Alcest
Souvenirs d'un Autre Monde

The ambitious Neige, guitarist of the legendary Peste Noire and Forgotten Woods, decides with this very recent "Souvenirs d'un autre monde" to give a radical turn to his solo project Alcest, moving towards other shores compared to the raw depressive black metal of the beginnings, converging (almost) definitively towards a kind of alternative rock influenced by the shoegaze scene. And the operation proves to be truly successful: the music offered by the French artist is a sound poetry in which the rhythmic guitars, like the drums, are a noisily melodic background, confusingly diffused, a gray amalgam of sounds from which a melancholically crystalline voice emerges, delicate, which often seems nothing more than a clear whisper. Among compact spirals of distorted and penetrating riffs, sometimes psychedelic, the notes of the acoustic guitar stand out, distinctively solitary, accompanying Neige's singing.

The atmosphere and the numerous emotions evoked by the work are anything but dark and funereal as the artist's musical past might suggest, and instead of granite black sound walls, compositions with a sweetly nostalgic flavor find space here, as hinted by the lyrics that brush upon the poetic and philosophical: evoking an idyllic past and hope are just some of the themes recurring in the lyrics of "Souvenirs d'un autre monde". Memories that surface already from the childlike and joyous laughter of the opener "Printemps émeraude", which among guitars now sharp now gently clear outline an ethereal atmosphere, or from the sunny carefreeness of "Le ciel errant". Brightly foggy and autumnal presents itself the title track, among the most successful of the album: semi-acoustic intro, velvety detached voice, painfully monotonous. "Let your tears flow one last time and reach the world you come from" whispers Neige, before the interlude, perhaps the zenith of the work, sadly dreamy, whose voice and melody gently cradle the listener in an ocean of suggestive and alienating sensations. And if in "Les Iris" one can catch winter nuances and vaguely dark flavors violently harmonious and more influenced by the French artist's musical past, between more frenetic tempos and black-inspired riffs skillfully mixed with gentle interludes, it is still the feeling of nostalgia that permeates the following "Sur l'autre rive je t'attendrai", featuring the fitting participation of Audrey Sylvain's female voice, among fluid and repetitive guitars and faint duets. Surprisingly jovial and crystalline is revealed "Tir Nan Og", a cadenced suite made delightful by the piano's contribution and an almost rhythmically tribal aftertaste.

Among images of green meadows and fresh waters concludes a kind of inner journey among past, vanished, and rediscovered memories, perhaps better than a more suffered present, which memory can soothe and render a source of hope. A splendid and alternative work, whose essence, in my opinion, can be perfectly described by these famous three verses of the great poet Leopardi:

"Thus in this
immensity my thought is drowned:
and the shipwreck is sweet to me in this sea"