Despite the unlimited esteem I have for Déhà, I confess to not being able to follow all of his projects or collaborations, so, while waiting to hear something new from his main incarnations, namely Slow and Imber Luminis, I limit myself to intermittently intercepting his releases. This latest one that bears his name, Eerie, however, has all the crims to become a must-listen for anyone who wants to be lulled by poignant and mostly intimate notes. The work consists of 13 tracks for around 100 minutes of music composed by Déhà over the last six years and which had never found a place in other works. Between covers, tributes to people, things or places that are important to the Belgian musician, Eerie winds its way from the first note of Weight of Healing touching the right emotional chords and from there it does not move, even though the songs are completely unconnected and therefore lack a common thread, if not that of the talent of those who composed and performed them. On the other hand, today Déhà is pervaded by a sort of artistic omnipotence that allows him to play every instrument with the utmost skill, accompanying it all with a voice that is not precluded from nuances (as is the case, for example, in the surprising blues Devil’s gonna get you, offered with intonation halfway between Nick Cave and the first Danzig) that always leads to a heartfelt interpretation that is never mannered. If in works of a thematic nature it is necessary to avoid the risk of stylistic repetition, the heterogeneous compositional process found in Eerie paradoxically makes every single moment unique, to be sipped and sipped like a good vintage wine; despite the mammoth duration, not a moment of dispersion or tedium emerges, even when the sound in the longer tracks takes the path of a dark introspection (March 2016), of funeral doom (Shades of… Despair, where any reference to the Finnish masters is purely deliberate) or neo-classicism (Summertime Depression). Genuine gems such as The Ire, Comfort Me, My Partner in Crime and the concluding Lord of the Sword stand out for their brilliance in a context of an overall sublime level; Eerie is yet another appointment not to be missed with Déhà, so all that remains is to visit the rich bandcamp to directly test its goodness.

2022 – Independent