AU CRÉPUSCULE DU TEMPS

RARA AVIS IN TERRIS were a French short-lived, one-off project around 2000. Regardless of their obscurity, their only one creation "Au Crépuscule Du Temps" is filled with their original stylish and eclectic taste like the newest fashion of French mademoiselles based upon heavy, bluesy psychedelic rock leaning toward middle / late 60s rock scene. Sounds like they'd got remarkably influenced by Pink Floyd but they might have digested deeply avantgarde / jazzy essence like Magma or Area, I guess. Various approaches and appearances can be heard via this brilliant "dusky soundscape". For grabbing this mysterious versatile texture, we should listen to the first four tracks, especially the two "Océan" and "Kaléidoscope". The opening track "Océan" has two appearances - the former part is a mellow space rock in the same vein of Pink Floyd, and the latter is a heavy prog created mainly with the key instrument "deep saxophone" played by Julien. "Kaléidoscope" is one of psychedelic masterpieces we can say - as the title says, this stuff gets completely veiled with kaleidoscopic sound creatures including heavy rock, jazz, avantgarde, and of course psychedelic / space rock.

On the contrary, "Au Crépuscule Du Temps Suite" can be thought as their interpretation of Pink Floyd, especially Roger's era. The first piece "La Naissance - Ouverture" reminds us something like the opening of Floyd's Crazy Diamonds. After such a dreamy moment, we can enjoy a decent space rock subtitled "La Genese" featuring melancholic saxophone vividness, flooded with their own flavour. Another psychedelic symphony can be touched via the following part "La Conciliation", along with bluesy guitar sounds and persistent, heavy riffs. Although "L'Apotheose" is a short tip, we can hear magnificent eccentricity seasoned with crazy flute blows via this piece. As if it be blowing a killer gale beside us, cool and clean air we can feel at this moment. The last part "L'Apocalypse", across some pieces of hibernation, consists of various elements like heavy, jazz, space, avantgarde ... they wanted to shout this stuff was a compilation of all of their creation.

In conclusion, "Au Crépuscule Du Temps" can be called not only as psychedelic progressive but also an eclectic obscure gem like a glass of premium French Red Wine with deep, woody, estery flavour. Splendid one.