EN REGARDANT PASSER LE TEMPS

It would be a terrible irony if a band calling itself Carpe Diem - Latin for "Seize the Day" - didn't make the most of its debut album, but thankfully this French prog outfit lives up to their name and uses the brief 36 minute running time of this release to magnificent effect.

The band's tastes seem to have run the full gamut of the 1970s prog universe; there's no full-on zeuhl or Canterbury on here, mind, but there's a great swathe of other prog sounds. In the first tinklings of Voyage du Non-Retour I thought I was in for a space rock voyage, then the album took more symphonic directions, but with a jazz-rock tinge to it which develops into full-blown fusion by the close of Publiophobie. And somehow, the band manage to make this all fit together in a single aesthetic whole, rather than sounding disjointed. Impressive stuff all round.