Posted in Whathaveyou on January 18th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
The emotive and textural conjurations of Canadian solo cinematic drone outfit Vision Eternel have been well documented in these pages. Originally released circa 2017, the Echoes From Forgotten Hearts (review here) tape is particularly evocative in its somehow-post-black-metal soundscaping, and no doubt that’s part of why Geertruida is standing behind a box-set reissue of the offering, which includes a full second cassette of demos and rare tracks and, for preorders, a copy of 2019’s For Farewell of Nostalgia (discussed here) as a special bonus. Even better, the Echoes tapes come in one of those plasticky boxes like the storybook tape sets in school when you were a kid. If you’re 42. And me. And that’s an association you have. Which it probably isn’t. You know what? Never mind. Let’s talk about something else.
The video for “Pièce No. Trois,” which I think was a demo, is below and was premiered here in 2017. It’s an odd kind of fun to write about things being reissued that you wrote about when they first arrived. I guess it means I’ve been doing this a while. Fair enough.
Info and the video, courtesy of the PR wire:
Unreleased Vision Eternel Song and Giveaway Package
The Deluxe Edition of Vision Eternel’s Echoes From Forgotten Hearts is finally up for pre-order in physical and digital formats. The boxed set is scheduled for release on February 14, 2024.
The release contains 23 songs. In addition to the 7-song Extended Play Version, the release includes the unheard 6-song Soundtrack Version and 10 rare studio demos, outtakes, and alternate mixes. Carl Saff remastered all of the material at Saff Mastering. A new cover artwork was painted by Michael Koelsch at Koelsch Studios, and the release features additional paintings and photography by Rain Frances at Rain Frances Art. The Deluxe Compact Cassette Edition is split over two colored tapes in a factory-numbered boxed set. It comes with an exclusive postcard and an 80-page novella containing rare pictures and a detailed recounting of the extended play’s making, from its origin as a soundtrack, through its delays, cancellations, and limited releases over the years.
All pre-orders placed directly through Geertruida between now and February 13, 2024, are automatically entered into a giveaway for a free compact cassette of Vision Eternel’s previous extended play, For Farewell Of Nostalgia (also released by Geertruida). The winner’s free tape will ship bundled with Echoes From Forgotten Hearts in February 2024. The Deluxe Compact Cassette Edition can be pre-ordered from Geertruida’s webstore. Deluxe Digital Edition pre-saves are found here. Anyone purchasing a physical edition will automatically receive a free digital edition.
Posted in Whathaveyou on November 13th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
Evocative and emotive Montreal-based ambient outfit Vision Eternel will mark 10 years since first laying forth the original soundscapes of Echoes From Forgotten Hearts (discussed here) by releasing what had been an EP has a 23-song limited deluxe version including an 80-page booklet/novella, new cover art, and two tapes. Ha, I bet you were expecting me to say vinyl, but the accompanying hiss of a cassette is an asset to Vision Eternel, as is the nuance of a package like this, since the solo-project of Alexander Julien has similar intricacies and quirks of sound to match the presentation, even unto its art-deco design look and entrancing film-noir engagement. Quiet on the surface. You know how it goes.
Geertruida has it set for Feb. 14, which continues a string of Valentine’s Day offerings for the romantic-in-its-wistful-way outfit. I do, however, think this might be the most expansive version of a release Vision Eternel has had, however. Even with tapes, it doesn’t seem like a minor production to put it all together — 80-page book, postcard, whatnot — but life doesn’t often give you a chance to do something like this with your work, whatever you do, so when you get one I think you probably take it.
Info follows from both the PR wire and the label’s page:
Vision Eternel’s Echoes From Forgotten Hearts To Receive Deluxe Reissue For Valentine’s Day 2024
Vision Eternel’s never-properly released 2014 soundtrack/EP, Echoes From Forgotten Hearts, will see a Deluxe Edition reissue on Valentine’s Day (February 14, 2024). The 23-song Deluxe Edition will be released as a double-tape box set and digitally through Dutch label Geertruida:https://geertruida.net/releases-vision-eternel-effh.php
Echoes From Forgotten Hearts was originally composed and recorded by Vision Eternel in 2014 as the soundtrack to a short film. After three months of work, from August to November 2014, news was received that the short film had been abandoned. Not wanting to leave the material unreleased, the band returned to the studio to partly re-record and fully re-mix the material, composing and recording a couple of new songs in the process, revamping the soundtrack into an EP. By the end of December 2014, Echoes From Forgotten Hearts was completed.
The EP received discreet limited releases over the years without any promotion as the band hoped to secure a proper record deal for the material. Several offers came and went, but issues with artwork continually delayed the release. A music video for the song “Pièce No. Trois” was eventually produced in 2017, edited from footage of the band shot in 2012.
Finally, Dutch record label Geertruida (which had previously released the band’s 2020 EP, For Farewell Of Nostalgia) offered to issue an expanded edition of Echoes From Forgotten Hearts to celebrate the material’s tenth anniversary in 2024. Although packaged and promoted as a Deluxe Edition, this marks the first time the material is available properly.
The Deluxe Edition contains 23 songs. In addition to the 7-song EP Version, the release also includes the unheard 6-song Soundtrack Version, along with 10 rare studio demos, outtakes, and alternate mixes. All of the material was remastered by Carl Saff at Saff Mastering. A new cover artwork was painted by Michael Koelsch at Koelsch Studios, and the release features additional paintings and photography by Rain Frances at Rain Frances Art. Saff, Koelsch, and Frances all previously contributed to For Farewell Of Nostalgia.
The Deluxe Compact Cassette Edition is split over two colored tapes in a factory-numbered boxed set. It comes with an exclusive postcard and 80-page booklet containing rare pictures and a novella recounting in detail the extended play’s making, from its origin as a soundtrack through its delays, cancellations, and limited releases over the years. The Deluxe Edition of Echoes From Forgotten Hearts is available on tape and digitally on February 14, 2024.
Pre-orders will be announced soon, along with an exclusive premiere of an unreleased song and a giveaway contest for a free box set.
Vision Éternel‘s ‘Pièce No. Trois’ is precisely that: a piece. It comes from 2015’s Echoes from Forgotten Hearts (review here), which is the latest release from the ambient solo-project of Montreal-based texture-weaver Alexandre Julien — formerly of psychedelic black metallers Vision Lunar, among others — and is one of seven pièces to be included on the offering. Each one works in a roughly similar vein of minimalist cinematic drama, something vague but hopeful in Julien‘s shimmering guitar tonality and gentle approach, but they remain distinctive with pauses between and, short as they are and short as the whole outing is, never get lost or too caught up in any individual moment. One might think of each Vision Éternel track as fleeting, and that would seem to be the intent.
Atmosphere over impact. Impression over reality. Evocation over direct narrative. Though it’s been two years since Echoes from Forgotten Hearts came out, and for a solo-project like this, that can be a long time, Vision Éternel has a considerable back catalog amassed of these headphone-ready meditations, and as “Pièce No. Trois” explores layering in strum and drone guitar, the depths Julien brings to bear so quickly in a 90-second video impress all the more for the efficiency that both matches the scope of the band and doesn’t make the material feel rushed or overblown in terms of arrangement. There’s a grace to Vision Éternel‘s output across Echoes from Forgotten Hearts that carries into the mood and has a melancholy effect on the listener. It asks little for indulgence and delivers much in immersion.
The project has been celebrating its 10th anniversary throughout 2017, and along with new merchandise and an impending box set collecting past material together in one place, the occasion has called for a revisit to Echoes from Forgotten Hearts and a video that’s apparently been years in the making. Like the song itself, the visual accompaniment for “Pièce No. Trois” is deeply atmospheric, featuring strung together clips of Julien giving what essentially might be taken as a kind of sightseeing tour of Montreal — but, you know, an artsy sightseeing tour. No double-decker bus or anything. Nonetheless, he passes by landmarks subtly placed throughout that, if you happen to be familiar with places like the John Young Monument or the old railroad tracks, you might catch a glimpe of them here or there.
And even if not, it’s 90 seconds long. What the hell do you have to lose? Jeez. Included below is some more background from Abridged Pause Recordings on the video, copious links, and the full stream of Echoes from Forgotten Hearts from Vision Éternel‘s Bandcamp, in case you’d like to dig further.
Please enjoy:
Vision Éternel, “Pièce No. Trois” official video
As part of Vision Éternel’s 10-year anniversary celebration, it is with extreme pleasure that we are releasing a brand new music video for “Pièce No. Trois”. It’s been seven and a half years since Vision Éternel last released a music video, for “Season In Absence” in March of 2010. “Pièce No. Trois” is one of seven songs that appears on the concept EP “Echoes From Forgotten Hearts”, released through Abridged Pause Recordings on February 14th of 2015. This music video is long overdue after having its fair share of disasters and lost footage over the years.
A key filming location was the former Dalhousie Station where pre-production pictures had been snapped a month prior. Additional scenes were filmed nearby, above and under the Notre-Dame overpass and with the former Viger Station in the distance. Another shot was set up in the Saint-Dizier alleyway in the Old Port of Montreal which has old cobblestone paving and was wet from the melting snow and grainy from the salt, sand and rock pebbles used to deal with ice in the winter.
Vasily Atutov directed the music video for “Pièce No. Trois” from July 22nd to July 23rd of 2017. You can see more of Vasily Autotuv’s photography on Flickr and Instagram. He is now open to work with musicians on artwork and video editing, so get in touch with him at epicmap@gmail.com.
It took ten years to happen but Vision Éternel finally has band t-shirts available! The first set of shirts feature Jeremy Roux’s “classic” Vision Éternel logo, which he designed in the summer of 2008. The second batch of shirts feature Christophe Szpajdel’s “10-year anniversary” logo, which he drew in the spring of 2017. This logo honours the black metal origins of Vision Éternel; Alexandre Julien founded Vision Éternel as a side-project while playing in two black metal bands: Throne Of Mortality and Vision Lunar.
Vision Éternel, Echoes from Forgotten Hearts (2015)
Posted in Radio on February 20th, 2017 by JJ Koczan
My going motto for this site, which basically I repeat to myself like a mantra, is to do as much as I can when I can. Obviously that fluctuates, and I think that’s a good thing on many levels, but I’ve had more time recently to pay due attention to the goings on with The Obelisk Radio and I’m thankful for that. This is the second round of adds for this month, and in addition to the offerings highlighted below, another 30-plus releases have gone up to the server as of today, including some choice bootlegs from the likes of Lowrider, Brant Bjork, Vista Chino, Greenleaf, Acid King, Neurosis and Kyuss. I encourage you to check out the full list of adds here. It kicks a formidable amount of ass.
The Obelisk Radio adds for Feb. 20, 2017:
Evil Acidhead, In the Name of all that is Unholy
This 2015 reissue on Agitated Records of Evil Acidhead‘s In the Name of all that is Unholy becomes particularly relevant since 2017 marks 30 years since its original release. Offered as a cassette in 1987 by guitarist John McBain (Monster Magnet, Wellwater Conspiracy), it tops an hour and 17 minutes and crosses the first of its two LPs before it’s even finished with its four-part opener, and only then digs into the 23-minute “I Control the Moon.” A challenging listen front to back even three decades later, it holds to an experimentalist core of guitar effects, swirl, loops — which are near-maddening on side B’s “Part III: Possession” — and malevolent, droning abrasion. What’s stunning about it is if you said this was something McBain recorded a few months ago, there would be no choice but to call it forward-thinking. Imagine a record that 30 years later still offers a legitimate sense of being ahead of the day. Not that it never happens, but it’s certainly rare, and In the Name of all that is Unholy seems to willfully sidestep what we think of as reality in favor of its apparently timeless hellscapes. It’s far, far away from pleasant, but it sure as hell is impressive.
Fort Worth trio Gypsy Sun Revival make their debut with this 2016 self-titled full-length and earn immediate notoriety for their blend of heavy psychedelic and straightforward rocker impulses as well as the fact that the vinyl version of the album sees release through ultra-respected purveyor Nasoni Records. One might recall the last time the Berlin-based label picked up a Texan band, it was Wo Fat, so it’s no minor endorsement of Gypsy Sun Revival‘s potential, and the three-piece of vocalist/bassist/organist Lee Ryan, guitarist/thereminist Will Weise and drummer Ben Harwood live up to it across the 46-minute seven-tracker, songs like “Cosmic Plains” finding a middle ground between sleek ’70s groove and modern thickness, setting up longer post-Zeppelin jams to come like “Idle Tides,” which, though fluid, rely less on effects wash to get their improvisational point across than the raw dynamic between the band itself. As a debut, Gypsy Sun Revival impresses for that, but even more for the level of immersion it enacts the further along it goes, so that when they get to languid instrumental closer “Radiance,” the band’s approach seems to be in full bloom when in fact they may only be beginning their forward creative journey.
Albinö Rhino, Upholder Live at Ääniwalli, Helsinki 17.12.2016
I’m pretty sure all those umlauts are going to crash the radio stream every single time this gets played, but a 41-minute digital live version — offered as a name-your-price download, no less — of Albinö Rhino‘s heavy psych epic “Upholder” recorded this past December in their native Helsinki is too good to pass up. The Finnish trio issued the studio edition of the three-so-far-part piece late in 2016 under the simple title Upholder (review here), and Upholder Live at Ääniwalli, Helsinki 17.12.2016 comprises a 41-minute single-track rendering of the first two parts brought together with onstage energy and a fitting showcase of the song’s longform jamming path. Led by Kimmo Tyni‘s guitar work — no less recalling early Natas via Sungrazer and Sleep here than in the studio recording — and gruff vocals, the live incarnation also benefits from the deep patience in Ville Harju‘s bass and Viljami Väre‘s drumming, as heard under Tyni‘s moog solo circa 14 minutes in. It’s soon for a revisit of Upholder itself, but as well as getting additional mileage out of the piece, Albinö Rhino bring a different flavor to the live execution of it to this digital-only outing, and if it catches more ears as a 41-minute single song as opposed to being broken up over two sides, there’s no way that’s going to hurt them. Either way you get it, its soul, heft and molten vibe resonate.
Not to be understated is the sense of poise that pervades Two Isles, the debut full-length from Encinitas, California, psychedelic progressives Monarch. Delivered via Causa Sui‘s imprint El Paraiso Records — the gorgeous art treatment is consistent with their hallmark style — and produced by Brian Ellis (Astra, Psicomagia, etc.), it locks into classically winding turns or melodic flourish with equal ease on side A pieces like the opening title-track and “Assent,” proffering scope but not necessarily pretense. Call it prog in the new West Coast tradition if you must, “Dancers of the Sun” and the more insistent staccato of “Sedna’s Fervor” are dead on either way, and the five-piece of guitarist/vocalist Dominic Denholm, guitarists Nate Burns and Thomas Dibenedetto (see also Joy and Sacri Monti), bassist Matt Weiss and drummer Andrew Ware save their finest showcase for the just-under-10-minute finale “Shady Maiden,” summarizing their liquefied proceedings in more than able fashion, reaching ahead of themselves as the style warrants, and once more proving what might be hypnotic were it not such an active, exciting listen.
Echoes from Forgotten Hearts is the latest EP from Montréal-based solo artist Alexandre Julien, who operates under the banner of Vision Éternel, and it comprises seven brief individual tracks numbered in French as “Pièce No. Un,” “Pièce No. Deux,” etc., of wistful guitar lines and serene dronescapes. The balance that a “Pièce No. Deux” is able to strike by sounding so broad and wide open and yet only being 1:47 is striking, and it makes the release flow together all the more as a work on a single emotional thematic, and while it all only winds up being 14 minutes in total, Julien is able to bring that thematic to life in that time with depth and grace, so that when the relative sprawl of the 3:45 closer “Pièce No. Sept,” takes hold, one only wishes it would go on further. Note this is one of several Vision Éternel offerings joining the playlist this week, and Julien has a boxed set in progress collecting a number of his outings to be released sometime later this year, including, I believe, this one, which originally came out in 2015. Hopefully it’s not long before he follows it with new material.
