaotic, idyllic, and incomprehensible.