Review: Path of Ilya – La Dégustation

Style: progressive rock, funk, shred (instrumental)
Recommended for fans of: Nuclear Power Trio, Frank Zappa, Syncatto
Country: France
Release date: 1 August 2025

Back in 2023, I reviewed the sophomore album of a French instrumental trio called Path of Ilya. As I definitely stated back in that review, I’m not someone who much enjoys instrumental prog—I need a hook, usually a singer, to connect with. A Plini EP is okay, but a full album? God, no. That’s such a boring prospect. Nevertheless, Heterostasis, Path of Ilya’s sophomore, spoke to me because it was, in a word, insane, a kleptomaniac genre grab-bag that roved through a variety of modes and genres, from pirate jigs to dubstep to flamenco to calypso. ‘Finally,’ I thought, ‘interesting, varied instrumental prog!’

Well, the promise of third album, La Dégustation, seems to be seven more gems each of a different colour, served in a restaurant where the members of Path of Ilya sit eagerly awaiting their food clad in suits and sunglasses looking like a trio of Berts from Sesame Street. Now, you shouldn’t judge albums by their covers because they might be deceiving you, and Path of Ilya are French after all¹. On La Dégustation, the trio are opting for a far more hemmed in sound, focusing their instrumental talents on the realm of a sort of progressive funk fusion with some electronica influence. Ridiculously overdriven synth bass and ever-varied drum patterns form the instrumental bed for a variety of frenetic soloing that explores a more limited but still interesting range of genres. 

The bulk of the album, however, is rooted in an almost Zappa-esque world of instrumental proggy, funky jazz fusion. Virtually all of the songs are organised around this style, but they do progress beyond that—“Socrus Fungus” descends into an almost electronica pulse in its latter half, and “Grésillement du Terroir Altéré” is an outright blues rock track with its expressive bends inducing Bonamassa levels of guitar face. A sense of narrative flow weaves its way through the tracks, motifs that evolve and are restated with different rhythmic feels, via different instruments, or in different keys. Bruno Chabert’s drumming remains impressively varied which is a boon to this album in particular; on Heterostasis he had to fit his performance to the given genre Path of Ilya had opted to try their hand out, but here, with the style more restrained, he’s the one bestowing variation on the entire rhythm section. 

Which is important, because we’re down an instrument, sort of. André Marques’ bass work has been almost entirely swapped for extremely buzzy synth bass. While this introduces a different texture to Path of Ilya’s sound, it also means that we’re missing traditional basslines, of which several sick ones were laid down on Heterostasis. On “La Fameuse (se fait attendre)”, Marques gets to take the lead, while Jean-Joseph Bondier lays down a rhythmic groove of wah-laden funk guitar chords and slap rhythms. Closing out with a swing rhythm and attendant drum solo, it’s one of the more interesting tracks on the album for its experimentations, but such moments are sparser now. And after a while that buzzing synth bass gets grating, seemingly getting buzzier as the album progresses. Certainly, the synth bass was present on Heterostasis, but it didn’t dominate proceedings there, and La Dégustation isn’t better for the change. 

Now, if I’m being realistic, Heterostasis was probably too diffuse as an album experience to really cohere, but I really dug how variable it was. I absolutely can’t blame Path of Ilya for wanting to rein themselves in and hone their sound, but here they’ve really gone for the homeostatic option. There are a few stylistic curveballs batted in—the heavy metal riff that kicks in half way through “Jean-Michel, le Péruvien”, and the aforementioned swing outro of “La Fameuse (se fait attendre)”—but, for the most part, this is a collection of Zappa-esque funky, fusion-y instrushred. Doubtless, many listeners will be more receptive to this than their old wacky experiments, but I, unfortunately, am not one of them. 

Path of Ilya remain a trio of adept musicians, and La Dégustation is a consummate work of proggy funky instrumental madcappery. If you like Zappa-esque instrumental fusion, you’ll get a kick out of this. However, the somewhat ironic bent towards stylistic homogeneity comes at a price and, personally, I find there’s little left to be said for this collection of fun yet far too similar shred tracks; I guess I just prefer the overt wackiness of Heterostasis. Enjoy your matured, funky instru-prog guys, I’m gonna go listen to pirate jigs and progressive turntablism.

Recommended tracks: La Fameuse (se fait attendre), Socrus Fungus
You may also like: Marbin, Etrange, Sam Mooradian
Final verdict: 6.5/10

Related links: Bandcamp | YouTube | Facebook

Label: Independent

Path of Ilya is:
– André Marques – Bass
– Jean-Joseph Bondier – Guitar
– Bruno Chabert – Drums

1. Kidding, kidding! We all know the Americans are the real deceitful nation. ↩︎