The reason for this Q&A was the release of Reflet Crépusculaire’s first full-length album that saw the darkness of night last month. Previously, the one-man band released several EPs, all of which intrigued me to such an extent that I was definitely looking forward to this full-length. Musically, it always brings little nuances to the tried-and-tested formula of Raw Black Metal, traces of Ambient/Dungeon Synth, Folk and Atmospheric Black Metal can all be found in the multi-coloured nature of the music. There must be some profound thought behind all this, I thought. So, having folded my head and ears around this, once again beautiful work, I asked the lone soul behind this French Black Metal project some questions….
Hi there Orbius Tertius, first of all, thanks a lot for accepting my interview proposal. From the very first moment I heard Reflet Crépusculaire I have been intrigued by it. The music sounds both authentic and in a way refreshing, it seems to have been built upon solid blueprint Raw Black Metal, but it is heavily laced with almost folky melodies and atmospheric elements. This way it might appeal to a wide range of Black Metal fans, I am curious to what drives this band. What made you start with Reflet Crépusculaire and what musical goals do you pursue?
So, if I start from the beginning..It’s been lots of years that I quitted playing music to focus into my personal and professional life. One day, I think it was like 2020 or 2021, I felt the urge to express feelings and atmospheres I lived and experienced, and the best way was black metal. So I started composing some stuff but it was nothing special, so I decided to work it out a little more and make something that was either personal and traditional without being too “manieristic”. I started reading Jorge Luis Borges, an Argentinian writer who lived between 1900 and 1980, and his writings were a huge influence for me. I think that there is not so much literature in black metal – even in metal in general – and it’s often the same authors such as Lovecraft and Poe. When I first read Borges I thought “hey, why there’s no Borges-themed black metal band?”. I mean, some of his works could perfectly fit with the magic, gloomy and mystic atmosphere which can be created through black metal. So I started my first project Undr, taking the name from one of Borges’s writings. As Undr I released one EP and two splits, but in the end I was feeling that I was going a little far on the experimental and melodic side, which is a good thing I mean, but it was not enough to me.
So I started Reflet Crépusculaire as a side project: a raw black metal band, minimalistic but in the same time melodic, which could fully capture the essence and the atmosphere of the dreams, illusions and twists that are characteristics of Borges’ writings.
In my review of the ‘Tormented Wanderer Trilogy’-compilation and your latest offering, ‘Vanished Scripts’, I tried to fathom the essence of Reflet Crépusculaire, to drill down to the very core of the music. Of course, for an outsider like me it is not always as easy to fully grasp the exact meaning of the musician. I spent a few words on it, but I would be interested to see how you would describe your music yourself, maybe not so much as giving it a proper label, but what it means to you on a personal level.
I always laugh when I read other musicians inventing and defining their music with strange terms. I mean, if you play metal in 2020s it’s almost impossible that you cannot find a genre (or two, or three) to define it! Musically speaking, Reflet Crépusculaire is raw black metal with various influences: dungeon synth, folk metal, atmospheric black metal, but that’s not the point! On a personal level I’d describe Reflet Crépusculaire as a narration of inner thoughts, dreams and nightmares that cannot be described in another way.
In that same review on ‘Vanished Scripts’ I also rambled about some minor differences that I thought occurred over time since the release of the three episodes of the ‘Tormented Wanderer’ trilogy. Just like I already cited in my previous question, sometimes it is not all that easy to catch everything properly, but I described your full-length album as being less dreamy and more straight forward. Would you agree with that? And how do you personally look onto your musical development as a whole over the course of the existence of the band?
Yes, Vanished Scripts is definitely a straight-forward album. With “The Tormented Wanderer” trilogy I explored and experimented with keyboards and more dungeon synth or ambient landscapes, because it was fitting what I was trying to express – a dreamlike path between personal struggles, existential questions and thoughts.
With Vanished Scripts I tried to be more concise: I only recorded one guitar track and used keyboards only in the first and last tracks. The whole album is just riffs, shrieks and blast beats, because the themes required it and also because I wanted to do something simpler and more straightforward, which sometimes can be really difficult.
Judging from the musical offerings over the full Reflet Crépusculaire discography it is clear that you draw from different sources of inspiration. Ranging from the more “standard” Black Metal starters-kit bands like Darkthrone to Ildjarn and other folky but also bare boned bands. Can you take us into your musical world? How does your personal musical influences find their way into your music?
My roots are deep into classic Norwegian black metal (Burzum and Darkthrone above all), but I really dig into the folkish and decadent atmospheres of Peste Noire, the intoxication rituals of Urfaust, the more folk-oriented Ungfell, the martial war-themed black metal of Spite Extreme Wing and the folkish, decadent, mediterranean sound of Inchiuvatu. I also really like the “modern” raw black metal scene: Sanguine Relic were a huge inspiration to me. As for the ambient and dungeon synth, well.. I don’t often listen to those genres. To me, ambient tracks are a good start and ending for black metal albums, and keyboards can absolutely give a real boost and atmospheres to certain tracks, but that’s all. That’s my personal opinion.
Speaking of personal worlds, with Reflet Crépusculaire you draw non-musical inspiration from long walks into the French woods as well as certain poetry and literature. Can you give us an idea of what drives you and how those experiences do find their way into your music?
That’s a good question! As I told you before, Jorge Luis Borges is a huge influence to me, but also Italo Calvino (especially Invisible Cities) and Pierre Drieu La Rochelle. In particular, his work “Le Feu Follet” was a great inspiration to me, especially for “The Tormented Wanderer”. Usually I read books about history, sometimes politics, sometimes novels, but I really dig into metaphysics and that’s why I cited Borges and some of Calvino’s works! As for Pierre Drieu La Rochelle, he was a dandy, a decadent kind of man which later became a collaborationist, sadly. In “Le Feu Follet” he dug unto the human spirit of a lonely, lost heroin addict and all the perversions he went into in a nightly, charming Paris.
As for the nature, I really like to walk into woods, and France has lots of woods to get lost into! One day this winter I was walking into a wood near my home and felt inspired by the immense trees and the silence I was experiencing. I was all alone and could only hear some birds or trees cracking. So I took some photos (which later became Vanished Scripts’ cover), got back home and started composing!
Picking up a bit on the previous question… Let’s go back to the majestic ‘Tormented Wanderer’-trilogy and try to tie this to what you’ve just explained. As the title of the individual parts already suggest, it is about a wandering spirit (might be you?), can you please again take us into what kind of state of mind you were in when writing this triptych?
I was experiencing a really bad moment in my life. I lost some of my objectives, felt depressed and empty.. But I always had a positive attitude so instead of composing a depressive album talking about suicide and sadness and this kind of stuff.. I decide to describe all the phases I got into and every part of my existence that created some sort of “torment” in my life. So here it is: “Tenebrae” is about insomnia, nightmares and night in general; “Aether” focus more on addictions (aether is a synonym of alcohol) and “Spes” is about religion and meaning of the existence itself. So yes, “The Tormented Wanderer” it’s something really personal and describes some sort of path I walked on to get rid of all these elements which were parasiting my inner life.
Of course we can all use Google Translate to see what “Reflet Crépusculaire” actually means (“Twilight Reflection” in English), but it is such a band name that makes you wonder what is behind it. What made you choose this name for the band?
I was reading some book (in French of course) and found these two words: reflet crépusculaire. It was like an illumination to me, that was exactly what I tried to express with my music, something ethereal, gloomy and evanescent.
The term ‘Script’ appears on both your split tape with Illuminated Manuscripts and ‘Vanished Scripts’. Has this a deeper meaning or just a mere coincidence?
It’s just a coincidence.
Besides the debut EP, the ‘Tormented Wanderer’ EP’s and your latest full-length album, you also have released that split tape with Illuminated Manuscripts. The most striking thing of this collaboration is that both acts sound quite close to each other, making it a pretty cohesive affair. How did this partnership come about and how do you look back on it yourself?
I was a fan of Illuminated Manuscripts since their beginning. I discovered them through Xenoglossy Productions, an Italian label focused on unique, bizarre raw black metal, which has sadly closed in 2023. One of their releases, the split between Quilmoloncm and Illuminated Manuscripts, was the first Borges’ themed black metal album I listened to! One day I got a message from one of the two guys running the label asking me if I was interested in doing a split with Illuminated Manuscripts. I was so excited that I recorded two songs and also did the layout for the tape, but unfortunately I never had the occasion to talk with Kobold.
Your homeland, France, has a modest but magnificent tradition in Black Metal. How do you view this rich musical past? And how would you position yourself in this constellation?
Let’s start by saying that my homeland is Italy! I live in France since 2016 but I was born and raised in Italy, so my cultural background is basically Italian, although I currently speak French and read many French books. Musically speaking, I was hugely influenced by Peste Noire and Pensées Nocturnes and also a little bit from LLN. I know some other good acts in the French black metal underground which are very interesting, from well-known medieval black metal acts such as Véhémence and Aorlhac to more underground bands like Chihedo and Nean (with wich I released two splits). They are very nice people, it’s easy to get in touch with them and they are very inspiring people. I don’t really like to position me in a “scene” or a constellation: even if my music has strong roots in Italian or French culture, it’s something universal, and I like getting in touch with people from all around the world. Even my sound is not typically “French”, I don’t even know if there’s a French sound!
You are the only soul in the band. Of course this has some clear advantages, as you don’t need to discuss anything with anyone else, but it might also have some downsides. Missing valuable input from others for instance. Was it always the idea of making music on your own? Does this fit with the way you lead your life in general too?
Yes it was always my idea. I played in some bands when I was a teenager – it was funny and inspiring but now it’s different. I have a busy professional life and odd time schedules so I make music when other people works and work when other people sleeps! Being a one-man project is a choice, yes, but also inevitable.
Besides Reflet Crépusculaire you also have two other projects, Undr and Dvngeon Kvlt, both one-man vehicles as well. Although we are focusing on Reflet Crépusculaire here, can you explain us the differences between the three project. And maybe a bit of an update on what’s cooking with those two other musical endeavors of yours?
Undr was my first project. It started as a raw black metal band hugely influenced by Darkthone but soon took the path to experimentation, melodies and folkish acoustic guitars. I started composing the first full length like one year and a half ago. I need to take the time to finish it, recording it, mixing and mastering it. I like doing all by myself, so it will be long! I can tell you that it will be something really different, with lots of influences (from prog rock to death metal) and will be inspired by Dario Argento’s movies and Southern Italian folklore.
As for Dvngeon Kvlt, it’s a sort of hommage to ‘80s proto-black metal and thrash metal! So it’s something really old school, fast and I could tell “funny”. Lyrics are fantasy themed and describe some sort of dungeon escape! No deep meanings, metaphors or literally stuff, just pure old school riffs!
Well that’s it, thank you very much again for your time invested and your insight into your musical world. Allow me to give you the opportunity to end the interview with your own words…
Thanks a lot for your interest in my projects, I really appreciated it. You did a great work by reviewing my releases and got really deep into the profound essence of my music.
