a hundred musicians and singers on stage bring the mythical group back to life

On tour from February 4 to May 21 with 17 dates in France, the French tribute band Back to the Floyd performs on stage with the orchestra La Folia de Lille, and the vocal ensemble Adventi of 24 singers, the mythical repertoire of Pink Floyd from 1967 to 1997. With a rare title, Atom Heart Mother from 1970, almost never played on stage.

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Tribute bands are criticized for being only the executors of the great pop works of the 1960s and 70s. This show precisely takes some distance from the cliché. It includes original arrangements, a symphony orchestra and a choir. Back to the Floyd offers a performance where the passion of musicians for music is expressed, with a spontaneous freshness, almost “garage”, with the ambition to recreate moments of grace. Among them, the highlight of the show: Atom Heart Motheran instrumental piece of about twenty minutes from 1970, rarely played on stage, since it requires a formation of brass, strings and a choir, difficult to gather on tour, which this Pink Floyd Symphonic Show offers.

In 1970, Atom Heart Mother is also Floyd’s fifth studio album, between Ummagumma and Meddle. The group then reconnects with the experimental trend of its beginnings. As for other formations of the time (Deep Purple, ELP, Yes, Genesis), symphonic orchestration combined with rock is a privileged field of exploration. The album is undoubtedly one of the achievements of the genre, even if the group does not call upon a full symphony orchestra, but components, powerful brass instruments and a sublime choir.

Hardly ever played on stage due to logistical constraints, Back to the Floyd: Pink Floyd Symphonic Show gives a splendid interpretation ofAtom Heart Mother which alone deserves the trip. Atom Heart Mother, a complex composite piece, requires a set-up and an orchestral power in which all the performers bring their best to the show. From different worlds, they merge into a music where everyone comes together to create a chord, to reach the sweet sound of thunder. It is criticized for a heavy emphasis, a qualifier stigmatizing progressive rock, ignoring the wonderful covers, due in particular to the exceptional choir of the Adventi ensemble.

Introduced by the dark, deep hum of the Moog melotron, the brass launches the main theme of an epic 20-minute piece (the face of a vinyl): a launch that rises and explodes on the roar of the exhaust pipes of a historic double cylinder. When the choir rises, on the dominant theme of the work, the Hammond organ mixes in with great audacity. Then the heavy drums take them away until dusk in minor key. The bass then launches a ballad on which the organ then the aerial guitar are grafted, to end on a soaring track. We are in darkness.

A breakthrough from heaven revives the brass with the opening theme of the work, to fall back into an agonizing atmosphere: it is the dissonant organ worthy of its experiments with the original Floyd. Until the luminous harmonies of the inaugural theme finally take over this darkness. The finale brings together rock, brass and choir in an apotheosis. Magnificent. During the presentation at Pleyel in Paris, the room stood up as one man to salute a remarkable interpretation.

It is not the least quality of Back to the Floyd to appropriate the group’s repertoire thanks to original and unpublished arrangements by Simon Fache. Very good idea to introduce well-known titles with new scores.

Born in Hauts-de-France in 2014 at the instigation of an enthusiast, Back to the Floyd materializes the dream of Cyril Jablonka who learned the guitar on the tabs of David Gilmour. He found others like him, drummer, bassist, keyboardist… to tour across France.

This Symphonic Show is the apotheosis, given the complexity of the project – combining a large symphony orchestra with a choir on known and recognized scores. So the albums Meddle, Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Hereand even the Lucifer Sam by Syd Barrett on Saucerful of Secrets are revisited. Obviously, the group does not have the means of Floyd to reconstitute the visual show of the original concerts, but the equivalents produced are in the spirit and successful. Revive!