In a scene where the recordings of young sopranos tend toward an extreme sameness, Austria's Anna Prohaska would deserve kudos simply for the ambition of this release of soldiers' songs. The idea, especially for a female singer, is original, and the music draws on a great variety of sources, from Scottish song to Wolfgang Rihm. Better still is the execution, which shows Prohaska's extreme versatility.

Usually regarded as the Belgian Zao, Cos develops an European type of chamber-rock, built on onomatopeic vocals or sung in French or German. The band displays beautiful themes interwined with complex orchestrated rhythms. Its music evokes the Canterbury School (Caravan, Hatfield And The North), the anguished and dark music of King Crimson or Quiet Sun and Terje Rypdal's atmospheric jazz-rock. Pascale Son uses her high-pitched voice, able to perform the most incredible modulations, and this allows her to become one of the best singers in that style. The leader Daniel Schell is a guitarist extraordinaire, and proves to develop ideas as original as Robert Fripp's. "Babel" has been initially published in the year 1978, and the seven tracks of the original album have been completed by a ballet music ("Pro Arte Gymnastica", directed by Jac Delsing in Anvers, March 3rd 1979.), as well as three tracks captured live two years later in Hannover (Germany)…