VDT VIEW

Listen to LIBERTE

If you haven’t figured it out, yet, most of the VDT View music reviews focus on music you may have otherwise not heard of. Not all of it, but definitely the majority of it. There’s a couple reasons for this: One, everybody knows that Metallica, for example, has released a new album, and almost everybody has something to say or write about it. That doesn’t mean we may not have something to say about “Death Magnetic,” but, if we don’t, it doesn’t mean you won’t hear it and about it from hundreds of other outlets. Two, people send VDT View e-mails touting some new album; we ask them for a review copy, no matter who it is, and if they send it, we review it. Robert Lauri’s “Liberte” is a case in point. I had never heard of Lauri prior to receiving an e-mail about his latest music, but have come to learn that he is a French musician, well known in France, who brings something of a Philip Glass-like composer’s reach to his disco-pop-rap jives. He sings in his native French, in a riveting voice. For “Liberte,” he sings while an earnest female voice translates the words into English, which doesn’t quite meet the desired effect of deep thoughts on the contradictions of liberty, but rather comes across as so serious, it is almost anything but. Yet, the package that contained “Liberte” included Lauri’s “Tant s’aimer tant se hair,” which is a truly mesmerizing piece of music, powerful, challenging, and, unless you understand French, its words will remain a mystery. But that’s OK, you don’t have to understand the words to appreciate Lauri’s voice on this CD.