Reptile Reptiles: All Things Return to One

Another week. Another excellent collaboration. This time it comes via France in the way of Reptile Reptiles: the new collaboration between Alexandre Bazin and Clément Beauvais.

The two share a broad scope across various artforms. Bazin, whose latest releases Therapy and Innervision (both 2023) featured on Important Records and Umor Rex, while Beauvais is also a constant in the experimental underground: a writer, photographer and film director on two feature length documentaries, 2014’s The Greasy Hands Preachers and 2020’s NOSE.

On their debut LP, All Things Return to One, the pair waste no time landing shots, drafting in Indigenous actor Gary Farmer, whose intoxicating narratives illuminate a journey of a protagonist returning to the land of spirits; a promised land if the current world is anything to go by. Written by Beauvais, Farmer’s poetic narratives pay homage to latter’s portrayal of Nobody in the Jim Jarmusch cult film, Dead Man. His voice, cutting through like a hot knife to butter.

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Deeply rich, evocative and clear as a bell, Farmer’s unique timbre is lost in this modern age, and through Beauvais’ haunting narrative – equal parts atmospheric and whimsical – is a journey that succumbs to the higher powers of the earth itself.

Through searching hope-like sonics, the protagonist is certain of their fate. Opening movement, Beneath the Black Ocean, a stark backdrop of deep metallic dronescapes, as Farmer arrives with a commanding presence. The narrative, radiating around the outskirts of that the circle of life.

The Owl that Calls Upon the Night drips in Western noir shaped from diaristic endeavours. “The soul I bear was never truly mine” Farmer confesses, connecting the dots to Beneath the Black Ocean where the protagonist is told by the spirit that they have died more than once. Ultimately, it’s another dimension to existentialism as we know it.

On Ahead, the Other Side, Bazin and Beauvais explore the barren landscapes of more innocent times. Just by the title alone, the protagonist has found themselves there, too, as soft drones echo across the vast lands where trouble hasn’t been eroded; it was never there in the first place. It’s a beautiful sequence of sound, only bettered by A Dream and The Well which sees Bazin and Beauvais reach new levels. A concoction of dream-state drone, bristling with Earth-like country echoes through a meditative pulse.

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In contrast, In the Belly of the Great Spirit sees Farmer spiralling into the final frontier. On a bed of synths, Bazin and Beauvais feel their way through perilous terrain saturated in darkness. That final frontier, potentially brutal and unknown. It’s only fleeting as Homecoming sees that darkness reduced by daylight. A ceremonial drone that comes as advertised; sad and forlorn, the protagonist submitting to that higher power. And on the acoustic lament of closing track, All things Return to One, they find peace by succumbing to the earth as the circle of life is complete.

Farmer’s presence gives All Things Return to One new emotional dimensions, closing the door on the open-endedness that instrumental-based composition possesses for something more concrete. The core idea, exposing a reality that, indeed, we all end up in the dirt. Life itself, the eventual killer, and on All Things Return to One, alongside Farmer, Reptile Reptiles produce something that resonates with that acceptance.

All Things Return to One is out now via Constructive Music Ltd. Purchase from Bandcamp.