ECLIPSE

I bought this at a record fair in Eugene, Oregon. Honesty, this was never been a favorite of mine, many other groups from Quebec getting my attention much more: Harmonium, Pollen, Sloche, Et Cetera, Dionne Bregent, and Michel Madore. Eclipse was a band lead by Pierre Gauthier, formerly of Aut'Chase, and this was the debut, from 1976, released on CBS. They released a second album, Night & Day, in 1977, with a complete lineup overhaul, aside from Gauthier (apparently is a much worse album, apparently firmly disco, who needs disco versions of "You Really Got Me" and "Born to Be Wild"? Songs like that should never get the disco treatment). This debut really puzzled me. It seems Gauthier really had some absolutely brilliant ideas, but for the most part, the music sounded like an unholy cross between Pink Floyd and ABBA, complete with female vocals. This album is really confused, between mainstream credibility, and the more obvious prog/electronic ambitions of Gauthier himself. During the more mainstream moments his synth plays really seems to clash. Three songs really did leave an good impression of me: "Le Rêve de John W.", "Pleine Lune", and "Honey #36". The first has a bit of a funky thing going on, with some really nice Moog playing. "Pleine Lune" is really what I felt the ideas Gauthier had in mind. A rather ominous sounding piece that's very far from the lightweight fluff on this album. "Honey #36" sounds a bit like Pulsar with female vocals. But the mainstream stuff on this album is a bit too close to ABBA territory, a good example going to "Du'attends-tu do Moi". It's as I expect them to do a French language version of "Take a Chance on Me" with spacy synths here (OK, so "Take a Chance on Me" did not exist in 1976).

I have been dismissive of this album because of this approach is a bit too jarring, but I've grown to like it. I wouldn't call it some sort of lost gem the way I felt Michel Madore's Le Komuso a Cordes is. I really think I'd dislike it much more if it weren't for Gauthier's synth playing.

I am rather amused that the back cover reads: "Eclipse utilise exclusivement les synthesizeur Moog (using the Moog logo)" (more or less translating as "Eclipse uses exclusively Moog synthesizers") except that's false. Certainly Daniel Barbe's only synths are Moog (Mini-Moog and Satellite), but the inner sleeve clearly shows Pierre Gauthier with a VCS-3, which I clearly hear one being used on this album, mainly for synth sound effects (which they're best for).

I don't know what to think of this, it's not total rubbish, and I'm sure after hearing Night & Day, this would look like a masterpiece.