Posted in Reviews on December 21st, 2020 by JJ Koczan
Kind of a spur of the moment thing, this Quarterly Review. I’ve been adding releases all the while, of course, but my thought was to do this after my year-end list went up, and I realized, hey, if I’ve got like 70 records I haven’t reviewed yet, maybe there’s some of that stuff worth considering. So here we are. I’ve pushed back my best-of-2020 stuff and basically swapped it with the Quarterly Review. Does it matter to you? I seriously, seriously doubt it, but I believe in transparency and that’s what’s up. Thought I’d let you know. And yeah, this is going to go into next week, take us through the X-mas holiday this Friday, so whatever. You celebrate your way and I’ll celebrate mine. Let’s roll.
Quarterly Review #1-10:
Boris, No
As a general project, reviewing Boris is damn near pointless. One might as well review the moon: “uh, it’s big and out there most of the time?” The only reason to do it is either to exercise one’s own need to hyperbolize or help the band sell records. Well, Boris doesn’t need my push and I don’t need to tell them how great they are. No is 40 minutes of the widely and wildly lauded Japanese heavy rock(s) experimentalists trying to riff away existing in 2020, delving high speed into hardcore here and there and playing off that with grueling sludge, punk, garage-metal and the penultimate “Loveless,” which is kind of Boris being their own genre. Much respect to the band, and I suppose one might critique Boris for, what?, being so Boris-y?, but there really isn’t a ton that hasn’t been said about them because such a ton has. I’m not trying to disparage their work at all — No is just what you’d expect as regards defying expectation — but after 20-plus years, there’s only so many ways one wants to call a band genius.
Kind of a soft-opening for Edinburgh’s DVNE as an act on Metal Blade Records, unless of course one counts the two songs on the Omega Severer EP itself, which are post-metallic beasts of the sort that would and should make The Ocean blush. Progressive, heavy, and remarkably ‘next-wave’ feeling, DVNE‘s awaited follow-up to 2017’s Asheran may only be about 17 and a half minutes long, but it bodes remarkably well as the band master a torrent of intensity on the 10-minute opening title-cut and answer that with the immediately galloping “Of Blade and Carapace,” smashing battle-axe riffing and progressive shimmer against each other and finding it to be an alchemy of their own. Album? One suspects not until they can tour for it, but if Omega Severer is DVNE serving notice, consider the message received loud, clear, dynamic, crushing, spacious, and so on. Already veterans of Psycho Las Vegas, they sound like a band bent on capturing a broader audience in the metallic sphere.
There’s no questioning where Hydra‘s heart is at on their debut full-length, From Light to the Abyss. It belongs to the devil and it belongs to Black Sabbath. The Polish four-piece riff hard and straightforward throughout most of the five-track offering (released by Piranha Music), and samples set the kind of atmosphere that should be familiar enough to the converted — “No One Loves Like Satan” reminds of Uncle Acid in its initial channel-changing and swaggering riff alike — but doomly centerpiece “Creatures of the Woods” and the layered vocal melodies late in closer “Magical Mind” perhaps offer a glimpse at the direction the band could take from here. What matters though is where Hydra are at today, and that’s bringing riffs and nod to the converted among the masses, and From Light to the Abyss offers no pretense otherwise. It is doom rock for doom rockers, grooves to be grooved to. They’re not void of ambition by any means — their songwriting makes that clear — but their traditionalism is sleeve-worn, which if you’re going to have it, is right where it should be.
Dead Meadow guitarist/vocalist Jason Simon follows 2016’s Familiar Haunts (review here) with the genre-spanning A Venerable Wreck, finding folk roots in obscure beats and backwards this-and-that, country in fuzz, ramble in space, and no shortage of experimentalism besides. A Venerable Wreck consists of 12 songs and though there are times where it can feel disjointed, that becomes part of the ride. It’s not all supposed to make sense. Yet what happens by the time you get around to “No Entrance No Exit” is that Simon (and a host of cohorts) has set his own context broad enough so that the drone reach of “Hollow Lands” and sleek, organ-laced indie of closer “Without Reason or Right” can coexist without any real interruption of flow between them. The question with A Venerable Wreck isn’t so much whether the substance is there, it’s whether the listener is open to it. Welcome to psychedelic America. Please inject this snake venom and turn in your keys when you leave.
You won’t hear me take away from the opening psych-scorch hook of “Mindbreaker” or the fuzzed-on, boogie-down, -up, and -sideways of “Black Annis” which follows, but there’s something extra fun about hearing Frog Island’s Cherry Choke jam out a 13-minute, drum-solo-inclusive version of “6ix and 7even” that makes Raising Salzburg Rockhouse even more of a reminder of how underrated both they are as a band and Mat Bethancourt is as a player. Look no further than “Domino” if you want absolute proof. The whole band rips it up at the Austrian gig, which was recorded in 2015 as they supported their third and still-most-recent full-length, Raising the Waters (review here), but Bethancourt puts on a Hendrixian clinic in the nine-minute cut from 2011’s A Night in the Arms of Venus (review here), which is actually less of a clinic than it is pure distorted swagger followed by a mellow “cheers, thanks” before diving into “Used to Call You Friend.” A 38-minute set would be perfect for an vinyl release, and anytime Cherry Choke want to get around to putting together a fourth studio album, well, that’ll be just fine too.
It’s a special breed of aggro that emerges as a result of living in the most densely populated state in the union, and New Jersey’s Pariiah have it to spare. Bringing together sludge tonality with elder-style New York hardcore lumbering riffs on their Trip Machine Laboratories tape, Swallowed by Fog, they exude a thickened brand of pissed off that’s outright going to be too confrontation for many who take it on. But if you want a middle finger to the face, this is what it sounds like, and the six songs (compiled into four on the digital version of the release) come and go entirely without pretense and leave little behind except bruises and the promise of more to come. They’re a new band, started in this most wretched of years, but there’s no learning curve whatsoever among the members of Devoid of Faith, The Nolan Gate, Kill Your Idols, Changeörder and others. I’d go to Maplewood to see these cats. I’m just saying. Maybe even Elizabeth.
So you’ve got both members of Holly Hunt in a four-piece sludging out with spacey synth and the band is named after a Star Trek character? Not to get too personal, but that’s going to pique my interest one way or the other. Saavik — and they clearly prefer the Kirstie Alley version, rather than Robin Curtis, going by drummer Beatriz Monteavaro‘s artwork — are damn near playing space rock by the end of “He’s Dead Jim,” the opener of their self-titled debut EP, but even that’s affected by a significant tonal weight in Didi Aragon‘s bass and the guitar of Gavin Perry, however much Ryan Rivas‘ synth and effects-laced vocals might seem to float overhead, but “Meld” rolls along at a steadier nod, and “Horizon” puts the synth more in the lead without becoming any less heavy for doing so. Likewise, “Red Sun” calls to mind Godflesh in its proto-machine metal stomp, but there’s more concern in Saavik‘s sound with expanse than just pure crush, and that shows up in fascinating ways in these songs.
There’s been a dark vibe all along nestled into Mountain Tamer‘s sound, and that’s certainly the case on Psychosis Ritual, with which the Los Angeles-based trio make their debut on Heavy Psych Sounds. It’s their third full-length overall behind 2018’s Godfortune // Dark Matters (review here) and 2016’s self-titled debut (review here), and it finds their untamed-feeling psychedelia rife with that same threat of violence, not necessarily thematically as much as sonically, like the songs themselves are the weapon about to be turned on the listener. Maybe the buzz of “Warlock” or the fuckall echo of the prior-issued single “Death in the Woods” (posted here) aren’t out there trying to be “Hammer Smashed Face” or anything, but neither is this the hey-bruh-good-times heavy jams for which Southern California is known these days. Consider the severity of “Turoc Maximus Antonis” or the finally-released screams in closer “Black Noise,” which bookends Psychosis Ritual with the title-track and seems at last to be the point where whatever grim vibe these guys are riding finally consumes them. Mountain Tamer continue to be unexpected and righteous in kind.
Hypnotic Estonian psychedelic krautrock instrumentals not your thing? Well that sounds like a personal problem Centre El Muusa are ready to solve. The evolved-from-duo four-piece get spaced out amid the semi-motorik repetitions of their self-titled debut (on Sulatron), and that seems to suit them quite well, thanksabunch. Drone trips and essential swirl brim with solar-powered pulsations and you can set your deflectors on maximum and route all the secondaries to reinforce if you want, there’s still a decent chance 9:53 opener an longest track “Turkeyfish” (immediate points, double for the appropriately absurd title) is going to sweep you off what you used to call your feet when that organ line hits at about six minutes in. That’s to say nothing of the cosmic collision later in “Burning Lawa” or the just-waiting-for-a-Carl-Sagan-voiceover “Mia” that follows. Even the 3:46 “Ain’t Got Enough Mojo” lives long enough to prove itself wrong. Interstellar tape transmissions fostered by obvious weirdos in the great out-there in “Szolnok,” named for a city in Hungary that, among other things, hosts the goulash festival. Right fucking on.
The first Population II album, a 2017 self-titled, was comprised of two tracks, each long enough to consume a 12″ side. Somehow it’s fitting with the Montreal-based singing-drummer trio’s aesthetic that their second long-player, À la Ô Terre, would take a completely different tack, employing shorter freakouts like “L’Offrande” and “La Nuit” and the garage-rocking “La Danse” and what-if-Jefferson–Airplane-but-on-Canadian-mushrooms “À la Porte de Demain” and still-more-drifting finisher “Je Laisse le Soleil Briller” amid the more stretched out “Attaction,” the space-buzzer “Ce n’est Réve” while cutting a middle ground in the greaked-out (I was gonna type “freaked out” and hit a typo and I’m keeping it) “Il eut un Silence dans le Ciel,” which also betrays the jazzy underpinnings that somehow make all of À la Ô Terre come across as progressive instead of haphazard. From the start to the close, you don’t know what’s coming next, and just because that’s by design doesn’t make it less effective. If anything, it makes Population II all the more impressive.
Posted in Whathaveyou on September 28th, 2020 by JJ Koczan
Hey, I get it. I understand not everybody catches everything that gets posted around here, and apart from bands or labels sharing across thee socials, sometimes this get posted on this site and that’s the end of it. A Quebecois psych band’s debut — even one with the endorsement of Castle Face Records behind it — isn’t going to catch eyes like something people already know. But there are going to be a few people who see this post, maybe check out the track at the bottom of it, and be really, really glad they did.
Whether or not you catch the Randy Holden reference in the band’s moniker, Population II‘s first record, À La Ô Terre, is coming out Nov. 13 and its trad-psych fuzz meanderings have a soul behind them that comes through in each brimming noodle and volume burst. Would watch on stage. Gladly.
So take it as you will. Maybe the name snags your eye as it did mine, and maybe you figure that anyone who knows that LP might be on their game, as indeed these cats are. If you hear “Introspection” below and want more (legit), their Bandcamp has some name-your-priceness up for your perusal.
Art and info came down the PR wire:
Announcing Debut POPULATION II Album on Castle Face Records
Quebec-based raw rock band Population II share single “Introspection” and announce their album À La Ô Terre out October 30th via Castle Face Records. Opener “Introspection” is a sustainted, ferocious pummeling rock track that showcases Population II’s solid rock-n-roll, psych, and prog infused sound.
The band puts it best, saying: “With heaviness through experimentation, Introspection is an immersion in the mind of one who feels the energy of raw Rock n ‘Roll running through its veins for the first time. Instantly, comes the need to transmit and amplify it.”
POPULATION II À La Ô Terre Castle Face Records Released 13th November 2020
Tracklist 01. Introspection 02. Ce n’est Réve 03. Les Vents 04. L’Offrande 05. La Nuit 06. Il eut une Silence dans le Ciel 07. Attraction 08. La Danse 09. À la Porte de Demain 10. Je Laisse le Soleil Briller
Population II are: Pierre-Luc Gratton – Drums, Vocal Tristan Lacombe – Guitare, Orgue Sébastien Provençal – Bass
Posted in Features on September 16th, 2020 by JJ Koczan
Montreal-based solo-ambient exploratory outfit Vision Eternel — think if post-black metal had a “post” of its own; post-post-black metal — has this week issued the four-song concept EP, For Farewell of Nostalgia through project spearhead Alexander Julien‘s own Abridged Pause Recordings as well as Somewherecold Records (CD) and Geertruida (tape). The EP arrives after a three-year stretch that, if you told me Julien spent the entire time putting the offering together from front to back even though it’s only about 30 minutes long, I’d have to believe it. Executed not only with an evocative spirit emblematic of the ambient instrumental style upon which its sound is based, but with a deep conceptualism that includes a composed short story and artwork based around the central theme of loss and the ensuing progression through the various stages of acceptance thereof, For Farewell of Nostalgia offers rare depth of expression and heart for the microgenre in which it resides. This isn’t just a guitarist screwing around with pedals. These are cinematic, narrative pieces tying together to tell a story, and Julien has worked to make sure the listener understands this.
That would seem to include this interview. I’ve done more Six Dumb Questions features than I care to count for fear of self-embarrassment, but in all of them, I don’t think I’ve ever encountered someone so ready and so willing to open up about their process, their history and their intention, and that purposefulness is mirrored in For Farewell of Nostalgia itself, as the melodic wistfulness of Julien‘s guitar becomes the ground from which the ambience seems to take flight. It is all the more telling that the release arrives after an initial take that was scrapped for not feeling right, as there is so much about “Moments of Rain,” “Moments of Absence,” “Moments of Intimacy” and “Moments of Nostalgia,” that feels directed and working in precisely the manner it wants to. On a basic audio level, the songs are lush and evocative, and it’s certainly possible they might take the listener someplace other than the companion story seems to want them to go, but such is the nature of art, and it seems unlikely that, even with the core of will put into what Vision Eternel does on this latest addition to an expansive discography of mostly short releases, Julien didn’t account for such a possibility. The point, maybe, is then to let it take you where it takes you, then go deeper.
Whatever path you follow, it’s hard to divorce the tracks from the narrative once you have a fuller understanding of it, and in the interest of preserving spoilers, I won’t give too much away. What I’ll do instead is turn you over to Julien, and perhaps just take this opportunity to thank him for being as open as he is here about what he does. As someone who tends toward wordiness myself, it is all the more easy to appreciate.
For Farewell of Nostalgia is out now.
Please enjoy the following Six Dumb Questions:
Six Dumb Questions with Alexander Julien of Vision Eternel
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The theme of “moments” speaks to an ephemeral glimpse at something – a moment passes. What does framing the songs on For Farewell of Nostalgia as moments allow you to bring to the experience of the listener and the narrative you’re telling?
The titling of a Vision Eternel release (and its songs) is subject to a long period of reflection. It is by no means an after-thought nor a rushed process. Since Vision Eternel releases concept albums, I would not be able to explain the titling of the songs without detailing the titling of the release.
During the composing and recording sessions, I write down words that I feel are representative of my mood and the themes that I am expressing emotionally through the music. Once I find a couple of words that I think work well together for a release title, I brainstorm several combinations and I sit on them for a while. Vision Eternel’s release titles need to have a certain rhythm, like a statement-of-fact, a short sentence. I also make sure that the title is completely original, that nothing comes up when searching for it on Google. That is very important to me. If one has been used, or is too similar to another work, I discard it.
The sense of the word farewell in the title is intended to be interpreted in its olde English sense, as in fare thee well. But I did not want to use that kind of phrasing because it did not fit Vision Eternel’s style and concept. I am old-fashioned but not that old fashioned. I took a little bit of poetic liberty so that in its used phrasing, For Farewell Of Nostalgia means for the well-being of nostalgia.
I felt that I was taking a chance giving this release a title… perhaps as grandiose or elegant… as nostalgia; there was a fear that it might not live up to its name. I take nostalgia very seriously. It has been such an important part of my teenage and adult life, constantly living with the nostalgia of yesterdays. I desperately wanted to represent nostalgia with the utmost respect.
The title, and the entire concept of the extended play, does also symbolize the heartaches of past loves. But it too is an ode, mixed with a Dear John letter, to Montreal. A dispatch saying “Thanks for the memories, the wonderful and the miserable; now good-bye”. This is my farewell to the city where I was born and where I came back to as an adult. Where romance and melancholia truly bloomed. I no longer live in Montreal but I think that Vision Eternel will always have a symbolic link to that city; even more so than to Edison, New Jersey, where the band started.
The titling of the songs is another concept within the concept: adding the first letter of each song title spells out the name of the girl to whom the extended play is dedicated. This has been consistent across all of Vision Eternel’s extended plays, with the exception of Echoes From Forgotten Hearts because it was originally composed as a soundtrack.
The process of determining the song titles is a little bit different from the release title, but it is just as exhaustive. I know ahead of time how many songs are going to be on an extended play (the amount of letters in the girl’s name). From there, I try to choose single words that are descriptive of the emotions in the songs, but that also represent the progression of events in the story-line. The song titles should define where along in the time-line the tragedy is.
Some time during the recording session I also try to pick out the common prefix for the song titles. In the case of For Farewell Of Nostalgia, the prefix Moments Of had been one that I had considered using for an earlier extended play, The Last Great Torch Song. But I was unable to due to the complexity of matching the girl’s name with two songs that were re-recorded from previous releases. Since Vision Eternel songs are technically only given a single-word title (Absence, Intimacy, Rain, Nostalgia, Narcosis, etc), the song can be accommodated to fit on any release if it is re-recorded. For example, Absence had originally been recorded for Un Automne En Solitude and was given the title Season In Absence; it was re-recorded for For Farewell Of Nostalgia and its title was updated to Moments Of Absence.
I went a step further with song titles on For Farewell Of Nostalgia. Since the songs were much longer and they all had different sections and movements, different segues and repetitive codas, I was able to provide extended track titles. This was something that I had been interested in utilizing for roughly fifteen years; it was something that impressed me from Harmonium’s concept album L’heptade. I used it to some degree on Soufferance releases, like Travels Into Several Remote Nations Of The Mind (completed in 2009), but it was with For Farewell Of Nostalgia that I incorporated the method to my satisfaction. At first glance, the extended play appears to feature only the four principal songs, but once one delves into the tracks, or consults the booklet, there are titles for each movement of the songs. The extended track listing also parallels the short story that accompanies the physical editions of the extended play.
The album is defined by this profound sense of loss in the progression of each moment within the tracks themselves. After working on For Farewell of Nostalgia over such a period of time, how has your perspective changed on what inspired the work in the first place?How did the development of the story coincide with the development of the songs themselves? Which came first, the narrative frame or the music?
The music was recorded first; I penned the short story during the post-production. But the short story, and the extended play, are based on events that occurred prior to the composing and recording of the music. This goes back several years, partly due to difficulty composing and finding my direction; partly because For Farewell Of Nostalgia was recorded twice.
I had made several attempts to compose new material between October 2015 and February 2017 but my heart was not into it. The material lacked direction and substance. I began composing and recording better-developed demos in the spring of 2017 but I was forced to put that aside in order to finish compiling the boxed set An anthology Of Past Misfortunes. Once that was released in April 2018, I could go forward, without hindrance, composing and recording new music. From April to October 2018 I recorded For Farewell Of Nostalgia. But I was not happy with it. There were a number of things that I felt were wrong with the release. Some things were unacceptable, like crackling, distortion and humming in the recordings. I attempted to re-record a lot of it, only to find out that some of it was caused by my studio equipment. Just as I began fixing that problem, an uncontrollable fret buzz plagued the main guitar with which I was recording.
Some of the other problems that I had with the first version of For Farewell Of Nostalgia had to do with personal preferences. For example, I did not feel that the songs flowed well together; they each sounded too different. I also had difficulty mixing because I was using too many layered tracks and effects. These original recordings, which I later started referring to as pre-production versions, were a lot darker, harsher and abrasive, not only in sound but in nature; I had a different perspective and approach when I was recording them. It was a very difficult decision to make, because I had garnered record label interest, but I put the release aside, for what ended up being a whole year, while I regrouped.
Throughout the spring and summer of 2019, I upgraded my gear and studio equipment. In early October 2019 I started re-recording For Farewell Of Nostalgia; by mid-November I was done tracking. Minor mixing and editing lasted until late December while I wrote the short story. In early January, Carl Saff mastered the extended play. I was very fortunate to have the opportunity to work with him and it really made a big difference. I was impressed by his work with Castevet (CSTVT, the Chicago emo band) and he was the first person that I approached once I finished the recording in November 2019.
It was a well-contained recording session because this time around, I wanted the songs to sound like they belonged together and I knew where I was going. All of the songs were re-recorded in a consistent mind-frame and mood. It helped tremendously that the sequencing was already planned by this point. That allowed me to properly end and start each song in a way that it was complementary to each next piece. I was mindful of how editing one song may alter the others, which is not possible (or would require additional editing at a later time) if the sequencing is done during the mastering stage. The sequencing of the songs is really important when I approach a concept release.
I was very proud of the new version. The songs greatly improved the second time around, especially once I added textual guitar leads; the pre-production versions did not have leads. Nearly everything that appears on the released version of For Farewell Of Nostalgia was recorded during the 2019 session, with the exception of a couple of backing tracks on one song, which I kept from the 2018 session because I felt that the emotions were stronger on the original recording.
Something so personal is still somehow also vague – there aren’t lyrics or verses or choruses, etc. – but the story is expressed in emotional and evocative terms. How do you feel about putting something like this out and opening it up to the interpretations of others?
There are no vocals on this release but I consider the short story that accompanies For Farewell Of Nostalgia to be of equal value to lyrics. The extended song titles are, in-sort, the chapters to the short story. This is only available with the physical editions of the extended play however, because I felt that it should be read, like lyrics, in an old-fashioned setting: putting on a record, admiring the sleeve art and reading through every part of the concept while listening. It is an event; a presentation; an experience.
One of my ambitions with For Farewell Of Nostalgia was to present something different to the ambient community; to face them with a release that embarks an alternate pathway: a profound approach of focus. I do not want Vision Eternel to be diminished to background music while listeners perform other tasks. From the visual presentation of the cover art and deluxe packaging, to the conceptual delivery within the sequencing and production, the extended song titles and the short story, For Farewell Of Nostalgia was my way of documenting and sharing my most personal sentiments.
The short story, appropriately titled For Farewell Of Nostalgia, recounts events that inspired the extended play. It is a narrative of how I was emotionally devastated after falling in love too fast, and the aftermath of this heartbreak. Falling in love-at-first-sight, the intimacy of it all, and the stifling wound when the realization hits that it is not reciprocal. It is about learning to befriend absence and loneliness and living with constant sentiments of nostalgia and melancholia.
I do not want to appear closed-mouthed about the short story; it is simply that I do not want to give too much of it away. I very much want people to read it and interpret it for themselves. That is part of the experience.
Tell me about the artwork and the direction that ended up taking.
I absolutely adore the illustration that graces For Farewell Of Nostalgia’s cover. I feel that it is the first real artwork that I have had for Vision Eternel. On the first three releases (Seul Dans L’obsession, Un Automne En Solitude and An Anthology Of Past Misfortunes [the compilation, not the boxed set]), the artwork was simply my own photography. The photographs were not particularly good and I do not consider myself a photographer by any means. I liked the colours within but the subject matters were rather bland. You might say that this style is typical of ambient album artworks today, but at the time, they were simply used because I had no alternative… I wanted to handle every aspect of Vision Eternel myself, including the artwork, and that resulted with ordinary covert arts.
For Abondance De Périls and The Last Great Torch Song, my friend and former room-mate Marina Polak provided a photograph for the artwork. I had attempted to take photographs for Abondance De Périls myself but they were sub-par, even by the standards of my own photographic competence. Marina, who was a terrific photographer and studied art and photography at the university, offered to contribute one of her own. The moment that I saw the picture, I fell in love with it; it represented Vision Eternel perfectly. The photograph is credited to her name but she did not actually take the picture. She had found the negative in a garbage bin in the streets of Poland during one of her visits in the mid-2000s. From what I understand, the person who owns a photograph’s negative is the legal owner.
The artwork for Echoes From Forgotten Hearts was done on the rush by my friend Jeremy Roux. This one was more in line with the band’s early artworks: it was extremely bland and without direction. It was nondescript. It faded into the background next to other ambient albums on a web-page. But that is what I was going for at the time; it was what I asked Jeremy to come up with. He is actually a terrific graphic designer and he was responsible for all of the early visual material used by Abridged Pause Recordings and also designed Vision Eternel’s first logo in 2008.
The artwork from An Anthology Of Past Misfortunes (the boxed set) was on the opposite end of the spectrum: it was vivid and eye-catching. It was constructed partly from original abstract paintings by Rain Frances and partly from a cardinal bird craft art done by my late grand-mother Pierrette Bourdon. She was a craft artist and the bird artwork was actually her last piece of art before she passed away in 2012.
The approach to For Farewell Of Nostalgia’s artwork was completely different. It was very well planned out. When I re-recorded the extended play in 2019, I wanted to contain my mood and atmosphere so that the entire release would sound whole. That was very important for me and for a concept album; you do not want the songs to sound like they were recorded or mixed at different times. I brought out one of my favourite albums: Frank Sinatra’s In The Wee Small Hours. I put the vinyl sleeve next to my computer so that I would always have it there to inspire me. I also limited myself to solely watching Frank Sinatra’s films during those two months. He is an incredible actor and most people do not seem to remember (or know about) that aspect of his career. I am not a fan of his musicals (nor of the musical film genre as a whole), but his dramatic films are amongst my favourite films. When it came time to decide on the artwork, it seemed like an obvious choice; pay homage to Frank Sinatra’s In The Wee Small Hours. Tom Waits had done it with his second album The Heart Of Saturday Night, so I figured that I could too.
I then went to the extent of combining several photo shoots from over the years (some done with Jeremy Roux, others with Rain Frances) into an original collage mockup that represented Montreal and paid tribute to Frank Sinatra. It also took several new photo shoots until I was happy with my pose; I wanted the angle of my body and my facial expression to be just right. This was not a parody like a “Weird Al” Yankovic album cover (and I mean that respectfully); it was a legitimate homage to something that I felt had become part of me, that helped me get through so many of those lonely, depressed nights that led me to write and record this music.
It was also important for me to incorporate things into the artwork that represented me, that made it a little different from Frank Sinatra’s original, and that tied into the concept of the release. I smoke a pipe (and not cigarettes like Frank Sinatra did) so that was put into the image. Other details that perhaps only a hat fanatic may notice are the subtle differences in shape and style of my fedora. Frank Sinatra had a skinnier face so he wore narrow-brimmed hats; I have a round face so wide-brimmed hats suit me better. My hat also has a ribbon edge binding, while Frank Sinatra’s was a raw edge cut. I wore an overcoat and scarf for the photo shoot, while Frank Sinatra wore a suit and tie. Several Montreal landmarks were also put into the background: the Montreal Harbour Bridge, Windsor Station, the Saint Lawrence River, the Sailors’ Memorial Clock Tower on Victoria Pier. There were many more iconic Montreal structures that I originally wanted to include in the background but it became too busy, too removed from Frank Sinatra’s minimalist artwork. The background on my release is very descriptive; it clearly represents Montreal, whereas Frank Sinatra’s cover made him the sole focus with a nondescript street scene behind him.
It took a long time to find the right person to paint it. I finally landed on American illustrator Michael Koelsch because he had illustrated two cover artworks for The Criterion Collection. In 2000 he illustrated the DVD cover (later re-used for the Blu-ray edition) for The Blob; and in 2001 he illustrated the DVD cover for My Man Godfrey (this one was unfortunately not re-used for the Blu-ray edition). Pulp art design has made a considerable comeback in film posters and in paperbacks but it was really difficult finding someone who was able to work it into an album cover art. Luckily, Michael happened to be a big fan of Frank Sinatra and knew In The Wee Small Hours well, so he was able to incorporate the sadness of both albums (Frank Sinatra’s and Vision Eternel’s) into the new painting. He had also worked on several notable music album artworks during his career so he understood what I wanted and where I was coming from.
I then approached Rain Frances to paint two abstract paintings to use in the physical editions of the extended play. One of them, which happened to have already been painted in 2019, was used for the short story booklet. The other painting, which was painted especially for the release, was used on the bonus compact cassette Lost Misfortunes: A Selection Of Demos And Rarities (Part Two). Rain had painted the artwork for the first tape in that series (included in the An Anthology Of Past Misfortunes boxed set) so it made sense that I approach her for this sequel.
I was aiming for an eye-catching presentation with the artwork of For Farewell Of Nostalgia and I could not be happier with the results. I wanted it to represent who I am and how I see the world. I did not want people to look at my release and think “Hey, this looks like a nice peaceful album”, in the manner in which so many album covers remain descriptive of their genres. This is Vision Eternel’s first extended play to be released and distributed by established record labels (meaning not my own imprints), so it will be seen and heard by mostly newcomers to my music. I want these new listeners to be intrigued by it, and to approach it from a different perspective than they are used to.
Where do you go from here?
Over the years, I have slowed down my rate of releasing music considerably. I have always been a firm believer of quality over quantity; my approach to composing music for Vision Eternel has evolved in such a way that I could no longer rush out a new extended play each year.
On Vision Eternel’s first two extended plays, 2007’s Seul Dans L’obsession and 2008’s Un Automne En Solitude, the compositions and arrangements were minimalistic; short songs that sounded sad but remained hopeful. The production was also minimal and straightforward: very bright and focused on treble.
In 2009, I changed my setup while composing Abondance De Périls. The new setup helped provide a warmer, more accessible sound, which was emphasised, and greatly improved, during the mastering by Adam Kennedy. This was the first time that a Vision Eternel release was mastered. The same setup was used to compose and record the songs that ended up on The Last Great Torch Song.
Up until this point, the songs were still minimalistic but The Last Great Torch Song marked the beginning of a change. It welcomed several guest appearances by my close friends: Garry Brents on keyboard, Alexander Fawcett on guitar and bass and Howard Change and Eiman Iraninejad on vocals. I was unsure of Vision Eternel’s future at that point so I was treating The Last Great Torch Song as a potential swansong. I had hoped to incorporate many more guests on the release but many were not able to provide their contributions in time for the mastering deadline.
The Last Great Torch Song’s closer Sometimes In Absolute Togetherness was the real turning point. The song had originally been composed and recorded as a Soufferance song, but it always felt to me like it had far too much of Vision Eternel’s style to be a true Soufferance song. I was torn but I ultimately used it on a Vision Eternel release; that was my first of many steps letting go of the strict guidelines that I had set for Vision Eternel. Soufferance was much darker, more self-destructive; it had longer songs and experimented with more instruments and vocals. Vision Eternel by contrast was straight-forward guitar-based music; optimistic and hopeful (I always hoped that the girl would come back).
Things changed further with Echoes From Forgotten Hearts in 2014/2015 and that is because that release was not recorded, nor approached, as Vision Eternel. I had been contacted to compose the soundtrack to a short film. I therefore approached the songwriting as myself, without the restrictions that I normally placed to conform the music within what is expected of a certain band. It was a completely natural songwriting approach. When the short film fell through, I was unwilling to let this music be unheard because I was really proud of it. So I partly re-recorded, re-edited, re-mixed and re-conceptualized the soundtrack into an extended play. I released it under the Vision Eternel banner because that was the project closest to my heart and I felt that the music sounded most like Vision Eternel did at that point.
Having broken so many barriers along the way, and considering that Vision Eternel had become my principal band, I was now free to compose music that was entirely natural to me. I no longer felt the pressure to sort songs into what each band was supposed to sound like. Vision Eternel’s new material was simply going to incorporate the best of what I once brought to each of my ambient bands (Vision Eternel, Soufferance, Citadel Swamp and Éphémère).
But in a realistic sense, since Vision Eternel was always my pet project, the new material will not be alien in comparison to the older works; it is simply a natural progression, placing less restrictions on myself over the years. I still approach Vision Eternel compositions with the same emotions, the same themes; always about heartbreak. Hitchcock once said “self-plagiarism is style”, and I think that applies to Vision Eternel. But I am now incorporating additional elements, which are already familiar to folks accustomed with my other bands. From Soufferance, I brought in longer songs, the segues and movements, the lengthy emotional build ups and the hypnotic, repetitive codas (think of Swans in the mid-1990s). From Vision Lunar and Éphémère, I brought in guitar leads; that was something that I was not utilizing often in my ambient projects. And from Citadel Swamp, I brought in the way that I layer and mix several instruments together; finding ways of making leads flow over rhythm tracks.
The music took a long time to be polished and I spent nearly three years working and re-working the songs that ended up on For Farewell Of Nostalgia. With that in perspective, I plan to heavily promote this release for the next couple of years. I am also actively looking for a record label to release For Farewell Of Nostalgia on vinyl format with an exclusive bonus track.
I am also in discussion with Somewherecold Records about the possibility of re-releasing Vision Eternel’s 2015 soundtrack/extended play Echoes From Forgotten Hearts as a double-disc edition. It would feature a remastering of the extended play version as well as the never-released soundtrack version. There are several notable differences between the two versions.
Posted in Whathaveyou on July 15th, 2020 by JJ Koczan
It’s been a while in the making, but Vision Eternel‘s new EP, For Farewell of Nostalgia, has been slated for Sept. 14 release on CD, tape and DL. Somewherecold Records has the CD, Geertruida has the tape, and those two and Abridged Pause Recordings will all have a hand in the download. That’s covering a fair amount of ground, but of course, Vision Eternel do the same in terms of sound as well, the cinematic drone of the Montreal one-man outfit evocative of place and time as well as emotion/mood and atmosphere. I haven’t heard the new outing yet, so can’t comment on what it might hold sonically, but ambience is the stock and trade here, so expect some depths to dive into, nostalgic or not.
Details from the PR wire:
Vision Eternel’s For Farewell Of Nostalgia EP Scheduled For Release
For Farewell Of Nostalgia, Vision Eternel’s newest extended play, will be released on September 14th 2020. The release will come out on compact disc, compact cassette and digitally.
– The Compact Disc Edition will be released by Somewherecold Records and packaged in a four-panel eco-wallet, factory-numbered and limited to 100 copies. The CD will feature an exclusive bonus song, unavailable elsewhere, and a booklet with a short story written by Alexander Julien.
– The Compact Cassette Edition will be released by Geertruida and the coloured tapes will be packaged in a double-tape case with an over-sized booklet, factory-numbered and limited to 50 copies. The tape will feature an exclusive bonus song, unavailable elsewhere, and a booklet with a short story written by Alexander Julien. The Compact Cassette Edition will also bundle a second tape, titled Lost Misfortunes: A Selection Of Demos And Rarities (Part Two), containing twelve exclusive b-sides, demos and alternate takes, all unavailable elsewhere.
– The standard Digital Edition will be jointly released by Somewherecold Records, Geertruida and Abridged Pause Recordings. Anyone purchasing a physical edition from one of the three record labels will automatically receive a free digital edition.
For Farewell Of Nostalgia was mastered by Carl Saff at Saff Mastering. The cover art was painted by Michael Koelsch at Koelsch Studios, and the booklet art was painted by Rain Frances.
Vision Eternel is still looking for a record label to release For Farewell Of Nostalgia on vinyl, so get in touch!
Posted in Features on April 13th, 2020 by JJ Koczan
The statistics of COVID-19 change with every news cycle, and with growing numbers, stay-at-home isolation and a near-universal disruption to society on a global scale, it is ever more important to consider the human aspect of this coronavirus. Amid the sad surrealism of living through social distancing, quarantines and bans on gatherings of groups of any size, creative professionals — artists, musicians, promoters, club owners, techs, producers, and more — are seeing an effect like nothing witnessed in the last century, and as humanity as a whole deals with this calamity, some perspective on who, what, where, when and how we’re all getting through is a needed reminder of why we’re doing so in the first place.
Thus, Days of Rona, in some attempt to help document the state of things as they are now, both so help can be asked for and given where needed, and so that when this is over it can be remembered.
Thanks to all who participate. To read all the Days of Rona coverage, click here. — JJ Koczan
Days of Rona: Marc Zolla of Pink Cocoon (Montreal, Quebec)
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How are you dealing with this crisis as a band? Have you had to rework plans at all? How is everyone’s health so far?
Pink Cocoon had to cancel the “Ridin’ Out West” Canada tour in April. Last remaining date (hopefully does not get cancelled) is May 8th at Casa Del Popolo in Montreal. The tour will be re-booked at a later date possible during the summer or fall 2020. A situation as such is unexpected for everyone and many bands/musicians have cancelled their upcoming tours.
We’re all healthy and doing good. My buddy Patrick Murphy (drummer live gigs) is working from home and my buddy Noah Amick (bassist live shows) in New York City is doing good.
I recently filmed a music video in NYC that will be released soon. If I waited another month to go down into USA, it would not have happened with current border restriction due to COVID-19. I’d say it was pretty lucky how this all turned out.
What are the quarantine/isolation rules where you are?
The police can give you a fine of 1000$ CDN or more if you’re found roaming the streets or gathering with two or more people in public. It is recommended to work from home. You should only be leaving house to go to grocery store, hospital, pharmaprix or for essential work/services.
I cannot visit my grandparents since the youth can carry the virus and put the elderly people at risk. Everyone has to practice social distancing (minimum two metres away from other people).
Government of Canada has announced an emergency benefit of 1800$/month for those who lost their jobs due to COVID-19 and haven’t already applied for Unemployment Insurance.
Honestly, everything feels very surreal.
“It’s like the Black Plague with wifi” (some post I saw on Facebook).
How have you seen the virus affecting the community around you and in music?
A lot of people in public whether at grocery stores or drive thrus seem stressed out and on the edge. There is security at every grocery store and pharmaprix with a zone to wash your hands/sanitize before going into the facility. Shopping centres are closed down. All bars, venues, theatres are closed down temporarily. Many people are saying this will continue until May 2020, although I have a feeling it might stretch out till June. Our premier of Quebec Francois Legault announced Montreal as local state of emergency. The province is reporting 2,021 confirmed cases, with 141 people in hospital, including 50 people in intensive care [as of March 30]. The numbers are escalating every day.
What is the one thing you want people to know about your situation, either as a band, or personally, or anything?
Pink Cocoon will keep on going. The Canada tour is cancelled, although I started a quarantine cover video series on Facebook, Youtube, IG TV to entertain everyone stuck at home. It’s the minimum I can do since I can’t play a live show in person for the fans. New music is planned to be released soon.
I want everyone to take precaution when leaving your house during this time. It is serious and should not be treated as joke. Even if you’re not sick, you can put someone else at risk. There is a lot of videos online of the situation in various countries in public spaces, hospitals, etc… I won’t post them here but it’s getting real and dangerous.
To all of the musician/artist friends out there, solitude is the best place for an artist to create. You can use this to advantage to create.
Posted in Bootleg Theater on February 6th, 2020 by JJ Koczan
Just as the skeletal hand grabs the giant floating joint and the bigger riff kicks in and the nuclear bomb goes off, that’s probably when the new video from Montreal four-piece The Hazytones most gets its message across. The song “The Hand that Feeds” is taken from 2018’s II: Monarchs of Oblivion (review here) on Ripple Music and is a fitting showcase of the band’s druggy garage doom style, thicker in its riffing than some and not as lumbering as others, but able to go where it wants when it, you know, decides it’s time to move. But maybe it’ll just kind of sit around for a while instead, man. Anyway, what’s your rush?
Shenanigans ensue in the video, and hey, that’s awesome. I’m a big fan of shenanigans, and stonerly charm as presented in things like dimensional portals, skeletons, green-screen desert backgrounds, nuclear bombs and giant floating doobers is nearly always welcome as far as I’m concerned, but it doesn’t manage to outshine the hook of “The Hand that Feeds” itself, and the ability to write songs so catchy is one of The Hazytones‘ most powerful assets. They’ve been through some lineup changes along the way around guitarist/vocalist Mick Martel, but as they look to embark on a tour of Europe that includes an already-announced stop at Desertfest London — it’ll be their first time in the UK — that’s no doubt an experience that will only serve to further hone what they do in terms of style and structure.
Those dates are forthcoming, but y0u can see the premiere of “The Hand that Feeds” on the player below, followed by some more background from the PR wire, and the Bandcamp stream of the album just for the hell of it.
Please enjoy:
The Hazytones, “The Hand that Feeds” official video premiere
Ripple protégés THE HAZYTONES (psychedelic rock / MTL) deliver their trip-inducing new video “The Hand That Feeds.” The song is taken from their latest 2018 album ‘Monarchs of Oblivion’.
Formed in 2015, The Hazytones’ shadowy sound is the epitome of a “hazy tone”. The band’s black acid-drenched shock rock drips with harmonies that harken back to the trippiest of late 60’s psych and its chained-to-the brain hooks bleed with a palpable, eerie energy that surges and swings in equal measure. Live is where the band really finds its swagger, flinging themselves around the stage and converting new disciples with each and every performance. With full European and North American tours already under their belts, The Hazytones are a developing band on the rise, who delivered a sweeping salvo with the release of their substantial sophomore LP, II: Monarchs of Oblivion.
The band will announce their European tour very soon!
The Hazytones are: Mick Martel Gabriel Prieur Ben Dennis John Choffel
Posted in Whathaveyou on November 19th, 2019 by JJ Koczan
I think it’s fitting for a style that is so cinematic as that of Montreal one-man melancholic drone outfit Vision Eternel — formerly Vision Éternel, with the accent on the ‘e’ — haven’t just completed the recording process, they’ve “finished principal production.” Now comes ‘post,’ I guess, which I assume will not involve a CGI version of The Hulk. I like it. The session newly completed seems to have been a somewhat arduous task, with a first round scrapped and then the album, titled For Farewell of Nostalgia, and put together again from the ground up. That’s a hard decision to make practically in terms of the sheer time already put in on making the thing, as well as creatively in terms of hey I just made this thing do I really want to abandon it. One more reason I dig this project.
The progress update is below. Some overdubs, mixing, mastering and whatnot and then it’s ready to go. Vision Eternel is looking for a label to call home, but I’d expect the record out in 2020, whatever way band founder Alexandre Julien ends up going with it.
The news:
Principal Production Has Been Completed On Vision Eternel’s For Farewell Of Nostalgia
Principal production has been completed on Vision Eternel’s upcoming release For Farewell Of Nostalgia!
After abandoning the recording session for the same release in 2018, Vision Eternel spent the entirety of October and the first half of November of 2019 re-tracking the album at Mortified Studios. A first mix has been completed and received positive feedback at a private listening session. Only a few things remain on the checklist: minor overdubs, final mixing and sequencing & mastering for the various physical and digital formats.
Each format of the release will feature a different edit and sequencing. As a concept album, it follows a complex story-line, with certain chapters that can be extended, transposed, or omitted, suiting a better listening experience to each medium. Each format will also showcase a different artwork.
Those who have heard some of the pre-production recordings that were released in 2018-2019 (Moments Of Intimacy, Moments Of Intimacy (Reprise), Moments Of Absence and Killer Of Giants) will be very surprised to hear how much better, more emotional and moving the songs have turned out after re-recording them.
More announcements will be published in the coming months as record label album-releasing deals are secured, and teasers will be posted on social media. So be sure to like and follow Vision Eternel on your platform of choice.
Posted in audiObelisk on June 6th, 2019 by JJ Koczan
With a beginning of mellow guitar, Montreal blackened psych-sludge — and if such a thing was going to come from anywhere, it would come from a city with such a history of genre-meld — four-piece Wykan set the atmosphere for the centerpiece of their new EP, Brigid: of the Night. Issued by the band tomorrow with cover art from none other than David Paul Seymour, the release comprises three tracks and stands out for the short-album concept centered around the Celtic goddess named in its title. “Breo-Saighead (Triple Goddess)” is the second of the three slices, with “Imbolc (The Cleansing)” before and “Reul-Iuil Bride (Star of Brigid)” serving as the finale after, and its push into doom and black metal is underscored by a heft of tone and groove that makes the post-midpoint slowdown at about 4:30 into the total 7:31 a turn consistent with what’s come before.
That is, by that point, Wykan — vocalist Barrie Butler, guitarist Jeremy Perkins, bassist Corey Thomas and drummer Dug Kawliss — have set a pretty broad range for themselves through the opener and into the centerpiece and are as much focused on dwelling without as within the bounds of genre. Butler‘s vocals unquestionably provide a charred spin to the proceedings, but they’re by far the only forward element at play, as Perkins‘ guitar leading from one part to another in classic riff-based fashion. The band made their debut in 2018 with the Solace EP (review here), but what Brigid: of the Night and the conceptual frame in which it arrives signal is clear growth in just a year’s time and the desire to use aesthetic to tell a story as well as to be blisteringly heavy in terms of sonics. Not every band gets there at all — or wants to, I suppose — but even the ambition lends a progressive edge to Brigid: of the Night, and like the first three-tracker before it, gives Wykan another foundation to build from as they go forward toward, you know, the next one.
Perhaps clearest of all is the signal this offering sends that they will indeed go forward, and that they’re only becoming a more complex outfit as they do so.
Enjoy the full EP stream below, followed by comment from the band:
Wykan, “Breo-Saighead (Triple Goddess)” official track premiere
Jeremy Perkins on Brigid: of the Night:
To add a little bit more detail about the inspiration for this album; it’s based on the thematic for Wykan originally – a ceremonial get together – keeping in mind and heart, an atmospheric take on those three major genres I write with. Being Doom, Blackened whatever you wanna call it death or doom and Rock. This album has a deep representation in regards to my roots personally and musically touches various genres which are my inspirations. Being older Sabbath, Floyd, Hendrix, and bands like Immortal and Mayhem.
To expand on my writing for this album I used an older Ovation acoustic for the intro, a 1992 Fender Stratocaster Ultra I’ve had for 23 yrs for the intro for Song 2 and all solos and a 2018 Ibanez Prestige with high-end Dimarzio pickups for all the rest, cranked through my 15 pedals-pedalboard into a newer 5150’s head.
The transitions from the darker heavier blackened doom into soft rock and vice versa were done smoothly. I wrote most on acoustic beforehand and build. The progressiveness of Wykan continuously evolves and it feels together, feels even though you’re going from like some really soft atmospheric 70s rock beginning with an acoustic then transitioning to the black and death metalesque parts came out amazing to me on this EP and edible for the soul.
Anyone will notice, especially those reviewing this album, that its kind of a trip in itself which is what I want to do with Wykan and which is the idea a story an atmosphere a soundscape for a ceremony, in this case summoning Brigíd.
I was pleased with the overall outcome and look forward to another EP this fall.
“Brigid: Of The Night” EP is slated for release on June 7, 2019, and will be available on Bandcamp as a $1 EP or more Pay-What-You-Want download.
1. Imbolc ( The cleansing ) 2. Breo-Saighead ( Triple Goddess ) 3. Reul-Iuil Bride ( Star of Brigid )
Wykan is: Guitars : Jeremy Perkins Vocals : Barrie Butler Drums : Dug Kawliss Bass : Corey Thomas
Featuring guest drummer : Simon McKay ( The Agonist ) Track 3
