It’s been a busy weekend in the Crotchety village. On Saturday there was the Duck Race, normally held in the Spring, and on Sunday the Open Gardens, postponed from the Summer. Mrs. Crotchety was organising the teas for the garden visitors; Mr. Crotchety scurried round with a camera, recording images for the village website. Neither event was as crowded as they have been in previous years but, for the first time since the Covid lockdowns, the village was abuzz. It felt as though everyone was waking up from the deep slumber spell cast by the wicked witch some 18 months ago.
What could be more appropriate, then, for this week’s blog than an album called Awakening by the French progressive rock band, Esthesis.
Awakening is Esthesis‘ only album to date. It falls squarely in the classic prog rock style. Reviews consistently cite Pink Floyd as a close cousin and major influence. One commentator complains that they are merely a rip-off of Pink Floyd‘s line-up of the mid 70s, but I think that’s unfair. Esthesis are their own band, making their own music and doing it exceptionally well.
The Awakening is an assured album … flitting between the lucid dreaming of Pink Floyd and the angular attack of Porcupine Tree.
PROG MAGAZINE
Esthesis are:
- Aurélien GOUDE : vocals, keyboards, lap steel guitar, bass guitar
- Baptiste DESMARES : lead guitar
- Marc ANGUILL : bass guitar
- Florian RODRIGUES : drums
‘Esthesis’ is a word you can find in the dictionary. It means ‘feeling’, ‘perception’ or ‘sensation’. It’s an appropriate word for this band’s atmospheric music, although they probably won’t be quite the sensation that Pink Floyd became in the seventies.
Crotchety Man 
Very enjoyable ! Yes its in the classic prog rock style but very much up-to-date and original. I don’t hear Pink Floyd at all. Aurélien Goude the key board player has a nice style and I particularly like them when they play heavy.. My favourite track is ‘No soul to sell’.
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