Sotos - Sotos (1999)

Sotos formed in 1996 in Bordeaux by students at the National School of Music. Rejecting the familiar molds of classical art rock, the band spent three years searching for its own polystylistic sound, resulting in this monumental record.
The album's music is incredibly complex, dark, dense, and cinematic. It draws on the legacy of such avant-garde rock stalwarts as Univers Zero, Present, King Crimson, and Magma, intertwining it with the compositional techniques of Igor Stravinsky and Béla Bartók. Each composition is a lengthy multi-movement suite, filled with dissonance, jagged rhythmic structures, and profound drama.
For example, the opening 22-minute epic "Tango" bears little relation to traditional, sultry Latin American dance, but rather is a deconstructed, anxiety-filled avant-garde labyrinth.