Album review

CD OF THE WEEK: ERA

Era's Second Coming

10/07/2000 - 

Paris, July 7th 2000 - Eric Levi - aka the brains behind best-selling "New Age electro" phenomenon Era - has been bitten by the mystic bug and enjoyed a spectacular road-to-Damascus conversion. Levi launched his career in the 80s as guitarist/founding member of French hard rock group Shakin'Street (who managed to score a record deal with U.S. label Columbia). Then, the following decade, Levi reinvented himself as a film composer, writing the music for Jean-Marie Poiré's surprise box-office hit Les Visiteurs. In the late 90s Levi went one better. Hitting upon the idea of mixing Latin chants with electro beats, he took the international charts by storm with the top-selling album "Era" and now, three years later, he's back in the music news with Era 2. Released in France on Mercury/Universal on May 16th, Era 2 is, as its title suggests, a (rather unnecessary) repetition of Era 1 - that's to say more Latin chants, more mainstream electro beats and a good dose of New Age feelgood factor!

Boosted by the success of the first single release, Ameno, Era's eponymous debut album (released in 1997) proved to be a huge hit in France, clocking up over 1 million in sales. What's more, Era soon repeated this success on the international scene, racing up the album charts in thirty different countries - and selling another 2.5 million copies in the process! Crowned with a "Victoire de la Musique" award, Era ended up going down in music history as one of the best-selling French albums of all time. The secret of its success? Eric Levi's clever mix of religious chants and electro beats which tapped into the vogue for all things New Age and also worked in countries where more orthodox religions hold sway. In short, Era no.1 was a hit all the way from Eastern Europe to South America - and it looks like the year 2000 is the perfect time for an Era resurrection!

Sadly, Era's second coming has proved to be a bit of a let-down. Era 2 is blatantly lacking in inspiration - which, you must agree, is a cardinal sin for a record based on religious liturgy! With total playing time coming in at a bare 45 minutes, Era 2 might have worked as an honest sequel had it been packaged as a double CD with Era 1. (But then, we hear cynics amongst you mutter, with the price of double albums, would Era 1 ever have managed to smash all those sales records?) In any case, it looks like Levi knows when he's on to a good thing! Following the phenomenal success of Era 1, Levi recently returned to the studio to prepare a rehash of his best-selling formula. Cashing in on the Ademius/Gregorian success story, Levi has whipped up a second New Age pot-au-feu, mixing melodies inspired by the Middle Ages with religious-sounding chants (sung in false Latin!) and electro beats interspersed with synthesisers and fake guitars. This eminently mainstream product will doubtless appeal to all those who invested in a copy of Era 1 - but one fails to see who else could possibly be interested! Levi himself appears not to care. Refusing to give any interviews to promote his new album, the French star is instead relying on a weighty TV advertising campaign and the first single release, Divano.

Besides the first single Divano, Era's new album features another eight New Age chants including Omen Sore, Don't U, Misere Mani, Hymne, Devore amante, Sentence and a final instrumental. Fans will doubtless hail the songs on Era 2 as haunting and uplifting, but more objective critics would probably describe the album as seriously boring and sleep-inducing. True, the lyrics on Era 2 sound suitably mysterious (especially as they are sung in a weird Latin dialect unknown to scholars!), but the songs are lacking in any semblance of substance. Little wonder then that the press release accompanying the CD can come up with nothing better than to describe the new Era concept as an exploration of a world where the forces of Good confront the forces of Evil!

Era 2 was composed, arranged, written and produced by the one-man show Eric Levi, then recorded in London and mixed in Paris. (Although, for authenticity's sake, the album was lovingly prepared in Malastrana, the oldest quarter of Prague). And love it or hate it, Levi's fusion of New Age chants, fake Latin and electro beats has already proved an overwhelming success the second time round - Era 2 is currently riding high in the album charts in France, Germany, Belgium, Scandinavia, Canada, New Zealand and the Netherlands!

Gilles Rio

Era Era 2 (Mercury/Universal)