Life with Alcest

Once there was a time in my life when I did not know that there existed a band by the name of Alcest. At that time, I was unaware that music could be beautiful, enchanting, and moving even when it had lyrics that were not in my known languages. I had been exposed somewhat to classical music from my father’s collection of audio CDs but for them, I was aware that such music was intended to be as such. Besides the music in my native languages, I had had my usual spattering of English and American pop music, Linkin Park, Rammstein, and the classic metal and rock bands, such as Metallica, Iron Maiden, or Scorpions. I knew how to rock. My late teen years rage found words in the fury of metal, conversations of Linkin Park, and lyrics of Poets of the Fall. Thus, passed seventeen years of my life. The eleven years hence have had the blessing of living in the knowledge that Alcest exist, that music can bring every kind of emotion to life, that music is more than feeling emotions. Alcest’s music has made me awaken emotions that I never knew that I could feel. It also happens that in my social circle it is such a rare band, that they have become my private pleasure. I can share the joy of Alcest with only a couple of people. One of them happened to discover them along with me, and the other has been a companion in the journey of experiencing Alcest.

It was the summer of 2010 that my friend sent me a link on Facebook one day. It directed me to a song on YouTube called ‘Les Iris’ by Alcest. She told me that she found it beautiful and she shared it with me as was the norm for us back in the day. We shared all our music. I listened to it. I listened to it again, again, and again. While I remarked what I liked about it, I could not understand why. Firstly, I had never heard anything remotely close of black metal or shoegaze until then, and secondly, besides Rammstein, I was not in the habit of listening to music whose language I could not understand. To me, at that time, Neige’s style of vocals seemed more like a meditative call than singing in the conventional sense. I had never experienced something so evocative as that track ever. I was so mesmerized by that single track that for weeks I did not bother about looking for more of their music. I was partly unable to get past ‘Les Iris’ and its incomprehensible beauty and partly scared that their other tracks would not be like this and the spell would be broken. I wanted to live in hope. I wanted more of ‘Les Iris’. In fact, I began with my other three favourite bands in the same manner. As I could not get past ‘Les Iris’, it took me weeks to listen to anything beyond ‘Start of Something Beautiful’ by Porcupine Tree, ‘April Ethereal’ by Opeth, or ‘Sober’ by Tool when I began listening to them back in those days.

Life with Alcest grew when I used my limited Internet skills (yes, I come from a background when I did not have anything better than a dial-up connection till I went to University in 2010) to search for more Alcest tracks. I came upon ‘Écailles De Lune Part 1’. It was indeed quite different from ‘Les Iris’ but once again I was mesmerized. I struggled to put my feelings into words, but I knew that I had found something that I really liked. It was like wandering into a forest clearing that had these large shrubberies, lightly coloured green grass, a brook passing through it, wildflowers growing on either side and there were deer and even a white wolf resting by the babbling waters with eyes half closed. It made me feel as if the forest was beckoning me, asking me to sit down and listen. As if Neige was meaning to say through his music, ‘My friend, I understand how you feel. I understand that the world has been hard on us and thus we are here to heal. We will let the brook know how we are feeling, we will let go of our clouded pains and they will be carried away with the sound of the water. Once we have calmed down, I will tell you stories; and look, even the white wolf has joined us to listen and dream and once again believe in the purity of life. So, rest easy, my friend.’

It soon became a dream, one that I could experience while awake and one that to this day helps me transition to calm sleep. When Neige begins to sing, I stop talking with myself. I let my clouds of worry drown out in his growls and I let his calm smooth vocals fill me with joy once again. ‘Percées de Lumière’ is one of those tracks that has remained with me for a decade. I still feel the similar sensations of release when I listen to it, By the end when Neige sings the last part, I feel myself filling with an energy that makes me smile instantly either in tears or without. Neige used to describe his music earlier as the depictions of visions that he had once had. He makes music of a vision, of a surreal land that through expression of emotions is meant to be a beautiful place. One of my favourite Alcest album art covers is for Écailles De Lune, which was drawn by Les Discrets frontman Fursy. It is a surrealistic depiction of a window leading into a dream world that is most probably the visions of the sleeping boy while he is being shielded by the hairs of a pensive mermaid. Having listened to their music regularly for so many years, I have found that Alcest’s album art works have a strong linkage to the music and ideas explored in the album. Six studio albums strong, Alcest have produced uniqueness in each. While ‘Shelter’ may be the least liked album in their repertoire since it had more in common with other shoegaze acts than with Alcest’s own niche and unique sound, it was by no means a weak album. That said, Écailles De Lune remains a personal favourite as it gives me an experience that is rarer than the rarest emotions I have felt while listening to music. It is a testimony to the brilliance of the album that I can write this after having heard it on a regular basis for about ten years.

In each of their albums, Alcest have presented a different picture through music. Souvenirs d’un autre monde (Memories from Another World), their debut album in 2007 following the Le Secret EP, was done by Neige alone as he was a one-man band at that time. It remains to this day one of their most exquisite albums. To me, it seems like the beginning of a dream that carries one through melancholic vibes into a hopeful land. The album oscillates between elements of shoegaze and post black metal painting pictures of an escapade, awakening one’s senses and feelings along the way. As I explored my way through it, I discovered that I could experience the sensations of triumph, despair, hope, and dreaming of a world far beyond our own in fictional realms yet connected through the evocative composition of Neige. This sensation carries on to their second album Écailles de Lune that starts off with two eponymous tracks. It connects back to that world of the first album but through its approach rooted more towards post black metal links swifter with our current travails. The two tracks Écailles de Lune Parts 1 & 2 build upon each other with the dexterity of a master at work. Neige then bursts forth with Percées de lumière that acts as a catharsis of feelings and sets up the second half of the album for a sense of longing and a far-reaching melancholy. I have encountered few tracks as soulful and poetic as Sur l’océan couleur de fer.

Their third studio album remains one of their most complex albums and personally, I find it surrealistic yet something that I struggle to connect with entirely. Les Voyages de l’âme (The Journeys of the Soul) has my favourite album opener ‘Autre Temps’. Perhaps singularly the most breath-taking piece of music I have ever come across, it eases into a rather complex album and leaves one in the happiest possible trance while inducing a distant sense of sadness. That layered experience of feelings is rare but abundant in the album as Faiseurs de mondes is one of my favourite compositions in their discography.

Shelter, the fourth studio album, takes a sharp departure from Alcest’s sound of traversing black metal and shoegaze. Instead, Neige pays homage to his love for the dream pop culture and blends it with his style of shoegaze music to deliver a drive to the beach kind of dream pop album but so distinctly Alcest that by the end of it one would still be smiling, be in a trance, and at the same time have tears streaming down the cheeks. While L’Éveil des muses was the track I vibed most with (anywhere, any time of the day, balm for any mood, and a perfect writing companion), Delivrance is the most evocative piece on the album and depicts Neige’s supreme ability to build atmosphere and whiff away the listener to the world where he is standing. I can gracefully admit that I have wept countless times to it without any prior emotional baggage. It is beauty realized through music in the purest form.

Neige returned to more familiar sounds in his latest two albums Kodama and Spiritual Instinct. Both albums have tracks that are gorgeous, emotionally arousing, drug for addled minds, and evolved forms of Neige’s idea of music. Kodama, released in 2016, gains heavy inspirations from Neige’s feelings on nature and the current world. Through the album he channels the anger and resolve of Princess Mononoke to be one with the nature as well as express an acceptance of the modernity of the present world. Even though the ideology of the album is a bit distant to how I experience Alcest’s music, I felt a connect to the earthy sound of the album. It builds the senses of surrealism but feels rooted in sound to us humans than of visionary beings. This album feels as if Neige is telling stories of his travels and dreams rather than only his dreams. Spiritual Instinct carries an angrier sound to it, feels more upfront, as if a release of emotions rather than a dream-like calling of the earlier albums. While I love it for revisiting the earlier black metal sounds more vividly than recent albums, I also find it pleasingly calming. It lets me channel my own pent-up feelings within the limitless span of Alcest’s range that accommodates all kinds of moods and feelings.

Life with Alcest is beautiful. No matter what happens, I feel that at the end of the day, I can always come home and listen to Neige’s voice and feel myself again. Through a decade, several bands have come and gone from my list of hot trends, binges, and superlative proclamations, but Alcest have remained a constant companion. When every other sound stops making sense, it is Alcest that bring me back to life. Even though their music might sound wistful, arouse pensive visions, and seem one for wondrous days, I have found their music fitting into any kind of day and moment. Listening to Alcest is beyond admiring compositions and instruments and finding condolences of our emotions in lyrics. Alcest offers some of that. However, what they really offer is a spot on a moss-covered rock by a babbling brook where one can listen to the sounds of nature, their own voice deep within and share that space with Neige as he appears garbed in peacock feathers, a Slowdive t-shirt, jeans, his long hair gracefully covering his shoulders and sings stories that you may not understand but definitely feel.