I had never heard of Cinematic Orchestra before, but as an early birthday present I was given this by a friend. She also said that I should listen to this lying on my bed with my headphones on and no distractions, or I wouldn't 'get it'. I now understand why she would say that although still not sure if I 'get it'.

Ok moving on to the music itself.

2).Familiar Ground
There are only four words to this song How Near? How Far? However, it is the music that encapsulates you into your own dreamlike world and the voice of Fontella Bass gives you somethng to hold on to as you drift in your own world. This song reminded me of being at the cinema for the first time as a kid, and being overpowered by the sheer size and sounds when I was used to watching TV on a 24 inch screen.

4).Music Box
Spine tingling!! The track starts with the sound of an acoustic guitar and then, slowly Patrick Watson comes in lightly with the vocals followed by Lou Rhodes, who sing in what I suppose is (very loosely) a duet, but a duet full of loss and longing.

6).As the Stars Fall
This track shakes you out of the past and brings you into the present, the here and now. Heavily layered at times with a cacophany of sound stimulating you, and for the first time I hear jazz drumming and a much deeper bass. This is an altogether more brooding and darker track than the previous ones and I feel that the story is moving on towards a a climax. The story? Well its your story, its whatever you want it to be

8).Ma Fleur
The title track of the album but not the best. The track in itself is ok, with nice flows and ebbs, but it doesn't seem to fit the rest of the album. It felt a bit out of place, disjointed and the only thing my imagination was conjuring up was having a coffee in Starbucks watching the world go by with this playing in the background.

Now you may wonder why I have given this album four rather than five stars. The one problem with the album, is you need to be in the right frame of mind. I listened to it twice in my bedroom with no distractions and let myself get lost in the music and my thoughts and loved it. However, on the third listen I was also surfing the net and the album sounded run of the mill background music. The album has been lovingly created and is very intricate which requires careful listening, which in turn means your environment will affect your enjoyment of this album.

One last point, you can actually hear the whole album for free from their label Ninja Tunes:
http://www.ninjatune.net/mafleur/mafleur.php