Having worked together on his 2024 album Colours & Light, Project Gemini aka Paul Osborne joins forces once again with Wendy Martinez, French singer and composer, and also part of renowned psych-girl group Gloria on a new collaborative EP. Landing on Mr Bongo, Time Stands Still / Le temps s’arrte is a sonic exploration that shows a shared love of the progressive music emanating out of France in the 60s and 70s and the celebrated film soundtrack composers of the time. A more melodic and romantic excursion than Pauls previous recordings, this EP marries his richly textured, cinematic psych rock with Martinezs captivating vocal presence.

A body of work born during the period Paul was finishing up his last LP Colours & Light, he penned an albums worth of instrumental library-style music and had the idea of having Wendy add vocals and lyrics to a selection of them. The instrumental record got scrapped, but thankfully Time Stands Still grew out of it.

Paul was a fan of Wendys work as both a solo artist and in the band Gloria, and her inclusion on the Project Gemini tracks Entre chien et loup & Extra Nuit showed a clear synergy to their musical approaches and sounds. For Time Stands Still he sent over instrumental tracks one by one, with Wendy taking time to find melodies and French poetry she was happy with and returning her ideas from her home just outside of Lyon.

Drawing inspiration from French soundtrack composers such as Franois de Roubaix, Frances Lai and Michel Colombier, as well as French female artists including Lonie and Laurence Vanay, these productions are a contemporary love letter to this sound, not a homage. Mixing psych, folk, chanson, and French new wave, its music that pulls you in deeper, with groove, grit and passion at its core.

‘Je n’ai plus peur’ kicks things off with a sultry energy. Its a psych-funk production drenched in attitude, swagger, and edge, which nods to the left-field side of Serge Gainsbourgs music. Elsewhere, ‘me contre me’ feels like the opener from a forgotten new-wave film, managing to be at both beautiful yet sinister and longing. ‘The Crawler’ could be incidental music from the same film, with Wendy using her voice as an instrument layering the backing track as Paul’s bass takes centre stage. The ghostly spoken word of ‘Ce qui est intact’ echoes a funky version of what the Thtre du Chne Noir d’Avignon may have recorded.

A transportive journey Time Stands Still is nostalgic yet new in the same smoke-filled breath. Fuzzed-up guitars and driving basslines meld with folk-leaning organs and mellotron vibrations to give that eerie, otherworldly edge. All of which are seasoned by the sensuous, layered vocal tones of Wendy Martinez, alongside crisp drums from Tony Coote and considered percussive touches by Paul Elliot.

1. Je n’ai plus peur
2. Ame contre ame
3. Crawler
4. Notre chambre
5. Ce qui est intact
6. Ame contre ame (reprise)