http://matierebrute.free.fr/Reviews.htm#RapoonDesaccordMajeurSalmoSalar

Fidèle à son concept de rencontre et de partage, le label Fario, qui, chaque année depuis 1998, invite deux artistes à réaliser un album ensemble, a proposé cette année à Rapoon et Désaccord Majeur de croiser leurs univers.
Deux titres de Rapoon ouvrent l'album dans le style qu'il a su forger au cours de ses nombreuses années d'activisme musical. Ses pièces sont de longues traversées d'océans calmes et profonds hantés par nombre de créatures lucifuges venant vous chuchoter leurs histoires dans le creux de l'oreille. Les drones étirés se font l'écho de glitches rituels qui vous emporte dans un dédale dont on ne veut pas trouver la sortie.
Le morceau Salmo salar, véritable fruit de la collaboration se révèle être un savant mélange des deux personnalités, servant en quelque sorte d'antichambre entre les deux univers.
En passant dans celui de Désaccord Majeur, on découvre des continents inconnus de "l'homme civilisé". Comme à son habitude, Désaccord Majeur explore des mondes tribaux où d'étranges mélodies et percussions aux couleurs chatoyantes, mêlées à des bribes de chants aux langages incompréhensibles, ont le rôle principal. Tout aussi emprunt d'un caractère tribal que L'Ouglab, L'Ogre éthérique déstabilise néanmoins par les lignes de basses, qui ne sont pas sans rappeler Muslimgauze sur des albums comme Baghdad, et les rythmes technoïdes qui apparaissent peu à peu pour venir ponctuer le morceau. Sunquake ralenti la mesure en revenant à des paysages plus apaisés.
A l'instar de Rapoon, Désaccord Majeur nous montre en quelques minutes l'étendue de son savoir-faire et nous entrouvrent les portes de son esprit peuplé de belles chimères.

YH

François Couture, All Music Guide

Like most releases on the French label Fario, Salmo Salar assumes the form of a split CD where a collaborative track by the two featured artists provides a bridge between their solo segments. The titles of Rapoon's two pieces refer to the sun and the spirit, two words useful to describe Robin Storey's ethereal white drones (as opposed to the dark drones of the post-industrial scene). "Espiritum" even gets close to new age, although the soundscape is too multi-layered to feel that trite. Désaccord Majeur (aka Jérôme Mauduit) takes a different approach, rooted in techno-fusion. Relying on a medium-tempo electronic beat and spiced up with exotic voices and instruments, his music avoids the flashy tricks of the commercial type of this music. His three tracks, 25 minutes total, evoke instead the make-believe ethnic fusion of Lászlo Hortobágyi. The two artists should be compatible, but their collaborative piece, "Salmo Salar," doesn't deliver. In an effort to meet halfway, they both stripped out the more interesting features of their sound and ended up with a nondescript soup. But you can fall back on Rapoon's mystical soundscapes or Désaccord Majeur's alternate third worlds for compensation. That said, those familiar with the Fario imprint will find this album slightly more comfortable than its other releases, which tend to be more challenging.

http://www.manifoldrecords.com/q-r.html

Head-spinning collisions of ethno-ambient rhythms and post-industrial ambient. Twenty minutes of new pieces by Rapoon, about thirty by Desaccord Majeur and one long track collaborated by both. Desaccord Majeur, veterans of the Euro-cassette age, put a very interesting spin on base material Robin Storey generates. Intense, visual pulses and cuts run out along lines laid down by Rapoon. Rapoon melts galloping patterns of Desaccord Majeur into dreamlike movements part collage part total ambient background. The eventual result will make the Rapoon listener feel right at home, this is far more engaging than 'What Do You Suppose...', 'Navigating By Colour' or 'D-Lem' , just a very interesting new manner and color washed over a brand of epiphany we all love. I must say that it strikes me very similar to early period Muslimgauze, that stilted, taped, ethno-beat sound but with a slightly lo-fi electronic edge to it. The entire affair reminds me of early Zoviet cassettes, Muslimgauze and of course, Desaccord Majeur. Great third-world dreaming soundtrack.

review by Vince Harrigan

http://www.chaindlk.net/reviews/reviews.php3?category=6&sheet=2

A nice add-on to the series of collaborative/split cds realeased by Fario (label of the Fear Drop mag staff), this 2003 release features two projects from the realms of ambient and experimental trance-electronica which complement very well each other. Veteran Robin Storey/Rapoon displays his usual top-notch quality array of mesmerizing loops and drones, melting ethnic acoustic instruments into currents of digital lava. His two solo tracks are further proofs of excellence and inspiration within an already impressive discography.
Désaccord Majeur, with a remarkable list of releases on his side, proceeds along similar guidelines, but with a more definite rhythmical side, patent in the technoid "L'ogre éthérique" and a bit more subdued in the others - reminded me, at times, of Muslimgauze. The core of the cd, i.e. the eponymous collaborative track between the two, shows how the coupling was well-thought and effective, mixing Rapoon's trance ambiences with Désaccord Majeur's more prominent pulses.

Review by: Eugenio Maggi - December 23 2003

http://svalemor.chat.ru/r_.htm#9

Fario is the meeting place of musicians, which are quite similar by style but never collaborated yet up to date. Here is the sixth volume of this ongoing series, and it should draw attention of those who like ethnic music and transcendental trips. "Salmo Salar" is the unique album especially for Rapoon, because it's his first collaborative project ever (if I am informed right). As we use to say, Rapoon needs no introduction - anyone who was into underground for a recent ten years should obviously know this name. Released a number of albums, Robin Storey of former Zoviet France fame never was an object of rapt attention for me personally. His two long tracks are opening this album, and I must admit that they showing no real progression in comparison with the last album I've heard (Kirghiz Light is the name, if I am not wrong). The pale and blurred visions of fantastic world drowned in the centuries become just more abstract and out of body here. And instead of confused ethnic percussion - that fashionable electric tap which is more appropriated for IDM and glitch than for ambient. The semi-centennial lullaby for spectacular civilization. The next one is that collaborative track, recorded together with anonymous french band Desaccord Majeur, on which I have too few information to say something certain. It came into the world in the end of 80s, releasing some obscure tapes on their own same-titled label. The only CD album I've heard it was "Samana" (released by Staalplaat) remained in my memory as the audacious experiment with the ethnic, neoclassic and musique concrete, all blended together without consolidating ideas. Here is more evident idea, such as different points of view crossing the ethnic music field - and successful one! The next three tracks are recorded by Desaccord Majeur solely, they are full of wandering and calling voices, trance rhythms and unobtrusive electronic arrangements. It takes you to weird celebration in the dense forest, with wild folk dances and forgotten rituals. A kind of zooming that illusive world which Rapoon tried to show us, from the bird's-eye view...

http://pretentious.net/Rapoon/reviews/salmo.htm

The Fario label was created in 1998 by the staff of the french magazine Fear Drop. The concept behind Fario is the meeting : collaborations between two artists. Each record shows two halves created separately and a common track, a moment to share views or to oppose feelings. All tracks are previously unreleased.
Rapoon is the alias of Robin Storey, co-founder and former member (until 1991) of the seminal ambient / postindustrial band :zoviet*france:. As we can hear from many :z*f: and and Rapoon’s productions, Rob Storey shows a genuine approach to dreamy sounds, a magical touch which awakens remote rhythms made of stone, wood, rain, pebbles… (In the two long solo pieces he wrote and performed for this release, we can also hear (and live) glitch sounds, playing this ritual game). His air is full of forgotten pieces of melodies, orange drones and vegetal vibrations, gently stupefacient. Since the eighties, french musician Désaccord Majeur has been creating strange sound entities, fragments of undiscovered worlds, mixing ethnic parts and instruments, natural sounds, wet loops and forgotten languages. His sound movies are like labyrinths, folding their ground and warming the fresh air. He recently added discreet dub basses and then made his landscapes even less definable, crossing many places without pointing any. Désaccord Majeur fashions the country of our dreams, from rocks to insects, from air to water, in a celestial movement.

When writing about music it is hard to avoid to compare one thing with the other. And it's never fun, I know. Everybody wants to hear that their music is unique and unheard before. But to compare one thing to another also serves another purpose. If the Rik Publik likes band A, he might also like band B, because they sound like band A. A band that sounded like Rapoon, at least in the past, was Desaccord Majeur. Pseudo tribal ethnic elements, bathing in loads of reverb.
The Fario label, who specializes in releasing CDs that are have some unique tracks by two artists and one collaborative piece of music, backed Rapoon and Desaccord Majeur together so maybe we can see if they sound alike. Rapoon, aka Robin Storey, former member of :zoviet*france:, but since eleven years building a strong body of solowork, plays his rhythms by using stones, wood, peebles, adding tons and tons of delays and reverb on top of them and create a solemn atmosphere of sounds. Majestic and atmospherical, but sometimes it becomes also a cliche of it's own. Desaccord Majeur has three lenghty tracks on this CD and his rhythms comes out of a box - a drumcomputer to be precize. Jerome Maudit, for he is Desaccord Majeur, built clever rhythms on his drumcomputer, spices them with samples and synthesizer sounds. It all sounds nicely done, but it's also a bit sterile, clinical and remote: it never grabs you by the balls. Their joint piece by Rapoon and Desaccord Majeur combines the best elements of both. The clinical rhythms of Desaccord Majeur and the heavenly atmospherics of Rapoon. Ok, so maybe Desaccord Majeur doesn't sound like Rapoon when confronted with the two, despite some similarities. That makes this joint release into a nice effort.
And by the way: Fario is part of the excellent French written magazine Fear Drop, of which just issue ten was published, including stories of Thomas Koner, Savage Republic, Oren Ambarchi, Chris Watson and more. And if you don't know what it sounds like, a CD with thirteen tracks is also included.

review by Frans de Waard / Vital Weekly.