I’m assuming that Owun are French given the title of the album but who knows? Likewise, the songs on the album are not songs as such but more directed outbursts of robotic rhythms, dragged into the light guitars and laconic vocals. “Persephone”, for example, sounds like a prog rock band practising discord or, at least, that’s my best attempt at describing this band’s straight from the art house sound.
“Carbone” uses a choral type vocal arrangement underpinned by initial repetition then musical mania to imprint itself on your mind. I’m going to use that song as incontrovertible evidence of why you won’t just “get” this band. Perhaps it was a sort of shoegaze madness that took hold of them and drove them towards a heavyweight version of the offbeat. No matter what it was, you have to work at this album as Owun can do a handbrake turn when it suits them and start impersonating Francis Lai, as they do in “Berceaux”.
“Le Fantôme de Gustav” is hard album to categorise and a hard one to love but it should nevertheless earn the respect of any music lover whose taste has exceeded the conventional.
The album is available from Bandcamp.