Instrumental music beyond jazz, post-rock and electronics is a difficult game. Likewise is adapting your own life. Pascal Humbert practises both on his solo debut. The guy otherwise plays with talented 16 Horsepower, with whom he has successfully taken up the legacy of the Gun Club. Since 1984 Humbert had been making song-sketches for his first album. 16 years of well invested time, because 'Transmission Of All The Good-Byes' has become a fair and beautiful ambient work. Guitar, bass, organ and a bit of percussion flow unimpressed by postmodernism. Sometimes (for instance in 'Loveless Mood' - what a track!) a song develops in a somewhat faster field. Mostly though sentimental moods prevail, that could only spring from the Mojave desert, where Humbert lived for a considerable while. This album is abysmally sad. At the same time the songs posses the urge to see things through, to continue. And they fit in perfectly in the company of Ry Cooder, Mick Harvey's soundtracks or Calexico. Close your eyes and be enamoured.

(4/5)