ALCEST: LES VOYAGES DE L'AME (2012)
1) Autre Temps; 2) Là Ou
Naissent Les Couleurs Nouvelles; 3) Les Voyages De L'Ame; 4) Nous Sommes L'Emeraude;
5) Beings Of Light; 6) Faiseurs De Mondes; 7) Havens; 8) Summer's Glory.
If we (or, at least, those of us who know
either French or Google Translate) concentrate on the album and song titles
long enough, the first and, for now, only three records of Alcest may seem like
a trilogy: Fairy Tale, Space Journey, and now, with Les Voyages De L'Ame (Soul
Journeys) comes Transcendental / Religious Experience. Naturally, this is
but a subjective interpretation, but it helps — when it comes to tracing the
subtle differences that justify Neige's productivity.
In a way, the third album takes a step back:
compared with its immediate predecessor, it is noticeably less «metal» in
nature, with growling vocals making only a brief appearance in ʽFaiseurs Des
Mondesʼ and heavy guitar tones used sparingly and almost always as a backdrop
for light-ringing melodic passages. On the other hand, far more attention is
paid to vocal arrangements — ʽBeings Of Lightʼ is almost completely wordless,
and the focus is on New Age-style angelic choral harmonies; other songs
generally tend to veer closer to the French pop-inspired melodicity of Souvenirs D'Un Autre Monde. In other
words, Neige has mellowed out once more, and the territory through which the
composer's (or the listener's?) soul is supposed to journey seems pretty safe
for it — light, bliss, beauty, the works.
At this point, one thing I'd like to
specifically praise about the album is the drum work by the mysterious
«Winterhalter» (going by the real name of Jean Deflandre). Take my advice — if
you happen to listen to this stuff and get bored after a while because of all
the shoegazing repetition, switch your attention to the drummer guy for a bit,
since he is really doing an amazing job out there: nothing particularly
complex, but he goes way beyond simply keeping the beat, as you'd expect from
an «ambient»-oriented record. There are all sorts of rolls, flips, tricky
syncopes, build-ups and releases that do not really corrupt or sway the planned
atmosphere, but make the whole experience more fun — the guy just happens to be
one of those swell drummers, like Blondie's Clem Burke, who refuses to conform
to limitations of the formula and keeps inventing new and new figures out of
his head. It is double fun on those rare occasions when Neige agrees to speed
up the tempo, at least a little bit, like on the final section of ʽLà Ou
Naissent Les Couleursʼ.
As for the melodies themselves, they present no
surprises: once again, the craft is not so much in the base melodic figures
(most of which show elegant geometric precision, but do not seem to carry a lot
of emotional load) as in Neige's trademark crescendos, and he has not mastered
any new tricks in that department — even the guitar tones mostly remain the
same. ʽBeings Of Lightʼ is arguably the most atypical of these compositions,
and even that one perfectly fits inside the formula. ʽSummer's Gloryʼ,
respecting the title, is made to look like an unusually uplifting anthem, and
its vocals owe the most to the old school French «mood song».
But albums like these are usually remembered by
their longest tracks, and the longest track here,
ʽLà Ou Naissent Les Couleurs Nouvellesʼ, consisting of a slower and faster part
linked through some psychedelic jangle, is not particularly impressive, other
than Winterhalter's terrific drum contributions, even if the fast section is,
indeed, the closest that Alcest has ever approached to «rocking» (not that
«rocking» was ever on the project's pre-planned agenda). This and similar
tracks only further confirm that the Alcest formula cannot be improved upon, at
least not by Neige himself. The guy is an admirable master of form, but unless
he begins coming up with truly stunning musical phrases or steps away from the self-imposed «drone and repetition only» constraint,
his fanbase is not likely to expand.
Check "Les Voyages De L'Ame" (MP3) on Amazon
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