Day: August 11, 2018

When one finds oneself having to talk about the album of an artist who is not exactly among the most famous, the fact that some heavy names appear among the guests often instinctively pushes one to make comparisons that sometimes turn out to be misleading, above all because they end up shifting the attention to the edges of the albums instead of focusing on their actual contents. The fact that, once again, the talented and charming Sylvaine avails herself of the collaboration of Stephan Pout (aka Neige) makes it automatic to bring the solo project of the Norwegian musician closer to Alcest; such a combination is certainly well-founded, but it must not however lead one to think that such an imprimatur makes an album like Atoms Aligned, Coming Undone expire in the cauldron of faded copies of something already heard. Sylvaine‘s post rock shoegaze is more personal than all these clues would lead us to believe, and if the melodic imprint that transpires in most of the work certainly leads us back to Les voyages de l’âme and its surroundings, there is no doubt that the persuasive female voice and a much more suffused, sometimes rarefied approach, give the whole a physiognomy of its own rather far from an overt derivativeness. All that remains, therefore, is to enjoy the progression, mostly soft, but not without a fund of anxiety that (this yes) is a common trait of those who engage with these sounds. Sylvaine‘s artistic sensitivity is especially evident in the tracks where her ethereal interpretation is the ideal completion of an atmospheric and dreamy sound (Worlds Collide, for example), but it doesn’t hurt either to come across some roughness that reminds us that even the most angelic creatures hide their dark side, ready to overwhelm us with desperate sonic overhangs (Mørklagt). If, in the end, we have to answer to someone who asks us if Atoms Aligned, Coming Undone is an album recommended to the admirers of Alcest and of the consequent genius, the answer is obviously yes, reaffirming however with strength that what Sylvaine offers is not only a nice copy but a work of great quality that is, if anything, an important alternative to the most famous names in the post rock shoegaze field.

2018 – Season Of Mist