In my mind, France’s Domadora are still a new band, but their upcoming Renaissance LP arrives as their sixth album this December and is a massive single piece broken into two sides and intended as the second installment of a trilogy to be completed next year, so… yeah. Not exactly formative moves. I am, as if it needed saying, old.

I’m encouraged by the fact that Domadora reportedly put 20 hours of music to tape during the pandemic. Presumably Renaissance is culled from that vaster swath of work, and fair enough. The piece shifts through varying movements, from an initial build into a heavy psych wash through bluesier noodle-jamming, sound collage, loud rock, get-heavy bliss, progressive meander and, well, get-even-heavier bliss. Dynamic in how it’s stitched together, it maintains the spirit of improvisation, even as the process of editing itself becomes an aspect of its creation. That is to say, they took what they had and made something that flows out of it.

I missed The U Book — and why is this post all about me god I hate myself — so it’s included at the bottom here under the PR wire info and links so that in case you also need to get caught up, we can both do so before December gets here. Together. Like friends.

From the PR wire:

« Renaissance » by domadora

LP and Digital release on december 8th

France’s premium psychedelic jammers Domadora exclusively present their new release “RENAISSANCE”. Their upcoming sixth full-length “RENAISSANCE” is due out december 8th.

Since 2020, the band has recorded more than 20 hours of music. They have decided to release the fruit of their work in three steps: “The U Book” at the end of December 2021, “Renaissance” in December 2022 distributed by Kozmik Artifactz and then last one in
2023.

“Renaissance is a 40-minute stoner heavy psyche experience testimony to what makes the identity of Domadora: their organic way of making and playing music. There is no preparation, no Intro, and no Outro. There are no restraints, there is just pure music expressed through vibrations, strong or soft ones; Our current emotions are the only thing that leads us.”

This 40-minute experience is accompanied by a textured medium-length movie which will be released at an art-house cinema on december 8 in Paris.

« If we fully relax and let go, it feels like we are no longer the ones making music. It feels like some benevolent entities have joined us, taken charge and are the one playing. It feels like being under a harmless hypnotic trance for hours »

“But this time we had a little and weird story behind this session (a true story). Each of our improvisation session is tinted with the state of mind we are currently in while playing. As usually, we were roaming the countryside, looking for a secluded and atypical location, where we could play our music. We stopped in an isolated clearing, not too far from ‘la Basse du Diable’ in Les Vosges. We set up our whole gear, the band, the amps, the drums, the grill for the barbecue.

We stopped playing at 9 pm, completely drained. Before leaving the clearing, we quietly had a meal. Then, we started looking for a place where we could spend the night before getting on with our trip the following morning. We ended up heading toward an isolated house, at the end of a path, not far from ‘la Basse d’Enfer’ We knocked on the door to ask if we could set our tents on their property. An elderly man opened the door. His name was Claude. He was tired, rough looking man, and had deep voice. He was neither welcoming nor the opposite. To put it bluntly, he didn’t care at all. ‘Set your camp there, do as you please. If you’re hungry, I’ve got some food.’ We weren’t hungry, but we didn’t dare saying no.

We set our tents and got inside Claude’s house. It was a real mess, with neon lighting and a dark and gloomy atmosphere. ‘Have a seat over there, I’ll be with you in a moment.’ We sat around a big wooden table, a stained-covered, hole-covered, broken wooden table. Everything was creaking in this house, the chairs, the wooden floor, the table, and the walls. We remained silent. Claude was certainly in the kitchen.

Suddenly, we heard a deep growl filled with rage. We stood up and went to check on the man. We reached the kitchen and found him; his hand covered with blood. He had sliced one his fingers open with a huge knife. Apparently, he was in the middle of cutting up a rabbit for us. It was such a weird situation. Either there were no windows in that kitchen, or the blinds had been closed. The walls were dirty. One of the lights kept flickering, and there was this old rough looking man with his bleeding hand on top of the butchered rabbit. ‘Everything is fine, leave me alone. I can take care of myself’ he uttered with palpable annoyance.

We didn’t go back to the table. We needed to breath some fresh air. We went out. We pondered over the situation. We couldn’t help but be wary about this man. It looked like he was living on his own, but we could swear we had heard some noises coming from upstairs and from the basement. We started to come up with crazy scenarios. ‘There are four of us and he’s just one man. So, we’re good’, ‘Well, I think we’d better leave’, ‘Yes, but imagine that despite being a little ill-mannered, he’s still a nice guy. He’s even trying to cook us a meal. It would be quite an embarrassing situation if we left.’, ‘Maybe, but what if he’s a maniac. Things could get crazy if we stay.’, ‘Yeah, let’s just trust our guts and leave!’

We went back inside the house to tell him about the decision we had made. We were no longer spending the night out there; we were going straight home instead. We waited. No answer. We took down our tents as fast as lightning and left. We had an appointment at DGD on the following day for a recording session. We played for more than 40 minutes without taking any break. The result of this session is Renaissance.

Renaissance 41’14
Side A: Renaissance Part 1
Side B: Renaissance Part 2

Artwork by Belwil

Recording at
– DGD Music Studio by Brice Chandler,
– Pierre Scheaffer Studio / Chatenay Malabry Auditorium by Patrick Muller,
– Aït Icht (Souss Massa – Maroc) by Belwil Domadora

Mixed by Brice Chandler in Paris
Mastered by by Kent Stump in Crystal Clear Sound studios in Dallas Texas

https://domadora.bandcamp.com/music
https://www.youtube.com/user/rockingcrash/videos
https://instagram.com/domadora_band
https://www.facebook.com/Domadoramusic/

Domadora, The U Book (2021)