by Brian OlewnickA follow-up to his highly successful (aesthetically, if not sales-wise) Nebka, Le Parfum du Raki covers similar ground, though with less passion and precision and a more laid-back attitude. Lew still turns to Northern Africa for some of his inspiration (one track is titled "Sebkha," like Nebka an Arabic term for certain desert topography) but it has receded into the background a bit. More prominent is a somewhat jazzy aura supplied by Renault Pion's soprano saxophone and a languorous tone which might be associated with the later work of Gavin Bryars, with whom producer Gilles Martin had worked extensively. Whereas in Nebka the luxuriant sound was balanced by a bracing sparseness of instrumentation, here luxury holds sway as the listener is bathed in layer upon layer of sonic swaddling. This has its own pleasures, though the effect becomes cloying after a while. Occasionally the sheer exoticism manages, ironically enough, to cut through the gauze and connect with the listener, offering an oddly diffracted view of African culture seen through the prism of someone who seems to share greater affinity with Erik Satie. If less compelling than Nebka, this disc still provides off-kilter enjoyment; Benjamin Lew's world is unusual enough to always be worth a visit.